1808.] 
’ He was born at Rome in the 171st 
‘Olympiad, according to Eusebius, when 
Cu. Domitius Anobarbus and C., Cassius 
Longinus were consuls, about 657 years‘ 
after the building of the city.. In the ab- 
sence of any authority that could sub- 
stantiate such a supposition, it has been 
conjectured that he was of the celebrated 
family of the Lecretu, of which there 
were many branches; but this is merely 
ideal, and the events of his life are in- 
volved in the same obscurity which has 
attended all the earlier authors of Greece 
-aud Rome, His birth occurred at atime 
when the Romans had begun to study the 
philosophy of the Greeks, and were ac 
customed to send their youth to Wdbans, 
to acquire the learning of that polished 
but degraded people. Athens, though, 
deprived of her original glory, and de- 
pendant upon Rome for protection, 
could still boast her schools, her scholars, 
and her libraries. In the suburbs of the 
city, the Academy of the Platonists, the 
Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portzco 
of the Steies, and the Garden of the 
Epicureans, were planted with trees, and 
decorated with statues; and the philoso- 
phers, instead of being immured in a 
cloyster, delivered their lectures in spa- 
cious and pleasant walks, which,, at dif- 
ferent hours, were consecrated to the ex- 
ercises of the mind and body. Every 
scene, every edifice, every conversation, 
was a living lecture of taste and elegance. 
flere was the venerable grove in which 
Plato had unfolded his sublime mysteries, 
and enraptured multitudes; here Aris- 
totle had anatomized the springs of hu- 
man intellect and actions; Zeno incul- 
cated his severe and self-denying doc- 
trines; and Epicurus attempted to ex- 
plain the origin and nature of things, 
The genius of the founders still lived in 
those venerable seats; the ambition of 
sueceeding to the masters of haman reae 
son excited a generous emulation, and 
the merit of the candidates was still de- 
termined by the voice of an enlightened 
people. Thus Cicero, Atticus, Memmius, 
and Velleius, combined the manly cha- 
racter of Rome with the arts and ele- 
gance of Greece, and lost their native 
_radeness in the Groves of Academus.’ 
Zeno and Phedrus were then Masters of 
the Garden, and under them Lucretius, 
no doubt, imbibed those singular dec- 
trines ascribed to Epicurus, and upon 
which we shall presently enlarge, They 
do not appear to have imparted to hira 
that felicity, or patient endurance of evil, 
_for the attaining of which they were aad 
¥ 
Lyceum of Ancient Literaiure—Lucretius. 
233 
cipally studied. Wis life was unhappy, 
and of short duration; his death prema- 
ture, and violent. There is an absurd 
story in Eusebius, that he destroyed him- 
self in a fit of insanity, occasioned by a 
olin or love-potion, given to him by 
Lucilia, his wife, or mistress. Another, 
less improbable, is, that he was unable 
to resist the shock of the continual sedi- 
tions which disturbed the peace of his. 
country, and daily bedewed the streets of 
Rome with the blood of its best citizens, 
It dppears to be credited that his reason 
‘as alienated a considerable time before 
his death, and that he wrote his poem in 
the imtervals of his disorder. But they 
must have been lucid intervals, indeed ; 
for whatever may be the fights of. his 
fancy, he is not deficient in judgment, as 
apoet. Tight as thecord 1 Hs often drawn, 
it has no where flown. He died in bis 
42d or 44th year. 
Before we examine the poem of Lu- 
cretius, if may be proper to convey tothe 
reader some idea of the philosophy of 
Epicurus, upon which it is founded. We 
shall consider it in its physical and moral 
point of view, extracting our account of 
the first from the appendix to the last 
translation of the “ Nature of Things,” 
by Mr. Mason Good. ‘ In its mere phy- 
sical contemplation, the theory of Epis 
curus allows of nothing but matter and 
space, which are equal; y infinite and un- 
bounded; which have equally existed 
from all eternity, and from different 
combinations of which, every individual — 
being is created. These existences have 
no property in common with each other, 
for whatever matter is, that space is the 
reverse of; and whatever space is, mat- 
ter is the contrary to. ‘The actually so- 
lid parts of all. bodies, therefore, is maf- 
ter; their actual pores, space; and the 
parts which are not altogether solid, but 
an intermixture of solidity and pore, are 
space and matter combined. Antericr 
to the formation ofjthe universe, space 
and matter existed uncombined, or ia 
their pure and elemental state. Space 
in its elemental state, is positive and 
unsolid void; matter, in its elenlentary 
state, consist of in¢ cancel eee minute 
seeds, or atoms, so small, that the cor- 
puscles of is pe light, ‘ave heat, are 
compounds of them, and so solid, that 
they cannot possibly be broken, or made 
smaller by any concussion or violence 
whatever. *The express figure of these 
pr mas ‘y atoms 1s various 5 they are round, 
square, pointed, jagged, as well as many 
other shapes. ‘These shapes, however, 
are 
