LLCRETIUS AND EPICURUS. 



435 



Rainbow. 





527. Snow, hail, hoarfrost, ice. 



Halo of moon. 





(A few lines only. ) 



Comets. 





535. Earthquakes. 



Slower movements of some 



stars. 



639. Etna. 



Meteors. 





713. Nile. (explanation of 



Seasons. (?) 





summer-rise. ) 

 738. Exhalation of Avernus. 

 840. Puzzling changes of tem- 

 perature. 

 906-1082. Magnet. 

 1090. Epidemics in general. 

 1 138. The plague at Athens. 

 430-429. 

 (Paraphrase of Thucyd. II 47- 



55-) 



The most striking thing in the letter to Pythocles is this : 

 The interest of Epicurus in the explanation of these phenomena 

 is not a scientific or even a positive one : it is mainly negative ; to 

 furnish natural explanations, an assortment of two or three or four 

 or even more, sometimes without much, if any, indication which to 

 prefer as long as the idea of any divine will or agency as a fac- 

 tor was utterly cancelled from the problem ; cf , also, in letter to 

 Herodotus § 76 x«; ivfiV Iv Totq, (izrecopoc- ipopav xal rpoTirjv xac 

 ixXecipcv xal avaroXr^u xal o'jatv xal to. auazotya. toutoic, jJ-Tjtz Iztroup- 

 youvxbq, rtvoq, uoptt^ecv dec yh^tadac xal dcardTTOi^TO:; 7^ ocazd^aiizo;; 

 xal cLpta TYjP Tidaay fJLaxapcorrjra. ey^oi^zo:; pLeza dipdapa'tac, . . . and 

 so in the letter to Pythocles § 97 of the course of the sun . . . 

 xal /J dzla ipijatz, TZpb^ zauza. fiTjoaarj Tzpoaa.ykadco d/ld dlztzoupyr^zo'-: 

 dcazTjpeiadco xal iu zyj Tzdarj juaxapiozr^zi, clk; ec zouzo [irj Tzpa.ydrjozzat 

 cLTzaaa 'fj Tzepl zcop ptezecopcov alztoKoyia pazala iazac. And fur- 

 ther recurring to the element of supernatural cause 87-, '' i-ru 

 zbu fiudov xazappzt'' And § 115, speaking of other possible 

 modes of explaining meteora : " xal dXXot di zpoTzoc elz to zoijzo 

 zeXiaac diiudr^zoi elacv.'' 



When we turn away from this general negative bias of this 

 summary iitzuopoX.oyia we are met by a curious and puzzling 

 characteristic. 



