[43] 



recognized, and in Honour Moderations, 

 Books I to III and V are set as one of seven 

 alternatives in section D; and scattered 

 through the ' ' Greats ' ' papers are set trans- 

 lations and snippets here and there; but 

 anything like adequate consideration from 

 the scientific side is to be sought in vain. 

 Unmatched among the ancients or moderns 

 is the vision by Lucretius of continuity in 

 the workings of Nature — not less of le 

 silence eternel de ces espaces infinis which so 

 affrighted Pascal, than of " the long, limit- 

 less age of days, the age of all time that has 

 gone by" — 



"... longa diei 

 infinita setas anteacti temporis omnis." 



And it is in a Latin poet that we find up- 

 to-date views of the origin of the world and 

 of the origin of man. The description of the 

 wild discordant storm of atoms (Book V) 

 which led to the birth of the world might 

 be transferred verbatim to the accounts of 



