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Janguage, was a work of labour and of 
hazard. It has been attempted, and 
executed, by Lucretius with wonderful 
spirit and ability. He has not only oc- 
casionally introduced new and appro- 
priate terms; but, in some instances, re- 
vived or given a new sense to antiquated 
words, which ought never to have become 
obsolete.* No poet has been more de- 
Hicately or forcibly select in the adoption 
of his words, and idiomatic expressions, 
Some degree of obscurity may, indeed, 
be occasionally discovered ; but, in every 
such instance, the defect must be ascribed 
to the subject, rather than to the author. 
Throughout the whole poem, it is im- 
possible for order to be more luminous, 
for language te be more perspicuous 
or for the greater part of the deductions 
to be more consequent and legitimate. 
For this skilful arrangement he is praised 
by Cicero (Fpist. ad Quinct. 2. 11.) 
“ Lueretil poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt 
mmultis lummibus ingenii, multa tamen 
artis,” 
He gave to the Epicurean philosophy 
the wild but captivating charms of a 
vigorous fancy and nervous expression, 
His versification is sometimes rough and 
unpolished ; and sometimes rises into so 
much grace and smoothness, as to re- 
semble the hexameters of Virgil. There 
is a wild sublimity and originality dif 
fused over his whole work. His pictures 
af nature are enchanting. As a genuine 
poet, it was in vain for him to affect the 
cliaracter of an atheist. He felt the 
necessity of some divine agency to ani- 
mate the mass of the subject. He has, 
therefore, with a display of the most 
elegant images, and with a grace and 
majesty suit table to the oceasion, opened 
his poem with an address to the ‘God- 
dess, ascribed to her the creation of the 
world, invested her with the attributes of 
power and goodness, and assigned to her 
the cortrou! over all buman affairs. — 
ZEneadum genetrix, hominum divéaique ve- 
luptas, 
Alma Venus: cell subter Sabentis slona 
Que mare navigerum, queterras fr ugiferentcis 
Concelebras; per te quoniam genus cmne 
animantum 
Concipitur, visitgue exortum lumina solis; 
Te, Dea, te fugivat venti, te nubila celi 
* Antiquiora quedam verba, & pene obso- 
leta, in Lucfetio, Ennio, aliisque vetustioribus 
jnvenire- est, ab usu sano sané nostro & ser- 
mone remota: sed in veterum tamen scriptis 
antiquitatis reverentia wr retinenda, 
& religioséconservanda. 7. Lis esis, Var~ Lect. 
bib, A « Cap. 14, 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature—Lucretius. 
[May t, 
Adventumque tuum ; tibirident zquora ponti; 
Placatumque nitet diftuso lumine celum. 
Que quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas 
Nec sine te quicquam dias in luminis oras 
Exoritur; neque fit letum, neque amabile 
quicquam, 
Te sociam studeo scribundis versibus esse. 
Nothing can be more beautiful, or ap- 
propriate, than this introductory address ; 
yet it has been strongly and repeatedly 
ubjected to, as entirely inconsistent with 
the poet’s avowed disbelief of the system 
of religion at that time established among 
the Romans. The Baron des Coutures, 
an early translator of Lucretius, has no- 
ticed this objection: “Cette invocation, 
(says he) a surpris beauceup de scavans, 
comme contrairea la doctrine d’Epicure.” 
He has offered a vindication which, if 
not satisfactory, is at least ingenious, 
He denies, that the mvyocation has any 
reference to mythology, and contends, 
that it is pure and allowable allegory. 
Venus, he observes, is the symbol of 
universal generation; Mars, her para- 
mour, of universal destruction. From 
the union of these two opposite powers, -. 
seni a the generation, recombination, 
and redissolution of all things, upon 
which the theory of Epicurus is founded. 
But, without resorting to this Epicurean 
_mode of illustrating a passage, if 1s enough 
to say, that Lucretius has availed him- 
self of the custom so general in epie and 
didactic poems, of invoking some pro- 
ae deity, and selected Venus as the 
most ap propriate and most connected 
ann his sul byect. ‘ And what imaginary 
power, (asks a late editor) could be so 
properly invoked, since invocations have 
been resorted to in all ages, as the deity 
who was the acknowledged source of all 
animal and vegetable lite? What power 
could be so properly invoked by a Re- 
man poet desirous more especially of 
bespeaking the esteem of the multitude, 
as the divinity, from whose embraces 
with a mortai, immemorial tradition had 
derived their national descent ?” 
The genius of Lucretius was in a high 
degree jotiy and poetical, and where he 
is not fettered by the recurring difficul- 
ties of his subject, it displays itself im the 
‘ most impressive episodes, and the most 
mnagnificent descriptions. His thoughts 
are masculine, full of argument, and de- 
livered in a style warm, animated, and 
clear. From this warmth of: natural 
temper, proceed the loftiness of his ex- 
pression, and that perpetual torrent of 
verse, where the barrenness of bis sub) ect 
oes 
