The stream of Roman poetry appears to have suffered a temporary stagnation during the period that elapsed from the destruction of Carthage, which fell in 607, till the death of Sylla, in 674. Lucilius, with whose writings we have been engaged, was the only poet who flourished in this long interval. The satirical compositions which he introduced were not very generally nor successfully imitated. The race of dramatists had become almost extinct, and even the fondness for regular comedy and tragedy had greatly diminished. This was a pause, (though for a shorter period,) like that which was made in modern Italy, from the death of Petrarch till the rise of its bright constellation of poets, at the end of the 15th century. But the taste for literature which had been excited, and the luminous events which occurred, prevented either nation from being again enveloped in darkness. The ancient Romans could not be electrified by the fall of Carthage as their descendants were by the capture of Constantinople. But even the total subjugation of Greece, and extended dominion in Asia, were slower, at least in their influence on the efforts of poetry, than might have been antic.i.p.ated from what was experienced immediately after the conquest of Magna Graecia. Any retrograde movement, however, was prevented by the more close and frequent intercourse which was opened with Greece. There, Athens and Rhodes were the chief allies of the Roman republic. These states had renounced their freedom, for the security which flattery and subservience obtained for them; but while they ceased to be considerable in power, they still continued pre eminent in learning. A number of military officers and civil functionaries, whom their respective employments carried to Greece-a number of citizens, whom commercial speculations attracted to its towns, became acquainted with and cherished Grecian literature. That contempt which the ancient and severe republicans had affected for its charms, gave place to the warmest enthusiasm. The Roman youth were instructed by Greeks, or by Romans who had studied in Greece. A literary tour in that country was regarded as forming an essential part in the education of a young patrician. Rhodes, Mitylene, and Athens, were chiefly resorted to, as the purest fountains from which the inspiring draughts of literature could be imbibed. This constant intercourse led to a knowledge of the philosophy and finest cla.s.sical productions of Greece. It was thus that Lucretius was enabled to embody in Roman verse the whole Epicurean system, and Catullus to imitate or translate the lighter amatory and epigrammatic compositions of the Greeks. Both these poets flourished during the period on which we are now entering, and which extended from the death of Sylla to the accession of Augustus. The former of them,
t.i.tUS LUCRETIUS CARUS,
was the most remarkable of the Roman writers, as he united the precision of the philosopher to the fire and fancy of the poet; and, while he seems to have had no perfect model among the Greeks, has left a production unrivalled, (perhaps not to be rivalled,) by any of the same kind in later ages.
Of the life of Lucretius very little is known: He lived at a period abounding with great political actors, and full of portentous events-a period when every bosom was agitated with terror or hope, and when it must have been the chief study of a prudent man, especially if a votary of philosophy and the Muses, to hide himself as much as possible amid the shades. The year of his birth is uncertain. According to the chronicle of Eusebius, he was born in 658, being thus nine years younger than Cicero, and two or three younger than Caesar. To judge from his style, he might be supposed older than either: but this, as appears from the example of Sall.u.s.t, is no certain test, as his archaisms may have arisen from the imitation of ancient writers; and we know that he was a fond admirer of Ennius.
A taste for Greek philosophy had been excited at Rome for a considerable time before this era, and Lucretius was sent, with other young Romans of rank, to study at Athens. The different schools of philosophy in that city seem, about this period, to have been frequented according as they received a temporary fashion from the comparative abilities of the professors who presided in them. Cicero, for example, who had attended the Epicurean school at Athens, and became himself an Academic, intrusted his son to the care of Cratippus, a peripatetic philosopher. After the death of its great founder, the school of Epicurus had for some time declined in Greece: but at the period when Lucretius was sent to Athens, it had again revived under the patronage of L. Memmius, whose son was a fellow-student of Lucretius; as were also Cicero, his brother Quintus, Ca.s.sius, and Pomponius Atticus. At the time when frequented by these ill.u.s.trious youths, the Gardens of Epicurus were superintended by Zeno and Phaedrus, both of whom, but particularly the latter, have been honoured with the panegyric of Cicero. "We formerly, when we were boys," says he, in a letter to Caius Memmius, "knew him as a profound philosopher, and we still recollect him as a kind and worthy man, ever solicitous for our improvement(430)."
