THE ATOMIC THEORY OF LUCRETIUS CONTRASTED WITH MODERN DOCTRINES OF ATOMS AND EVOLUTION. BY JOHN MASSON, M. A. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1884. The lense will not disprove A present that eludes it . . . Though you saw the final atom-dance, Making each molecule, that stands for sign Of love, being present, where is still your love? CHISWICK PRESS-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. I PREFACE. T is strange that the Greek atomic theory, of which Lucretius is the sole exponent, has not, long before this, been set in a clear and detailed form before the English reader. In Professor Veitch's little book (Lucretius and the Atomic Theory,' 1875), only fifteen pages (pp. 10-25) deal with Lucretius's theory of atoms, and that only in a general way, while the rest of the volume is occupied with a very able criticism of modern Materialism. The scope of Professor Sellar's work does not allow him to enter at all minutely into the science of Lucretius, though his chapter on the connecting links between Lucretius's science and his poetry is most valuable.1 Zeller has indeed given us in his 'Pre-Socratic Philosophy' an admirable sketch of the system of Democritus, but his account of the later development of the atomic theory in the hands of Epicurus is by no means equally complete. Lange's short chapters on Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius in his History of Materialism' contain acute enough criticism, though in his statement of facts Lange is by no means so trustworthy as Zeller. Neither Martha ('Le Poëme de Lucrèce,' 1873) nor Guyau (La Morale d'Épicure,' 1881) attempt to give any complete or detailed account of the Epicurean theory 1 We may also refer to the interesting chapter of Professor Sellar's 'Virgil,' tracing the influence of Lucretius's leading doctrines on the mind of the younger poet, and specially to the section on 'The Lucretian idea of Nature as it appears in the Georgics.' |