1$08.] Lyceum of Ancient 
‘coneludes with an elegant description, 
taken from Thucydides, of the plague 
that raged at Athens, and almost laid 
waste and desolate the whole country of 
Attica, in the time of the Peloponnesian 
war. 
Having thus given a sketch of the va- 
rious points which form the subject of 
the poem on the Nature of Things, we 
dismiss this part of our analysis, with 
the observation—that amid all the errors 
which obscured the understanding, the 
absurd impiety which disgraces se me- 
mory of Lucretius, the attentive reader 
may trace the rudiments of that philoso- 
phy, which, under the plastic hands of 
Gassendi and Newton, has obtained a. 
triumph over every other hypothesis of 
the Grecian school. He will be. still 
more surprized to find a striking resem- 
blance between some of the most beau- 
tiful passages of the poem, and various 
parts of the Scriptures. 
St. Pierre has supposed Lueretius to 
have been acquainted with the sacred 
writings. That this was the case with 
Virgil, is proved fs some passages in his 
poems; and we know that Longinus has 
quoted Isaiah. It is perhaps not diffi- 
cult to account for these, apparently 
improbable, circumstances. —Diiferent 
books of the Bible, especially the Pen- 
tateuch, appear to have been, translated 
into Creals by the Jews, three centuries 
anterior t6 the Christian wra, for the 
use of their brethren who were then set- 
tled in Egypt, and other Grecian depen- 
dlencies, and who, residing among the 
Greeks, had adopted their la inguage, 
‘The literary connection which subsisted 
between Rome and Alexandria is weli 
known; and it may reasonably be sup- 
posed that these inspired writnigs, which 
appear to have been so highly prized in 
one city, could not be altogether un- 
known, or received with indifference, in 
the other. 
Lucretius has the great merit of having 
treated a very difficult subject, with ease 
and perspicuity, and clnarbiad the most 
abstruse pots. of abstract philosophy 
in intelligible and appropriate words. 
The undertaking was new and arduous, 
and it required uncommon genius and 
learning to frame a diction, that should 
correspond with its importance, and in- 
troduce it with success to the Romans, 
He might well assert that in writing his 
poem, he 
now inspired, traced o’er the Muses’ seats 
Untrodden veto 
tferature— Lucretius. 
The Abbé de 
309 
He had to establish doctrines and ideas 
in poetry, with which poetry was as yet 
unacquainted; and to bend and modify 
the language im which he wrote, to a 
clear and familiar expression of these 
novel arguments. That he was perfectly 
sensible of this difficulty, appears from 
the manner in. which he expresses him- 
self to his friend Memmius— 
Nec me animus fallit,Graiorum obfcura reperta 
Difiicile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse, 
(Multa novis verbis presertim cum sit agen- 
dum), 
Propter egestatem lingue, et rerum novitatem 5 
Sed tua me virtus tamen, & sperata voluptas 
Suavis amicitie, quemvis perferre laborem 
Suadet, & inducit nocteis vigilare serenas, 
Quzrentem dictis quibus, & quo carmine de- 
mum 
Clara tuz possim prepandere lumina menti, 
Res quibus obcultas penitus convisere possis. 
Lib. 1163. 
The Latin was not only for a conside- 
rable time an unpolished, but a detective 
language. Its Jtse of expression was 
a subject of cemplaint as soon as it be- 
gan to be regularly studied: Cicero and 
Lucretius were sensible of the want. of 
terms, adapted to philosophical topics. 
Even the names of physics, dialectics, 
and rhetoric,were unknown before the for- 
mer of those authors introduced them 
into his works; and the latter laments, 
that his native tongue was not calculated 
to commanicate, with adequate strenvil 
and copiousness of expression, the won- 
ders and the beduties of the Grecian 
philosophy. Its defects were not so great 
when applied to subjects more congenial 
to the manners of the Romans. From 
their constant occupation in domestic 
and foreign wars, for many cole 
the language took a deep and peculiar 
tincture; and the marks of it were evi- 
dent 12 many modes of expression. But 
till the conauest of Greece familiarized 
the Romans with the arts and learning 
of that enlightened country, their jan- 
guage and literature were comparatively 
barbarous and defective. They had no 
words by which they could explain, even 
by analogy, the terms of a philosophy 
with which they were as yet unacquainted. 
They were compelled. to resort to the 
language of that ingenious people; from 
whom they derived “these new accessions 
of human wisdom and knowledge. To 
adapt this novelty, both in the subject 
and the manner of treating it, to the 
understanding of the Romans, to super- 
induce a new idiom upon the barbarous 
and confined structure of their native 
language, 