One of the dearest, perhaps the dearest friend of Lucretius, was this Memmius, who had been his school-fellow, and whom, it is supposed, he accompanied to Bithynia, when appointed to the government of that province(431). The poem _De Rerum Natura_, if not undertaken at the request of Memmius, was doubtless much encouraged by him; and Lucretius, in a dedication expressed in terms of manly and elegant courtesy, very different from the servile adulation of some of his great successors, tells him, that the much desired pleasure of his friendship, was what enabled him to endure any toil or vigils-
"Sed tua me virtus tamen, et sperata voluptas Suavis amicitiae, quemvis ecferre laborem Suadet, et inducit nocteis vigilare serenas."
The life of the poet was short, but happily was sufficiently prolonged to enable him to complete his poem, though, perhaps, not to give some portions of it their last polish. According to Eusebius, he died in the 44th year of his age, by his own hands, in a paroxysm of insanity, produced by a philtre, which Lucilia, his wife or mistress, had given him, with no design of depriving him of life or reason, but to renew or increase his pa.s.sion. Others suppose that his mental alienation proceeded from melancholy, on account of the calamities of his country, and the exile of Memmius,-circ.u.mstances which were calculated deeply to affect his mind(432). There seems no reason to doubt the melancholy fact, that he perished by his own hand.
The poem of Lucretius, _De Rerum Natura_, which he composed during the lucid intervals of his malady, is, as the name imports, philosophic and didactic, in the strictest acceptation of these terms. Poetry, I think, may chiefly be considered as occupied in three ways.-1. As describing the pa.s.sions of men, with the circ.u.mstances which give birth to them.-2. As painting images or scenery.-3. As communicating truth. Of these cla.s.ses of poetry, the most interesting is the first, in which we follow the hero placed at short intervals in different situations, calculated to excite various sympathies in our heart, while our imagination is at the same time amused or astonished by the singularity of the incidents which such situations produce. Those poems, therefore, are the most attractive, in which, as in the _Odyssey_ and _Orlando_, knights or warriors plough unknown seas, and wander in strange lands-where, at every new horizon which opens, we look for countries inhabited by giants, or monsters, or wizards of supernatural powers-where, whether sailing on the deep, or anchoring on the sh.o.r.e, the hero dreads-
"Lest Gorgons, rising from infernal lakes, With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes, Should fix him, stiffened at the monstrous sight, A stony image in eternal night."
These are the themes of surest and most powerful effect: It is by these that we are most truely moved; and it is the choice of such subjects, if ably conducted, which chiefly stamps the poet-
"Humanae Dominum mentis, cordisque Tyrannum."
So strongly, indeed, and so universally, has this been felt, that in the second species of poetry, the _Descriptive_, our sympathy must be occasionally awakened by the actions or pa.s.sions of human beings; and, to ensure success, the poet must describe the effects of the appearance of nature on our sensations. "In the poem of the _Shipwreck_," says Lord Byron, "is it the storm or the ship which most interests?-Both much, undoubtedly; but without the vessel, what should we care for the tempest(433)?" Virgil had early felt, that without Lycoris, the _gelidi fontes_ and _mollia prata_ would seem less refreshing and less smooth-he had found that the gra.s.s and the groves withered at the departure, but revived at the return of Phyllis. The most soothing and picturesque of the incidents of a woodland landscape,-the blue smoke curling upwards from a cottage concealed by the trees, derives half its softening charm, by reminding us-
"That in the same did wonne some living wight."
