Man feels an
imperious
craving to shun bodily pain and secure mental
pleasure.
pleasure.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
Atoms are solid, "without void"; they are indestructible,
"eternal"; they are indivisible. To appreciate the physical theory of
Epicurus, it is necessary to note the erroneous speculations of other
Greek thinkers, whether, like Heraclitus, they deduced all things
from one such fundamental element as fire, or whether they postulated
four elements. From a criticism of the theories of Empedocles and
Anaxagoras, the poet, return to the main subject.
A HARD TASK AND THREEFOLD TITLE TO FAME
How dark my theme, I know within my mind;
Yet hath high hope of praise with thyrsus keen
Smitten my heart and struck into my breast
Sweet passion for the Muses, stung wherewith
In lively thought I traverse pathless haunts
Pierian, untrodden yet by man.
I love to visit those untasted springs
And quaff; I love to cull fresh blooms, and whence
The Muses never veiled the brows of man
To seek a wreath of honour for my head:
First, for that lofty is the lore I teach;
Then, cramping knots of priestcraft I would loose;
And next because of mysteries I sing clear,
Decking my poems with the Muses' charm.
This sweetening of verse with: "the honey of the Muses" is like
disguising unpalatable medicine for children. The mind must be engaged
by attractive means till it perceives the nature of the world.
As to the existing universe, it is bounded in none of its dimensions;
matter and space are infinite. All things are in continual motion
in every direction, and there is an endless supply of material
bodies from infinite space. These ultimate atoms buffet each other
ceaselessly; they unite or disunite. But there is no such thing
as design in their unions. All is fortuitous concourse; so there
are innumerable blind experiments and failures in nature, due to
resultless encounters of the atoms.
CALM OF MIND IN RELATION TO A TRUE THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE
When tempests rack the mighty ocean's face,
How sweet on land to watch the seaman's toil--
Not that we joy in neighbour's jeopardy,
But sweet it is to know what ills we 'scape.
How sweet to see war's mighty rivalries
Ranged on the plains--without thy share of risk.
Naught sweeter than to hold the tranquil realms
On high, well fortified by sages' lore,
Whence to look down on others wide astray--
Lost wanderers questing for the way of life--
See strife of genius, rivalry of rank,
See night and day men strain with wondrous toil
To rise to utmost power and grasp the world.
Man feels an imperious craving to shun bodily pain and secure mental
pleasure. But the glitter of luxury at the banquets of the rich
cannot satisfy this craving: there are the simpler joys of the open
country in spring. But the fact is, no magnificence can save the body
from pain or the mind from apprehensions. The genuine remedy lies in
knowledge alone.
Not by the sunbeams nor clear shafts of day,
Needs then dispel this dread, this gloom of soul,
But by the face of nature and its plan.
PROPERTIES OF ATOMS
Particles are constantly being transferred from one thing to another,
though the sum total remains constant. In the light hereof may be
understood the uninterrupted waxing and waning of things, and the
perpetual succession of existence.
Full soon the broods of living creatures change,
Like runners handing on the lamp of life.
Greater or less solidity depends on the resilience of atoms. Their
ceaseless motion is illustrated by the turmoil of motes in a stream
of sunlight let into a dark room. As to their velocity, it greatly
exceeds that of the sun's rays. This welter of atoms is the product
of chance; the very blemishes of the world forbid one to regard it as
divine. But the atoms do not rain through space in rigidly parallel
lines. A minute swerve in their motion is essential to account for
clashings and production; and in the ethical sphere it is this swerve
which saves the mind from "Necessity" and makes free will possible.
Though the universe appears to be at rest, this is a fallacy of the
senses, due to the fact that the motions of "first bodies" are not
cognisable by our eyes; indeed, a similar phenomenon is the apparent
vanishing of motion due to distance; for a white spot on a far-off
hill may really be a frolicsome lamb.
Oft on a hillside, cropping herbage rich,
The woolly flocks creep on whithersoe'er
The grass bejewelled with fresh dew invites,
And full-fed lambs disport and butt in play--
All this to eyes at distance looks a blur;
On the green hill the white spot seems at rest.
