440 SIHLER. 



aut ex his plura. And particularly VI, 20, § 5 is so strong a 

 confirmation of the letter to Pythocles that it seems pertinent to 

 give part of it entire : omnes istas posse esse causas Epicurus 

 ait pluresque alias temptat, et alios, qui aliquid iiiunu ex iis esse 

 adfirmaverunt, corripit, cum sit arduum de his quae coniectura 

 sequenda sunt, aliquid certi promittere." And so the version of 

 Seneca contains the following words or phrases of alternative 

 conjectural statement : potest, potest, fortasse enim, fortasse, 

 fortasse, fortasse, fortasse, fortasse . . . et inde aut, aut. 



But Lucretius has further themes which hardly come within 

 the sphere of fLezicopa, Etna, Nile, exhalation of Avernus, 

 odd changes of temperature in a certain spring, the Magnet, 

 Epidemics, the Plague at Athens. True, but his fundamen- 

 tal interest is that of ad Pythoclem § 104 : /^ovov o (vjOo:: 

 ^ arckazco^ (iTzkazai o£, z6.v ztz xaXco:^ tu2:: (facvo/jtsi^u:^ axoAo'jdcov 7:s(jc 

 zcov 'aifo.'uiov arjfieuozac. The absolute elimination of divinity as 

 factor or efficient cause, §113 and 116,' learn this by heart,' my 

 dear Pythocles ; for the sequence is stated as a two-fold one : 

 xaza 7:oA''j Zz ydo zo~j fiudo'J v/.[ir^a'f^ vju zd o/wyey?^ zo'jzoc:; aijuopdv 

 d'JWjav^. And so we see Lucretius engaged in elaborate and 

 ambitious efforts to apply the abstract and fundamental doc- 

 trines of atomism, e. g., in dealing with Etna, 647 sqq., with 

 Avernus and its reputed exhalations, 769, 790 sqq., w. the 

 magnet, 906 sqq., where the preliminary elaboration of first 

 principles is carried on with such fulness that the poet apologizes : 



919. et minimum longis ambagibus est adeundum and 



108 1, nee tibi tam longis opus est ambagibus usquam 



nee me tam multam hie operam consumere par est . . . 



and while it is his ambitious attempt to apply fixed principles (cf. 

 Diog. L. 10, 116, *' zr^v zcov ^ apyCov xat ^aizecpia:^ xal zcov a^jyycuwv 

 Touzocz dzconiavy to definite physical problems which swelled the 

 theme of the Magnet to the bulky total of 184 lines (905-1089), 

 let us glance at the theme of Thunder and Lightning in the 

 earlier part of book VI, 96-379, a little less than 300 lines . . . 

 and then follows the fervid attack on the formulae of the Etruscan 

 ritual and the folly of ascribing these manifestations to Jupiter ; 



