26 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



clashing could have been begotten, nor any 

 collision produced among the first beginnings : 

 thus Nature never would have produced anything." 

 It has been pointed out that a force almost in- 

 finitesimally small, acting at right angles on a falling 

 body, would suffice to deflect it from its perpen- 

 dicular course, and that in the case of a rain of 

 infinite atoms the swerving of a single atom would 

 be sufficient to initiate an infinite series of collisions. 

 Yet even the swerving of a single atom requires a 

 cause ; and in order to account for the deflection of 

 atoms, Lucretius supposes each endowed with a 

 sort of QmhTyomc free-will. This supposition both 

 accounts for the deflection of the atoms and gives 

 an atomic explanation of the origin of the free-will 

 in man in which the Epicureans firmly believed. 

 Yet even granting free-will in atoms, resulting in 

 deflection and collisions, what then ? Could a 

 series of atomic collisions produce the universe 

 and all that therein is ; would it not, as Plutarch 

 objected, produce " no incorporation or coalition, 

 but only percussions and repercussions " — only 

 " a confusion and combat of atoms " } Given 

 sufficient time, says Lucretius, and the atoms 

 will eventually combine into the forms of matter 

 we know. " Truly not by design nor by sage 

 consideration have the first beginnings of things 

 (atoms) stationed themselves each in their proper 



