Possessed by
a desire to free his fellow men from the trammels of superstition and
the dread of death, he composed his poem, "On the Nature of Things.
a desire to free his fellow men from the trammels of superstition and
the dread of death, he composed his poem, "On the Nature of Things.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
The uses of fire were learned from the
lightning-flash and from conflagrations due to spontaneous combustion
or chance friction. In time this opened out the possibility of many
arts, such as metal-working; for forest fires caused streams of
silver, gold, copper, or lead to run into hollows, and early man
observed that when cooled, the glittering lumps retained the mould of
the cavities. Nature also was the model for sowing and grafting. Those
who excelled in mental endowment invented new modes of life. Towns and
strongholds were founded as places of defence; and possessions were
secured by personal beauty, strength, or cleverness. But the access of
riches often ousted the claims of both beauty and strength.
For men, though strong and fair to look upon,
Oft follow in the retinue of wealth.
Religious feelings were fostered by visions and dreams; marvellous
shapes to which savage man ascribed supernatural powers. Recurrent
appearances of such shapes induced a belief in their continuous
existence: so arose the notion of gods that live for ever.
Our navigation, tillage, walls, and laws,
Our armour, roads, and dress, and such-like boons,
And every elegance of modern life,
Poems and pictures, statues deftly wrought,
All these men learned with slow advancing steps
From practice and the knowledge won by wit.
So by degrees time brings each thing to sight,
And reason raiseth it to realms of day.
In arts must one thing, then another, shine,
Until they win their full development.
FOOTNOTES:
[V] To the Roman poet Titus Corus Lucretius (99-55 B. C. )
belongs the distinction of having made Epicureanism epic.
Possessed by
a desire to free his fellow men from the trammels of superstition and
the dread of death, he composed his poem, "On the Nature of Things. "
His reasonings were based on the atomic theory, which the Greek
Epicurus had taken as the physical side of his system. In natural
law Lucretius found the true antidote to superstition, and from a
materialistic hypothesis of atoms and void he deduced everything.
Against the futilities of myth-religion he protested with the fervour
of an evangelist. On the ethical side, he accepted from Epicurus
the conception that the ideal lies in pleasure--not wild, sensual
pleasure, but that calm of mind which comes from temperate and refined
enjoyment, subdual of extravagant passion, and avoidance of political
entanglements. It is appropriate that the life of this apostle of
scientific quietism should be involved in obscurity. The story of his
insanity, so beautifully treated by Tennyson, may or may not be true.
It is hardly credible that a work so closely reasoned was, as a whole,
composed in lucid intervals between fits of madness; but, on the other
hand, there are signs of flagging in the later portions, and the work
comes to a sudden conclusion. The translations are specially made by
Prof. J. Wight Duff, and include a few extracts from his "Literary
History of Rome. "
JAMES MACPHERSON
Ossian[W]
_I. --Carthon_
A tale of the times of old--the deeds of days of other years.
Who comes from the land of strangers, with his thousands around him?
The sunbeam pours its bright stream before him; his hair meets the wind
of his hills. His face is settled from war.
lightning-flash and from conflagrations due to spontaneous combustion
or chance friction. In time this opened out the possibility of many
arts, such as metal-working; for forest fires caused streams of
silver, gold, copper, or lead to run into hollows, and early man
observed that when cooled, the glittering lumps retained the mould of
the cavities. Nature also was the model for sowing and grafting. Those
who excelled in mental endowment invented new modes of life. Towns and
strongholds were founded as places of defence; and possessions were
secured by personal beauty, strength, or cleverness. But the access of
riches often ousted the claims of both beauty and strength.
For men, though strong and fair to look upon,
Oft follow in the retinue of wealth.
Religious feelings were fostered by visions and dreams; marvellous
shapes to which savage man ascribed supernatural powers. Recurrent
appearances of such shapes induced a belief in their continuous
existence: so arose the notion of gods that live for ever.
Our navigation, tillage, walls, and laws,
Our armour, roads, and dress, and such-like boons,
And every elegance of modern life,
Poems and pictures, statues deftly wrought,
All these men learned with slow advancing steps
From practice and the knowledge won by wit.
So by degrees time brings each thing to sight,
And reason raiseth it to realms of day.
In arts must one thing, then another, shine,
Until they win their full development.
FOOTNOTES:
[V] To the Roman poet Titus Corus Lucretius (99-55 B. C. )
belongs the distinction of having made Epicureanism epic.
Possessed by
a desire to free his fellow men from the trammels of superstition and
the dread of death, he composed his poem, "On the Nature of Things. "
His reasonings were based on the atomic theory, which the Greek
Epicurus had taken as the physical side of his system. In natural
law Lucretius found the true antidote to superstition, and from a
materialistic hypothesis of atoms and void he deduced everything.
Against the futilities of myth-religion he protested with the fervour
of an evangelist. On the ethical side, he accepted from Epicurus
the conception that the ideal lies in pleasure--not wild, sensual
pleasure, but that calm of mind which comes from temperate and refined
enjoyment, subdual of extravagant passion, and avoidance of political
entanglements. It is appropriate that the life of this apostle of
scientific quietism should be involved in obscurity. The story of his
insanity, so beautifully treated by Tennyson, may or may not be true.
It is hardly credible that a work so closely reasoned was, as a whole,
composed in lucid intervals between fits of madness; but, on the other
hand, there are signs of flagging in the later portions, and the work
comes to a sudden conclusion. The translations are specially made by
Prof. J. Wight Duff, and include a few extracts from his "Literary
History of Rome. "
JAMES MACPHERSON
Ossian[W]
_I. --Carthon_
A tale of the times of old--the deeds of days of other years.
Who comes from the land of strangers, with his thousands around him?
The sunbeam pours its bright stream before him; his hair meets the wind
of his hills. His face is settled from war.