Of all the three species above enumerated, _Philosophical_ poetry, which occupies the mind with minute portions of external nature, is the least attractive. Mankind will always prefer books which move to those which instruct-_ennui_ being more burdensome than ignorance. In philosophic poetry, our imagination cannot be gratified by the desert isles, the boundless floods, or entangled forests, with all the marvels they conceal, which rise in such rapid and rich succession in the fascinating narrative of the sea tost Ulysses(434); nor can we there have our curiosity roused, and our emotions excited, by such lines as those with which Ariosto awakens the attention of his readers-
"Non furo iti duo miglia, che sonare Odon la selva, che gli cinge intorno, Con tal rumor et strepito che pare Che tremi la foresta d"ogni intorno."
Besides, as has been observed by Montesquieu, reason is sufficiently chained, though we fetter her not with rhyme; and, on the other hand, poetry loses much of its freedom and lightness, if clogged with the bonds of reason. The great object of poetry (according to a trite remark,) is to afford pleasure; but philosophic poetry affords less pleasure than epic, descriptive, or dramatic. The versifier of philosophic subjects is in danger of producing a work neither interesting enough for the admirers of sentiment and imagination, nor sufficiently profound for philosophers. He will sometimes soar into regions where many of his readers are unable to follow him, and, at other times, he will lose the suffrage of a few, by interweaving fictions amid the severe and simple truth.
It is the business of the philosopher to a.n.a.lyze the objects of nature. He must pay least attention to those which chiefly affect the sense and imagination, while he minutely considers others, which, though less striking, are more useful for cla.s.sification, and the chief purposes he has in view. The poet, on the other hand, avoiding dry and abstract definitions, rather combines than a.n.a.lyzes, and dwells more on the sensible phaenomena of nature, than her mysterious and scientific workings.
Thus, what the botanist considers is the number of _stamina_, and their situation in a flower, while the Muse describes only its colours, and the influence of its odours-
"She loves the rose, by rivers loves to dream, Nor heeds why blooms the rose, why flows the stream- She loves its colours, though she may not know, Why sun-born Iris paints the showery bow."
But though philosophic poetry be, of all others, the most unfavourable for the exertion of poetical genius, its degree of beauty and interest will, in a great measure, depend on what parts of his subject the poet selects, and on the extent and number of digressions of which it admits. It is evident, that the philosophic poet should pa.s.s over as lightly as may be, all dry and recondite doctrines, and enlarge on the topics most susceptible of poetical ornament. "Le Tableau de la Nature Physique," says Voltaire, "est lui seule d"une richesse, d"une variete, d"une etendue a occuper des siecles d"etude; mais tous les details ne sont pas favorable a la poesie. On n" exige pas du poete les meditations du physicien et les calculs de l"astronomie: c"est a l"observateur a determiner l"attraction et les mouvemens des corps celestes; c"est au poete a peindre leur balancement, leur harmonie, et leurs immuables revolutions. L"un distinguera les cla.s.ses nombreuses d"etres organises qui peuplent les elemens divers; l"autre decririra d"un trait hardi, lumineux et rapide cette ech.e.l.le immense et continue, ou les limites des regnes se confondent. Que le confident de la nature develope le prodige de la greffe des arbres-c"est a.s.sez pour Virgile de l"exprimer en deux beaux vers-
"Exiit ad clum ramis felicibus arbos, Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma(435)."
With regard, again, to digressions, Racine, (le Fils) in speaking of didactic poetry, says there are two sorts of episodes which may be introduced into it, and which he terms episodes of narrative and of style, (_De Recit et de Style_,) meaning by the former the recital of the adventures of individuals, and by the latter, general reflections suggested by the subject(436). Without some embellishment of this description, most philosophic poems will correspond to Quintilian"s account of the poem of Aratus on astronomy, "Nulla varietas, nullus affectus, nulla persona, nulla cujusquam, est oratio(437)." From what has already been said concerning the extreme interest excited by the introduction of sentient beings, with all their perils around, and all their pa.s.sions within them, it follows, that where the subject admits, episodes of the first cla.s.s will best serve the purposes of poetry, and if the poet choose such dry and abstruse topics as cosmogony, or the generation of the world, he ought to follow the example of Silenus(438), by embellishing his subject with tales of Hylas, and Philomela, and Scylla, and the gardens of the Hesperides-the themes which induce us to listen to the lay of the poet-
"Cogere donec oves stabulis, numerumque referre, Jussit, et invito processit Vesper Olympo."
