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GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Descriptive 

 astronomy 

 useless. 



Size of the 

 sun and 



stars. 



Causes of 

 their motion. 



Source of the 

 moon's light. 



Appearance 

 of a face in 

 the moon. 



Eclipses. 



Clouds. 



Moral 

 philosophy. 



from the senses. If, then, in thinking of any appearance, we suppose 

 it brought about by the same cause that produces another appearance 

 which gives no alarm or uneasiness, we are as much delivered from 

 uneasiness as if we saw that such is the cause of it. At all events, 

 whatever way we may suppose them to take place, they have clearly 

 no connection with any immortal happy intelligences a supposition 

 introducing conflict and perturbation." 



It was only the knowledge of the causes of the movements what 

 we call physical astronomy that Epicurus considered worthy of pur- 

 suit ; descriptive and historical astronomy he despised. 



" As to a mere description or historical record of risings and settings 

 of stars, and tropical movements and eclipses, and such like, that has 

 no tendency to promote happiness ; on the contrary, those that are 

 occupied with these things, but remain ignorant of the causes, are 

 perhaps more exposed to fear and perturbation than others." 



We shall now be prepared to read a few specimens of Epicurus's 

 explanations of particular phenomena without a smile ; worthless 

 and puerile as science, from his point of view they have a meaning 

 and a value. 



" The magnitude of the sun and of the other stars is, as regards us, 

 such as it appears to be. If their magnitude were diminished by their 

 distance, much more would their brilliancy. 



" As to their motions, we may conceive them as owing to the re- 

 volution of the whole heaven, or that the heaven stands still and the 

 stars move, according to a necessity generated in them at the birth of 

 the world, their motion being kept up by the tendency of fire to ad- 

 vance towards its aliment. 



" Again, it is admissible that the moon may have light of herself, 

 and it is admissible that she may receive it from the sun ; for we 

 behold around us many bodies having light of themselves, and many 

 receiving it from other bodies. So that the heavenly phenomena 

 present no difficulties, when we bear in mind that they may be caused 

 in many ways. 



" The appearance of a face in the moon may be viewed as arising 

 either from an alteration in the structure of the parts, or from some- 

 thing interposed, or in any way that is in accordance with things that 

 we know with certainty. 



" Eclipses of the sun and moon may be caused by extinction a fact 

 familiar to us, or by the interposition of something else, such as the 

 earth, or the heaven, or anything of that kind. 



" Clouds may have many causes ; they may be condensations of the 

 air, compressions of the winds, conglomerations of atoms of a special 

 kind, or emanations from the earth and the waters," 



Moral Philosophy. The Gods. 



It remains to sketch briefly those doctrines of Epicurus that bear 

 more directly on moral subjects. His physical speculations pave the 



