112 
“ Illud in his rebus vereor, ne forte rearis 
Impia te rationis inire elementa, viamque 
Indugredi sceleris.”* 
“ This is what I fear herein, lest haply you should fancy that you are 
entering on unholy grounds, and treading the path of sin.” — (Munro.) 
I cannot but think Lucretius would have been too cautious to 
issue a Belfast Address, and I scarcely think he would have been 
content with Tyndall as a correct expositor of his views. “ He 
refutes the notion that anything can come out of nothing,” says 
Tyndall. Now, what does Lucretius really advise his friend ? 
It is this, that he never should allow his mind to entertain the 
thought that God could make anything out of nothing. 
“ Nullam rein e nihilo gigni divinitus unquam,” + 
" That nought from nought by power Divine has risen.” — (D r. Good.) 
The doctrine which he advocated, was delightful in his view, 
because it seemed to dispense altogether with Divine inter- 
vention. 
“ Quas ob res, ubi viderimus nil posse creari, 
De nihilo, turn quod sequimur, jam rectius inde 
Perspiciemus, et unde queat res qmeque creari, 
Et quo qurnque modo fiant, opera sine divom.” X 
“ Developed then we trace 
Through nature’s boundless realm, the rise of things, 
Their modes and power innate, nor need from heaven 
Some god's descent to rule each rising fact.” — (Dr. Good.) 
It was, then, not without reason that this materialistic philo- 
sophy was accounted atheistic. For it asserts that all would go 
smoothly if we could but get rid of the notion of Divine inter- 
position. 
It is necessary that I should follow our author into the 
examination of these theories, because of the prominence which 
he gives them as developments of the scientific imagination, and 
as it they formed in some way the basis of modern discoveries. 
“ Physical theories which lie beyond experience he tells us, are 
derived by a process of abstraction from experience; which is 
certainly a favourable manner of stating the origin of those 
notions of theorists, which are evidently baseless. Such was the 
dream about atoms which we are considering. 
* Lib. i. lines 80-83. f Line 150. 
+ Dine 155, &c., “both the elements out of which everything can be pro- 
duced, and the manner in which all things are done without the hand of the 
gods.” — (Munro.) 
