fame.
Some two centuries after the death of Epicurus, Lucretius [Footnote:
Born 99 B.C.] wrote his great poem, 'On the Nature of Things,' in
which he, a Roman, developed with extraordinary ardour the philosophy
of his Greek predecessor. He wishes to win over his friend Memnius to
the school of Epicurus; and although he has no rewards in a future
life to offer, although his object appears to be a purely negative
one, he addresses his friend with the heat of an apostle. His object,
like that of his great forerunner, is the destruction of superstition;
and considering that men in his day trembled before every natural
event as a direct monition from the gods, and that everlasting torture
was also in prospect, the freedom aimed at by Lucretius might be
deemed a positive good. 'This terror,' he says, 'and darkness of
mind, must be dispelled, not by the rays of the sun and glittering
shafts of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature.' He refutes
the notion that anything can come out of nothing, or that what is once
begotten can be recalled to nothing. The first beginnings, the atoms,
are indestructible, and into them all things can be resolved at last.
Bodies are partly atoms; and partly combinations of atoms; but the
atoms nothing can quench. They are strong in solid singleness, and, by
their denser combination, all things can be closely packed and exhibit
enduring strength. He denies that matter is infinitely divisible. We
come at length to the atoms, without which, as an imperishable
substratum, all order in the generation and development of things
would be destroyed.

The mechanical shock of the atoms being, in his view, the
all-sufficient cause of things, he combats the notion that the
constitution of nature has been in any way determined by intelligent
design. The interaction of the atoms throughout infinite time
rendered all manner of combinations possible. Of these, the fit ones
persisted, while the unfit ones disappeared. Not after sage
deliberation did the atoms station themselves in their right places,
nor did they bargain what motions they should assume. From all
eternity they have been driven together, and, after trying motions and
unions of every kind, they fell at length into the arrangements out
of which this system of things has been evolved.

'If you will apprehend and keep in mind these things, Nature, free at
once, and rid of her haughty lords, is seen to do all things
spontaneously of he