EPICURUS. 197 



are brought into sympathy with them ; mere pulses of the air could 

 not be conceived to effect this. Perception by the smell takes place 

 in the same way. 



Psychology. 



In Psychology, Epicurus is a decided materialist : he thus lays down 

 the nature of the soul : 



" From the facts of sensation and passion, we infer with the utmost The soul is 

 certainty that the soul is a bodily substance, composed of subtile par- cor P real - 

 tides, disseminated through the whole frame, and having a great 

 resemblance to spirit (irvevfta), with a mixture of heat. From the 

 subtilty of its particles it has great capacity of change and displace- 

 ment, and can thus enter into more perfect sympathy with the rest of 

 the structure." 



For the rest, the soul is principally concerned in sensation, but Relation of 

 receives that faculty from being enveloped in the body. Neither body Sldy*"^ 

 nor soul has any sensation by itself; the body loses sensation when sensation, 

 the particles composing the soul are dissipated, and when the body is 

 dissolved the soul is dissolved, and retains neither motion nor sensation. 



" They who say that the soul is incorporeal utter nonsense. The The s 1 



,. J , J . , ~ x . ~ . , cannot be 



only incorporeal existence that we can lorm any notion of is the vacuum, incorporeal, 

 which can neither act nor suffer. If the soul, then, were incorporeal, 

 it could neither act nor surfer ; but we have indisputable evidence that 

 it does both, therefore, &c.' r 



We are told that Epicurus, in another of his works, distinguished The two 

 in the soul the irrational part, which is diffused through the body 3? where 

 generally, from the rational part, which is located in the breast, as is located, 

 manifest from the feelings of fear and joy. This corresponds to the 

 distinction made by Lucretius between anima and animus. 



Astronomy. 



In considering that part of Epicurus's system that treats of Astro- 

 nomy and Meteorology, it is particularly necessary" to bear in mind the 

 object with which he speculates. He seeks to understand the pheno- 

 mena of the heavens for no practical purpose, but solely for subjective 

 satisfaction to enable the mind to account for them to itself, without 

 the necessity of imagining any supernatural agency at work. 



He conceives this class of appearances as peculiarly removed from Certainty 

 direct observation by their distance, and therefore that a knowledge of J^VeVfor 

 them can be arrived at only by inference by the suggestions of the 

 fancy as tested by the analogy of familiar facts. Absolute truth and 

 certainty, therefore, are not to be looked for, nor are they necessary. 

 Of various explanations, all equally conformable to the analogy of 

 things around us, any one is satisfactory to the mind, and therefore as 

 good as true. 



" The phenomena of the heavens admit of various causes being Phenomena 

 assigned for their production, equally conformable to the facts learned 



