192 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Nothing 



Everything 



The universe 



and space, 



simplicity and apparent sureness of his method ; just as the admission 

 of irregular deviations from the straight line in the motion of atoms, 

 disfigures his physical theory. 



Such then, according to Diogenes Laertius, were the canons or rules 

 of method laid down by Epicurus in his treatise called ' The Canon.' 

 This, therefore, was not so much a separate division of philosophy, as 

 an introduction to the other two. The physics, or natural philosophy, 

 is discussed in the first two of the letters before mentioned ; the one 

 being occupied with the constitution of the world in general, and the 

 other with the phenomena of the heavens. His moral philosophy is 

 delineated, briefly, in the third letter ; and the select sentences contain 

 maxims on both subjects. We will now present such a series of 

 extracts from these authentic documents, preceded by necessary ex- 

 planations, as to give some idea of Epicurus's leading dogmas, and of 

 the sort of reasoning on which he founded them. We take no more 

 liberty with the original than is necessary to render the passages 

 intelligible to a modern reader. 



Physics. The Universe. 



After enjoining attention to the exact import of names, and to the 

 primary knowledge that we get from the three sources above mentioned, 

 Senses, Ideas, and Passions, he proceeds : 



" Having ascertained all this, we may then proceed to the study of 

 things depending on indirect evidence. And first to the truth, that 

 Nothing is produced from what does not exist ; for otherwise, every- 

 thing would be produced from everything, without the necessity of 

 seed. Again, if what disappears were so destroyed as to be non- 

 existent, then all things would perish, the elements into which they 

 are resolved no longer existing. But in truth this All, this universe, 

 was always such as it is now, and will always be such. For there is 

 nothing into which it may change ; for there is nothing besides the 

 All, which, entering into it, could effect a change. 



The All or universe is body (corporeal). For it is by sensation 

 that the existence of palpable objects is perceived, arid it is by analogy 

 with these that what cannot be directly observed, must be proved. 

 (Now in this way we make out legitimately the existence of space). 

 For if what we call vacuum, or space, or the intangible nature, did 

 not exist, bodies would not have where to exist or move, as we see 

 that they do. (Thus we get a knowledge of two kinds of existence, 

 of bodies and of the vacuum). But besides these two, we can arrive 

 at no notion, either through direct perception or by analogy to things 

 perceived, of anything which we can conceive as a separate existence, 

 and not as a property or accident of body or space. 



" The universe is infinite. For that which is finite has an extreme, 

 an d an extreme implies something else beyond. (But something else 

 than ' the All ' (TO TTOIV) is an absurdity ; the universe therefore has no 

 extreme). So that having no extreme, it is infinite. And it is in- 



