and there was
nothing to take its place.

His religious belief, so far as we can gather it, was rather negative than
positive. In the speculative treatise which he has left us, 'On the Nature
of the Gods', he examines all the current creeds of the day, but leaves
his own quite undefined.

The treatise takes the form, like the rest, of an imaginary conversation.
This is supposed to have taken place at the house of Aurelius Cotta, then
Pontifex Maximus--an office which answered nearly to that of Minister
of religion. The other speakers are Balbus, Velleius, and Cicero
himself,--who acts, however, rather in the character of moderator than
of disputant. The debate is still, as in the more strictly philosophical
dialogues, between the different schools. Velleius first sets forth the
doctrine of his master Epicurus; speaking about the gods, says one of his
opponents, with as much apparent intimate knowledge "as if he had just
come straight down from heaven". All the speculations of previous
philosophers--which he reviews one after the other--are, he assures the
company, palpable errors. The popular mythology is a mere collection of
fables. Plato and the Stoics, with their Soul of the world and their
pervading Providence, are entirely wrong; the disciples of Epicurus alone
are right. There are gods; that much, the universal belief of mankind in
all ages sufficiently establishes. But that they should be the laborious
beings which the common systems of theology would make them,--that they
should employ themselves in the manufacture of worlds,--is manifestly
absurd. Some of this argument is ingenious. "What should induce the Deity
to perform the functions of an Aedile, to light up and decorate the world?
If it was to supply better accommodation for himself, then he must have
dwelt of choice, up to that time, in the darkness of a dungeon. If such
improvements gave him pleasure, why should he have chosen to be without
them so long?"

No--the gods are immortal and happy beings; and these very attributes
imply that they should be wholly free from the cares of business--exempt
from labour, as from pain and death. They are in human form, but of an
ethereal and subtile essence, incapable of our passions or desires. Happy
in their own perfect wisdom and virtue, they

"Sit beside their nectar, careless of mankind".

Cotta--speaking in behalf of the New Academy--controverts these views.
Be these your gods, Epicurus, as well say the