Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

INFINITY 305
are equally memorable on other accounts-for their lack
of any genuine spirit of philosophic enquiry, for their
lack of reverence for human beings as human, for their
stupid belief that the things of wisdom could be purchased, and especially for their brutal lack of scientific
curiosity, scientific imagination and scientific achievement.
Even the one really great exception-De Rerum Natura
-is, in respect of its content, Greek in origin-it is, as
you know, Epicurean; it is, nevertheless, the "one really
great exception," for the thought of the Greek thinker
stirred the great genius of the Italian poet to its depths;
Lucretius understood it and he cast it in immortal form
for the edification of all posterity. So far, however, as
Romans were concerned, the Lucretian work "was stillborn, into a suffocating atmosphere of vile wealth and
military oppression. The true figure to represent the
classical Roman attitude to science is not Lucretius, but
that Roman soldier who hacked Archimedes to death at
the storming of Syracuse."
Most of the many great merits of the work of Lucretius have been long, though not generally nor even widely,
recognized. One of its recognized merits is, as I have
already said, its superb daring,-the unsurpassed magnificence of its enterprise, which was nothing less than
to show forth a method for explaining all phenomena
(whether mental or not) without having to resort to any
hypothesis of divine intervention; another of its merits,
-a very striking one,-is its probably unequalled union
of literary excellence with scientific spirit and aim; still
another-which includes many, being a highly composite
merit-is its confident and often acutely argued presentation, sometimes in detail and sometimes in clear outline
only, of ideas and doctrines whose just recognition had to