THE BELFAST ADDRESS 



round atoms, like those of fire. These 

 are the most mobile of all : they inter- 

 penetrate the whole body, and in their 

 motions the phenomena of life arise. 



The first five propositions are a fair 

 general statement of the atomic philo- 

 sophy, as now held. As regards the 

 sixth, Democritus made his finer atoms 

 do duty for the nervous system, whose 

 functions were then unknown. The 

 atoms of Democritus are individually 

 without sensation ; they combine in 

 obedience to mechanical laws ; and not 

 only organic forms, but the phenomena 

 of sensation and thought, are the result 

 of their combination. 



That great enigma, " the exquisite 

 adaptation of one part of an organism 

 to another part, and to the conditions of 

 life," more especially the construction of 

 the human body, Democritus made no 

 attempt to solve. Empedocles, a man 

 of more fiery and poetic nature, intro- 

 duced the notion of love and hate 

 among the atoms to account for their 

 combination and separation ; and, bolder 

 than Democritus, he struck in with the 

 penetrating thought, linked, however, 

 with some wild speculation, that it lay 

 in the very nature of those combinations 

 which were suited to their ends (in 

 other words, in harmony with their I 

 environment) to maintain themselves, 

 while unfit combinations, having no 

 proper habitat, must rapidly disappear. ! 

 Thus, more than 2,000 years ago, the 

 doctrine of the " survival of the fittest," '. 

 which in our day, not on the basis of \ 

 vague conjecture, but of positive know- 

 ledge, has been raised to such extra- I 

 ordinary significance, had received at all 

 events partial enunciation. 1 



Epicurus, 2 said to be the son of a poor ! 

 schoolmaster at Samos, is the next , 

 dominant figure in the history of the j 

 atomic philosophy. He mastered the i 

 writings of Democritus, heard lectures j 

 in Athens, went back to Samos, and 

 subsequently wandered through various 

 countries. He finally returned to Athens, 



1 See Lange, and edit., p. 23. 2 Born 342 B.C. 



where he bought a garden and sur- 

 rounded himself by pupils, in the midst 

 of whom he lived a pure and serene life, 

 and died a peaceful death. Democritus 

 looked to the soul as the ennobling part 

 of man; even beauty, without under- 

 standing, partook of animalism. Epi- 

 curus also rated the spirit above the 

 body ; the pleasure of the body being 

 that of the moment, while the spirit 

 could draw upon the future and the past. 

 His philosophy was almost identical 

 with that of Democritus ; but he never 

 quoted either friend or foe. One main 

 object of Epicurus was to free the world 

 from superstition and the fear of death. 

 Death he treated with indifference. It 

 merely robs us of sensation. As long as 

 we are, death is not ; and when death 

 is, we are not. Life has no more evil 

 for him who has made up his mind that 

 it is no evil not to live. He adored the 

 gods, but not in the ordinary fashion. 

 The idea of Divine power, properly 

 purified, he thought an elevating one. 

 Still he taught : " Not he is godless who 

 rejects the gods of the crowd, but rather 

 he who accepts them." The gods were 

 to him eternal and immortal beings, 

 whose blessedness excluded every thought 

 of care or occupation of any kind. Nature 

 pursues her course in accordance with 

 everlasting laws, the gods never inter- 

 fering. They haunt 



" The lucid interspace of world and world 

 Where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind, 

 Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, 

 Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, 

 Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar 

 Their sacred everlasting calm." 1 



Lange considers the relation of Epi- 

 curus to the gods subjective ; the indica- 

 tion, probably, of an ethical requirement 

 of his own nature. We cannot read 

 history with open eyes, or study human 

 nature to its depths, and fail to discern 

 such a requirement. Man never has 

 been, and he never will be, satisfied with 

 the operations and products of the 

 Understanding alone; hence physical 



1 Tennyson's Lucretius. 



