A day of destruction will surely come (1) '......maria ac terras caelumque tuere; quorum naturam triplicem, tria torpora, Memmi, tris species tam dissimilis, tria talia texta, sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi." 5.92 at peace,a Moreover the forces of the world arenot constant conflict is going on, and one or another must sometime gain the final mastery. - "Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello, nonne vides aliquam longi certaminis ollis posse dari finem?vel cum sol et vapor omnis omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint: quod facere intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrantur: tantum suppeditant amnes ultraque minantur omnia diluviare ex alto gurgite ponti, nequiquam, quonian verrentes aequora venti deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol, magnis inter se de rebus cernere certant." 5.380 (1) Also 2.1148 Nor is man more favored than the rest. He is only one among the many productions of the "daedala tellus, and he must struggle for existence with the rest. No divine power watches over his destiny, and provides for his needs- "Quod si iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint, hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis, naturam rerum: tanta stat praedita culpa. vitai causa valido consueta bidenti ingemere et terram pressis proscinde aratris. et tamen interdum magno quaesita labore cum iam per terras frondent at que omnia florent, aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae, Such was Lucretius' conception of the Universe, the mutual relation of its parts and the power that ruled it- mighty forces contending indeed with each other and making the world of matter a world of unrest, but all still parts of a vast organic whole, pervading with vigor and life in which manifested itself the mysterious power that governed all --the power of Nature. The popular religion on the other hand saw the world under the sway of Jupiter, to be sure, the father of gods and men, but still superintended, guarded and animated by a separate and lesser divinity for every smallest detail, for every process of growth or change. This narrow conception that lies back of the Roman popular religion stands in as striking contrast to that of Lucretius as to the conception which prevails in our own time. Lucretius in fact in his philosophy of Nature approaches much more nearly the modern idea, than the ideas of the popular religion of his day. "It is against the limitation which the ancient mythology imposed on the idea of Divine agency, rather than against the idea itself as it is understood in modern times that his philosophy protests. To Nature his imagination attributes (1) not only life, but creative and regulative power. (1) Sellar. The Roman poets of the Republic. p.342 |