It is, however, with the second cla.s.s of episodes-with declamations against luxury and vice-reflections on the beauty of virtue-and the delights of rural retirement, that Lucretius hath chiefly gemmed his verses.
The poem of Lucretius contains a full exposition of the theological, physical, and moral system of Epicurus. It has been remarked by an able writer, "that all the religious systems of the ancient Pagan world were naturally perishable, from the quant.i.ty of false opinions, and vicious habits, and ceremonies that were attached to them." He observes even of the barbarous Anglo Saxons, that, "as the nation advanced in its active intellect, it began to be dissatisfied with its mythology. Many indications exist of this spreading alienation, which prepared the northern mind for the reception of the n.o.bler truths of Christianity(439)." A secret incredulity of this sort seems to have been long nourished in Greece, and appears to have been imported into Rome with its philosophy and literature. The more pure and simple religion of early Rome was quickly corrupted, and the mult.i.tude of ideal and heterogeneous beings which superst.i.tion introduced into the Roman worship led to its total rejection(440). This infidelity is very obvious in the writings of Ennius, who translated Euhemerus" work on the Deification of Human Spirits, while Plautus dramatized the vices of the father of the G.o.ds and tutelary deity of Rome. The doctrine of materialism was introduced at Rome during the age of Scipio and Laelius(441); and perhaps no stronger proof of its rapid progress and prevalence can be given, than that Caesar, though a priest, and ultimately Pontifex Maximus, boldly proclaimed in the senate, that death is the end of all things, and that beyond it there is neither hope nor joy. This state of the public mind was calculated to give a fashion to the system of Epicurus(442). According to this distinguished philosopher, the chief good of man is pleasure, of which the elements consist, in having a body free from pain, and a mind tranquil and exempt from perturbation. Of this tranquility there are, according to Epicurus, as expounded by Lucretius, two chief enemies, superst.i.tion, or slavish fear of the G.o.ds, and the dread of death(443). In order to oppose these two foes to happiness, he endeavours, in the first place, to shew that the world was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, and that the G.o.ds, who, according to the popular theology, were constantly interposing, take no concern whatever in human affairs. We do injustice to Epicurus when we estimate his tenets by the refined and exalted ideas of a philosophy purified by faith, without considering the superst.i.tious and polluted notions prevalent in his time. "The idea of Epicurus," (as is observed by Dr Drake,) "that it is the nature of G.o.ds to enjoy an immortality in the bosom of perpetual peace, infinitely remote from all relation to this globe, free from care, from sorrow, and from pain, supremely happy in themselves, and neither rejoicing in the pleasures, nor concerned for the evils of humanity-though perfectly void of any rational foundation, yet possesses much moral charm when compared with the popular religions of Greece and Rome. The felicity of their deities consisted in the vilest debauchery; nor was there a crime, however deep its dye, that had not been committed and gloried in by some one of their numerous objects of worship(444)." Never, also, could the doctrine, that the G.o.ds take no concern in human affairs, appear more plausible than in the age of Lucretius, when the destiny of man seemed to be the sport of the caprice of such a monster as Sylla.
