This contrast is seen not merely between Lucretius and the uneducated Romans of his day, but, to a less extent, it exists between Lucretius and other Roman writers. Sellar says of Virgil, that his attitude toward Natu represents a stage between "the Greek anthropomorphism and the recognition by the imagination of universal law, (1) and interdependence of phenomena." And Virgil, as before stated, he holds to be in his attitude toward Nature, a fair representative of the educated Roman of his day. Lucretius, as has been shown, had on the other hand, grasped the idea of a universal power, of the universal reign of law, and the unity of the world, and while proclaiming himself a disbeliever in Divine power, approached far more closely than did those whose beliefs he aimed to overthrow, not only the scientific but the religious conceptions of the Universe that prevail today. This large conception of Nature it is fair to suppose will lend its tone more or less to every phase of nature-sentiment which the poem can show. "The recognition of the majesty of Nature," says Sellar, "enables Lucretius to contemplate life with a sense both of solemnity and security, while it imparts a more (1) Sellar. The Roman Poets of the August an Age.virgil. p.268 elevated feeling to his enjoyment of the beauty of the (1) world." And to his strong earnest mind and vivid imagination, "all life and Nature were imaginative wonder." (2) full of It was this very sense of wonder, felt so keenly by Lucretius himself, that led men to ascribe the govern ment of the Universe to a divine power outside of it. "praeterea caeli rationes ordine certo et varia annorum cernebant tempora verti nec poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere causis. ergo perfugium sibi habebant omnia divis tradere et illorum nutu facere omnia flecti. in caeloque deum sedes et templa locarunt noctivagaeque faces caeli flammaeque volantes, nubila sol imbres nix venti fulmina grando et rapidi fremitus et murmura magna minarum." 5.1183 Again in the following the feeling is expressed still mo strongly- "praeterea cui non animus formidine divum contrahitur, cui non correpunt membra pavore, (1) Roman Poets of the Republic. p.347 2) Roman Poets of the Republic. p. 377 |