114 
(nam corpora sunt et inane) are liard, impenetrable, primary 
bodies of various figures — round, square, pointed, jagged, and 
possessed of certain intrinsic powers of motion. Under the old 
school of Democritus the perpetual motions were of two kinds — 
a descending motion from the natural gravity of the atoms, and a 
rebounding motion from collision or mutual clash. 
“ Besides these two motions, Epicurus supposed that some atoms were 
occasionally possessed of a third, by which in some very small degree they 
descended in an oblique or curvilinear direction, deviating from the 
common and right light line anomalously. 
“ These infinite groups of atoms, flying through all time and space in differ- 
ent directions and under different laws, have interchangeably tried and 
exhibited every possible mode of encounter, sometimes repelled from each 
other by concussion, and sometimes adhering to each from their own jagged 
or pointed construction, and from the casual interstices which two or more 
connected atoms must produce and which may be just adapted to those of 
other figures, as globular, oval, or square. Hence the origin of compound or 
visible bodies- — hence the origin of large masses of matter, hence eventually 
the origin of the world itself.” * 
We have here a mechanical theory of the Universe, which so 
far commands the sympathies of our modern atheists. But into 
the midst of this mechanical theory we find a wholly discordant 
and irreconcilable element introduced, in order to account for the 
freedom and individuality of the Will. Why should any atoms 
deviate from the force of the laws that govern them ? Every 
chemist knows that such an occurrence never takes place, and 
that he may reckon with infallible certainty on their never dis- 
playing any tendency to vary. Hence anv chemist can contrast 
the laws which govern crystallization, and which result in perfect 
mathematical forms and arrangements, and those which govern 
organized bodies ; conspicuous among which latter is the fact of 
constant, and frequently what we should call misguided variety 
— as in the abnormal development of plants and animals. 
Lucretius pleads for the absolute necessity of introducing the 
idea of this discordant deviation. 
“ Qua re etiam atque etiam paullum inclinare necesse est 
Corpora, nec plus quam minimum ; ne fingere motus 
Obliquos videamur, et id res vera refutet,” &c. Ofcc.f 
“ Hence doubly flows it why the seeds of things 
Should from the right decline,” &c. &c. 
The poet then goes on to speak in a noble passage of t lie 
effects of this Will; but is it not obvious that he had constructed 
a Mechanical Universe from which he had not only shut out 
God, but the will of man and animals ? In order to remedy 
* Dr. Good, Book of Nature, quoted by Daubeny, p. 16. 
t Book ii. lines 243 — 245. 