With respect to the other great leading tenet of Lucretius and his master-the mortality of the soul, still greater injustice is done to the philosopher and poet. It is affirmed, and justly, by a great Apostle, that life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel; and yet an author who lived before this dawn is reviled because he a.s.serts, that the natural arguments for the immortality of the soul, afforded by the a.n.a.logies of nature, or principle of moral retribution, are weak and inconclusive! In fact, however, it is not by the truth of the system or general philosophical views in a poem, (for which no one consults it,) that its value is to be estimated; since a poetical work may be highly moral on account of its details, even when its systematic scope is erroneous or apparently dangerous. Notwithstanding pa.s.sages which seem to echo Spinosism, and almost to justify crime(445), the _Essay on Man_ is rightly considered as the most moral production of our most moral poet. In like manner, where shall we find exhortations more eloquent than those of Lucretius, against ambition and cruelty, and luxury and l.u.s.t,-against all the dishonest pleasures of the body, and all the turbulent pa.s.sions of the mind.
In versifying the philosophical system of Epicurus, Lucretius appears to have taken Empedocles as his model. All the old Grecian bards of whom we have any account prior to Homer, as Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus, are said to have written poems on the driest and most difficult philosophical questions, particularly the generation of the world. The ancients evidently considered philosophical poetry as of the highest kind, and its themes are invariably placed in the mouths of their divinest songsters(446). Whether Lucretius may have been indebted to any such ancient poems, still extant in his age, or to the subsequent productions of Palaephatus the Athenian, Antiochus, or Eratosthenes, who, as Suidas informs us, wrote poems on the structure of the world, it is impossible now to determine; but he seems to have considerably availed himself of the work of Empedocles. The poem of that sumptuous, accomplished, and arrogant philosopher, ent.i.tled ?e?? f?se??, and inscribed to his pupil Pausanias, was chiefly ill.u.s.trative of the Pythagorean philosophy, in which he had been initiated. Aristotle speaks on the subject of the merits of Empedocles in a manner which does not seem to be perfectly consistent(447); but we know that his poem was sufficiently celebrated to be publicly recited at the Olympic games, along with the works of Homer.
Only a few fragments of his writings remain; from which, perhaps, it would be as unfair to judge him, as to estimate Lucretius by extracts from the physical portions of his poem. Those who have collected the detached fragments of his production(448), think that it had been divided into three books; the first treating of the elements and universe,-the second of animals and man,-the third of the soul, as also of the nature and worship of the G.o.ds. His philosophical system was different from that of Lucretius; but he had discussed almost all the subjects on which the Roman bard afterwards expatiated. In particular, Lucretius appears to have derived from his predecessor his notion of the original generation of man from the teeming earth,-the production, at the beginning of the world, of a variety of defective monsters, which were not allowed to multiply their kinds,-the distribution of animals according to the prevalence of one or other of the four elements over the rest in their composition,-the vicissitudes of matter between life and inanimate substance,-and the leading doctrine, "mortem nihil ad nos pertinere," because absolute insensibility is the consequence of dissolution(449).
If Lucretius has in any degree benefited by the works of Empedocles, he has in return been most lavish and eloquent in his commendations. One of the most delightful features in the character of the Latin poet is, the glow of admiration with which he writes of his ill.u.s.trious predecessors.
His eulogy of the Sicilian philosopher, which he has so happily combined with that of the country which gave him birth, affords a beautiful example of his manner of infusing into everything a poetic sweetness, _Musaeo contingens cuncta lepore_,-
"Quorum Agragantinus c.u.m primis Empedocles est: Insula quem Triquetris terrarum gessit in oris: Quam fluitans circ.u.m magnis anfractibus, aequor Ionium glaucis aspergit virus ab undis, Angustoque fretu rapidum, mare dividit undis aeoliae terrarum oras a finibus ejus: Hic est vasta Charybdis, et hic aetnaea minantur Murmura, flammarum rursum se conligere iras, Faucibus eruptos iterum ut vis evomat igneis, Ad clumque ferat flammai fulgura rursum.
Quae, quum magna modis multis miranda videtur Gentibus humanis regio, visundaque fertur, Rebus opima bonis, multa munita virum vi; Nil tamen hoc habuisse viro praeclarius in se, Nec sanctum magis, et mirum, carumque, videtur.
Carmina quin etiam divini pectoris ejus Vociferantur, et exponunt praeclara reperta; Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus."-Lib. I. 717.