"eternal"; they are indivisible. To appreciate the physical theory of
Epicurus, it is necessary to note the erroneous speculations of other
Greek thinkers, whether, like Heraclitus, they deduced all things
from one such fundamental element as fire, or whether they postulated
four elements. From a criticism of the theories of Empedocles and
Anaxagoras, the poet, return to the main subject.
A HARD TASK AND THREEFOLD TITLE TO FAME
How dark my theme, I know within my mind;
Yet hath high hope of praise with thyrsus keen
Smitten my heart and struck into my breast
Sweet passion for the Muses, stung wherewith
In lively thought I traverse pathless haunts
Pierian, untrodden yet by man.
I love to visit those untasted springs
And quaff; I love to cull fresh blooms, and whence
The Muses never veiled the brows of man
To seek a wreath of honour for my head:
First, for that lofty is the lore I teach;
Then, cramping knots of priestcraft I would loose;
And next because of mysteries I sing clear,
Decking my poems with the Muses' charm.
This sweetening of verse with: "the honey of the Muses" is like
disguising unpalatable medicine for children. The mind must be engaged
by attractive means till it perceives the nature of the world.
As to the existing universe, it is bounded in none of its dimensions;
matter and space are infinite. All things are in continual motion
in every direction, and there is an endless supply of material
bodies from infinite space. These ultimate atoms buffet each other
ceaselessly; they unite or disunite. But there is no such thing
as design in their unions. All is fortuitous concourse; so there
are innumerable blind experiments and failures in nature, due to
resultless encounters of the atoms.
CALM OF MIND IN RELATION TO A TRUE THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE
When tempests rack the mighty ocean's face,
How sweet on land to watch the seaman's toil--
Not that we joy in neighbour's jeopardy,
But sweet it is to know what ills we 'scape.
How sweet to see war's mighty rivalries
Ranged on the plains--without thy share of risk.
Naught sweeter than to hold the tranquil realms
On high, well fortified by sages' lore,
Whence to look down on others wide astray--
Lost wanderers questing for the way of life--
See strife of genius, rivalry of rank,
See night and day men strain with wondrous toil
To rise to utmost power and grasp the world.
Man feels an imperious craving to shun bodily pain and secure mental
pleasure. But the glitter of luxury at the banquets of the rich
cannot satisfy this craving: there are the simpler joys of the open
country in spring. But the fact is, no magnificence can save the body
from pain or the mind from apprehensions. The genuine remedy lies in
knowledge alone.
Not by the sunbeams nor clear shafts of day,
Needs then dispel this dread, this gloom of soul,
But by the face of nature and its plan.
PROPERTIES OF ATOMS
Particles are constantly being transferred from one thing to another,
though the sum total remains constant. In the light hereof may be
understood the uninterrupted waxing and waning of things, and the
perpetual succession of existence.
Full soon the broods of living creatures change,
Like runners handing on the lamp of life.
Greater or less solidity depends on the resilience of atoms. Their
ceaseless motion is illustrated by the turmoil of motes in a stream
of sunlight let into a dark room. As to their velocity, it greatly
exceeds that of the sun's rays. This welter of atoms is the product
of chance; the very blemishes of the world forbid one to regard it as
divine. But the atoms do not rain through space in rigidly parallel
lines. A minute swerve in their motion is essential to account for
clashings and production; and in the ethical sphere it is this swerve
which saves the mind from "Necessity" and makes free will possible.
Though the universe appears to be at rest, this is a fallacy of the
senses, due to the fact that the motions of "first bodies" are not
cognisable by our eyes; indeed, a similar phenomenon is the apparent
vanishing of motion due to distance; for a white spot on a far-off
hill may really be a frolicsome lamb.
Oft on a hillside, cropping herbage rich,
The woolly flocks creep on whithersoe'er
The grass bejewelled with fresh dew invites,
And full-fed lambs disport and butt in play--
All this to eyes at distance looks a blur;
On the green hill the white spot seems at rest.
