LUCRETIUS AND HAECKEL BEFORE THE 

 RIDDLES OF THE UNIVERSE 



By Fred B. R. Hellems 



Part II* 



(i) The Existence of God. (2) The Freedom of the Will. (3) The 

 Nature of Matter and the Origin of Motion. (4) The Origin of Life. 

 (5) The (Apparently Preordained) Orderly Arrangement of Nature. (6) 

 The Origin of Simple Sensation and Consciousness. (7) Rational 

 Thought and the Origin of the Cognate Faculty, Speech. 



In our approach to the remaining riddles we ought to be on our guard 

 against expecting such practically complete agreement as we have found 

 in examining the central problem ; but we shall find no lack of close and 

 suggestive similarity. 



I. The Existence of God 



The idea of a "ruling, creating, sustaining God" is opposed by 

 Haeckel and Lucretius with the same ardor, but with a different attitude. 

 Haeckel treats all theism as "mystic dualistic dogma, a mere anthropistic 

 ideal," and dismisses it as a vanished fabric of a dream.^ He naturally 

 turns to pantheism as the world-system of the modern scientist. 



That Lucretius had, "in the same or an analogous sense, a profound 

 conception of the unity of nature and God" has been pointed out by 

 Haeckel himself, and the fact need not be enlarged upon. It is worth 

 recalling, however, that Lucretius nowhere absolutely denies the exis- 

 tence of the gods, and, indeed, speaks of their existence and even of 

 " their revealing themselves to the mind of man."^ He rationahzes about 

 them and allows them a lotos-eating sort of existence, for all that is 

 necessary for his purpose is the elimination of their interference in the 

 affairs of the universe ; and a brilliant critic has most felicitously com- 

 pared his treatment of the gods to the treatment of rebel potentates in 

 the East, where the kings are left to the people after being ceremonial- 



' Part I, "The Immortality of the Soul," appeared in the preceding number of the Sttidies. 

 ' WR., 27s seq. 



J See a concise and lucid account in Sellar, Raman Poets of the Republic, 364 seq. 



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