It was formerly mentioned, that Ennius had translated into Latin verse the Greek poem of Epicharmus, which, from the fragments preserved, appears to have contained many speculations with regard to the productive elements of which the world is composed, as also concerning the preservative powers of nature. To the works of Ennius our poet seems to have been indebted, partly as a model for enriching the still scanty Latin language with new terms, and partly as a treasury or storehouse of words already provided.
Him, too, he celebrates with the most ardent and unfeigned enthusiasm:-
"Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amaeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam, Per genteis Italas hominum quae clara clueret.
Et si praeterea tamen esse Acherusia templa Ennius aeternis exponit versibus edens; Quo neque permanent animae, neque corpora nostra; Sed quaedam simulacra modis pallentia miris; Unde, sibi exortam, semper florentis Homeri Commemorat speciem, lacrumas et fundere salsas Cp.i.s.se, et RERUM NATURAM expandere dictis."-I. 122.
These writers, Empedocles and Ennius, were probably Lucretius" chief guides; and though the most original of the Latin poets, many of his finest pa.s.sages may be traced to the Greeks. The beautiful lamentation,-
"Nam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor Optuma, nec dulceis occurrent oscula nati Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangunt," --
is said to be translated from a dirge chaunted at Athenian funerals; and the pa.s.sage where he represents the feigned tortures of h.e.l.l as but the workings of a guilty and unquiet spirit, is versified from an oration of aeschines against Timarchus.
In the first and second books, Lucretius chiefly expounds the cosmogony, or physical part of his system-a system which had been originally founded by Leucippus, a philosopher of the Eleatic sect, and, from his time, had been successively improved by Democritus and Epicurus. He establishes in these books his two great principles,-that nothing can be made from nothing, and that nothing can ever be annihilated or return to nothing; and, that there is in the universe a void or s.p.a.ce, in which atoms interact. These atoms he believes to be the original component parts of all matter, as well as of animal life; and the arrangement of such corpuscles occasions, according to him, the whole difference in substances.
It cannot be denied, that in these two books particularly, (but the observation is in some degree applicable to the whole poem,) there are many barren tracts-many physiological, meteorological, and geological details-which are at once too incorrect for the philosophical, and too dry and abstract for the poetical reader. It is wonderful, however, how Lucretius contrives, by the beauty of his images, to give a picturesque colouring and ill.u.s.tration to the most unpromising topics. Near the beginning of his poem, for example, in attempting to prove a very abstract proposition, he says,-
"Praeterea, quur vere rosam, frumenta calore, Viteis auctumno fondi suadente videmus."
Thus, by the introduction of the rose and vines, bestowing a fragrance and freshness, and covering, as it were, with verdure, the thorns and briars of abstract discussion. In like manner, when contending that nothing utterly perishes, but merely a.s.sumes another form, what a lovely rural landscape does he present to the imagination!
-- "Pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris Terrai praecipitavit: At nitidae surgunt fruges, ramique viresc.u.n.t Arboribus; cresc.u.n.t ipsae, ftuque gravantur.
Hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum; Hinc laetas urbeis puerum florere videmus, Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique sylvas; Hinc, fessae pecudes, pingues per pabula laeta, Corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus humor Uberibus manat distentis; hinc nova proles Artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per herbas Ludit, lacte mero menteis percussa novellas."
"Whoever," says Warton, "imagines, with Tully, that Lucretius had not a great genius(450), is desired to cast his eye on two pictures he has given us at the beginning of his poem,-the first, of Venus with her lover Mars, beautiful to the last degree, and more glowing than any picture painted by t.i.tian; the second, of that terrible and gigantic figure the Demon of Superst.i.tion, worthy the energetic pencil of Michael Angelo. I am sure there is no piece by the hand of Guido, or the Carracci, that exceeds the following group of allegorical personages:
"It Ver, et Venus; et, veris praenuncius, ante Pennatus graditur Zephyrus, vestigia propter, Flora quibus Mater, praespargens ante viai, Cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet."
