A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

.LUCRETIUS. LUCRETIUS. 829
of his family and connections, from the days of the to his aid the atomic theory of L eucippus, by
chaste wife of Collatinus, a narrative of his journey which he sought. to demonstrate that the material
to Athens for the prosecution of his philosophical universe is not the result of creative energy on
studies, an account of the society in which he there the part of the Supreme Being, but that all the
lived, of the friendships which he there formed, objects in which it abounds, mineral, vegetable,
of the preceptors from whose lips he derived his and animal, were formed by the union of eleenthusiasm for those tenets which he subsequently mental particles which had existed from all eterexpounded with such fervid faith, of his return to nity, governed by certain simple laws; and that
his native country, and of his life and habits all those striking phaenomena which, from their
while enjoying the charms of literary ease and strangeness or mighty effects, had long been repeaceful seclusion. But the whole of these parti- garded by the. vulgar as direct manifestations of
culars are a mere tissue of speculations, —a web of divine power, were merely the natural results of
conjectures originally woven by the imagination of ordinary processes. To state clearly and develope
Lambinus and afterwards variously embroidered by fully the leading principle of this philosophy, in
the idle and perverse ingenuity of a long line of such a form as might render the study attractive to
commentators. his countrymen, few of whom were disposed to
The period about which his piece was published take any interest in abstract speculations, was the.
can be reduced within narrow limits. The allusion task undertaken by the author of the De Reruns
to the unhappy dissensions by which his native Natuzra, his work being simply an attempt to show
country was distracted, have been supposed to bear that there is nothing in the history or actual conspecial reference to the conspiracy of Catiline, but dition of the world which does not admit of explanathe expression " patriiii tempore iniquo" is so ge- tion without having recourse to the active interponeral that it is' applicable to any portion of the sition of divine beings. The poem opens with a
epoch when he flourished. From the manner, how- magnificent' apostrophe to Venus, whom he adever, in which Cicero, in a' letter to his brother dresses as an allegorical representation of the reQuintus, written B. C. 55,. gives his opinion on the, productive power, after which the buisiness of the
merits of the poem, we may fairly conclude that it piece commences by an enunciation of the great
had been recen'tly published; and, taking into proposition on the nature and being of the gods
account the slowness with which copies were mul- (57-62), which leads to a grand invective against
tiplied, the conjecture of Forbiger becomes highlly.the gigantic monster superstition, and a thrilling
probable, that it may have been given to the World picture of the horrors which attends his tyrannous
in the early part of the year B. C. 57, when the sway. Then follows a lengthened elucidation of
machinations of Clodius were producing a degree the axiom that nothing can be produced from
of disorder and anarchy almost without example nothing, and that nothing can be reduced to nothing
even in those stormy times. (Nil fieri ex nihilo, in nihilumz nil posse reverti)
The work which has immortalised the name of which is succeeded by a definition of the Ultimate.
Lucretius, and which, happily, has been preserved Atoms, infinite in number, which, together with
entire, is.a philosophical didactic poem, composed Void Space (Inane), infinite in extent, constitute
in heroic hexameters, divided into six books, ex- the universe. The shape of these corpuscules, their
tending to upwards of seven thousand four hundred properties, their movements, the laws under which.
lines, addressed to C. Memmius Gemellus, Who was they enter into combination and assume forms and
praetor in B. C. 58 [MEMMIus],' and is entitled qualities appreciable by the senses, with other.
De Rerum Natura. It has been sometimes repre- preliminary matters on their nature and affections,,
sented as a complete exposition of the religious, together with a refutation of objections and opposing
moral, and physical doctrines of Epicurus, but this hypotheses, occupy the first two books.; In the
is far fiom being a correct description.' The plan third book, the general truths thus established are
is not by any means so vast or so discursive, and applied to demonstrate that the vital and intellectual:
although embracing numerous topics requiring great'principles, the Anima and Animus, are as much a,
minuteness of detail, and admitting of great variety part'of the man as his limbs and members, but
of illustration, is extremely distinct, and possesses like those limbs and members have no distinct and
almost epical unity. -Epicurus maintained that the independent existence, and that hence'soul and
unhappiness and degradation of mankind arose in body live and perish together; the argument being
a great degree from the slavish dread which they wound up by amagnificent exposure of the folly
entertained of the power of the Gods, from terror manifested in a dread of death, which will for ever
of their wrath, which was supposed to be displayed extinguish all feeling. The fourth book-perhaps:
by the misfortunes inflicted in this life, and by the the most ingenious of the whole-is devoted to the
everlasting tortures which were the lot of the theory of the senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, of
guilty in a future state, or where these feelings' sleep and of dreams, ending with a disquisition.
were not strongly developed, from a vague dread upon love. The fifth book, generally regarded as
of gloom and misery after death.. To remove these the most finished and impressive, treats of the'
apprehensions, which he declared were founded origin of the world and of all things that are
upon error, and thus to establish tranquillity in therein, of the movements of the heavenly bodies,
the heart, was the great object of his teaching; and of the-vicissitudes of the seasons, of day and night,
the fundamental doctrine upon which his system of the rise and progress of man, of society, and of
reposed was, that the Gods, whose existence he political institutions, and of the invention of the
did not deny, lived for evermore in the enjoyment various arts and sciences which embellish and
of absolute peace, strangers to all the passions, ennoble life. The sixth book comprehends an exdesires, and fears, which agitate the human heart, pIanation of some of the most striking natural
totally indifferent to the world and its inhabitants, appearances, especially thunder, lightning, hail, rain,
unmoved alike by their virtues and their crimes. snow, ice, cold, heat, wind, earthquakes, volcanoes,
As a step towards proving this position he called springs and localities noxious to animal life, which