In spite, however, of the powers of Lucretius, it was impossible, from the very nature of his subject, but that some portions would prove altogether unsusceptible of poetical embellishment. Yet it may be doubted, whether these intractable pa.s.sages, by the charm of contrast, do not add, like deserts to Oases in their bosom, an additional deliciousness in proportion to their own sterility. The lovely group above-mentioned by Warton, are clothed with additional beauty and enchantment, from starting, as it were, like Armida and her Nymphs, from the mossy rind of a rugged tree. The philosophical a.n.a.lysis, too, employed by Lucretius, impresses the mind with the conviction, that the poet is a profound thinker, and adds great force to his moral reflections. Above all, his fearlessness, if I may say so, produces this powerful effect. Dryden, in a well-known pa.s.sage, where he has most happily characterized the general manner of Lucretius, observes, "If I am not mistaken, the distinguishing character of Lucretius-I mean, of his soul and genius-is a certain kind of n.o.ble pride, and positive a.s.sertion of his own opinions. He is everywhere confident of his own reason, and a.s.suming an absolute command, not only over his vulgar readers, but even his patron, Memmius.... This is that particular dictatorship which is exercised by Lucretius; who, though often in the wrong, yet seems to deal _bona fide_ with his reader, and tells him nothing but what he thinks.... He seems to disdain all manner of replies; and is so confident of his cause, that he is before-hand with his antagonists, urging for them whatever he imagined they could say, and leaving them, as he supposes, without an objection for the future. All this, too, with so much scorn and indignation, as if he were a.s.sured of the triumph, and need only enter into the lists." Hence while, in other writers, the eulogy of virtue seems in some sort to partake of the nature of a sermon-to be a conventional language, and words of course-we listen to Lucretius as to one who will fearlessly speak out; who had shut his ears to the murmurs of Acheron: and who, if he eulogizes Virtue, extols her because her charms are real. How exquisite, for example, and, at the same time, how powerful and convincing, his delineation of the utter worthlessness of vanity and pomp, contrasted with the pure and perfect delights of simple nature!
"Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per aedes, Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris, Lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur, Nec domus argento fulget auroque renidet, Nec citharae reboant laqueata aurataque tecta; Quum tamen inter se, prostrati in gramine molli, Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altae, Non magnis opibus jucunde corpora curant: Praesertim, quum tempestas arridet, et anni Tempora conspargunt viridantes floribus herbas: Nec calidae citius decedunt corpore febres, Textilibus si in picturis, ostroque rubenti, Jaceris, quam si plebeia in veste cubandum est."-II. 24.
The word _Praesertim_, in this beautiful pa.s.sage, affords an ill.u.s.tration of what has been remarked above, that the kind of philosophical a.n.a.lysis employed by Lucretius gives great force to his moral reflections. He seems, as it were, to be weighing his words; and, which is the only solid foundation of just confidence, to be cautious of a.s.serting anything which experience would not fully confirm. One thing very remarkable in this great poet is, the admirable clearness and closeness of his reasoning. He repeatedly values himself not a little on the circ.u.mstance, that, with an intractable subject, and a language not yet accommodated to philosophical discussions, and scanty in terms of physical as well as metaphysical science, he was able to give so much clearness to his argument(451); which object it is generally admitted he has accomplished, with little or no sacrifice of pure Latinity(452). As a proof at once of the perspicuity and closeness of his reasoning, and the fertility of his mind in inventing arguments, there might be given his long discussion, in the third book, on the materiality of the human soul, and its incapability of surviving the ruin of the corporeal frame. Never were the arguments for materialism marshalled with such skill-never were the diseases of the mind, and the decay of memory and understanding, so pathetically urged, so eloquently expressed. The following quotation contains a specimen of the lucid and logical reasoning of this philosophic poet; and the two first verses, perhaps, after all that has been written, comprehend the whole that is metaphysically or physiologically known upon the subject: