NUMBER II. Lucretius Doctrina solers idem, clarusque Poeta, Antiqui vatis reparat solennia jura. Huic, simul ac rerum Primordia pandere tentat, Dyer. As a considerable portion of the poem De Rerum Natura is occupied in the detail of argument, and the display of various and contending doctrines, it may be deemed necessary to adduce a specimen or two of the pure didactic style and manner of Lucretius, and of the success which has attended his Translator in this, perhaps his most difficult and laborious, department.* Independent of perspicuity of. arrangement and harmony of verse, Lucretius has rendered the most abstruse passages in his work pleasing from the peculiar propriety of his expression, and the beauty of his metaphors; these excellencies have, in my opinion, been transferred with singular felicity to the english version, and the extracts I have now to bring forward, will probably induce the reader to concur in the encomium. Some philosophers of the present day have, with no little extravagance, inferred the perfectibility of human nature; they have even gone so far as to assert that the physical conse'quences of our existence, sleep and death, are no necessary result, but the effects of our own ignorance, and of acquired imbecillity; that as reason and knowledge advance, the agency of volition will be unlimited, and that ultimately the corporeal functions will be rendered completely subservient to the powers of intellect. The Monthly Reviewer, to whom I am indebted for an elaborate and candid critique on the first edition of the Literary Hours, being of opinion that a specimen of the translation should have been drawn from the more abstruse parts of Lucretius, I have in this paper carried his suggestion into execution. Lucretius has wisely rejected this day-dream of philosophy, for, though he appear to believe that man may by his own efforts approach toward perfection, and emulate the gods in happiness, yet he has taken care to qualify this opinion by affirming that the seeds of vice and imperfection cannot be altogether eradicated; that man, in fact, cannot shake off the imbecillities incident to materiality, nor can he annihilate those passions which the deity has, for wise purposes, attached to our system. Sic Hominum genus est: quamvis Doctrina politos Lib. iii. 308. Thus varies man: tho' education oft Add its bland polish, frequent still we trace The doctrine of Pyrrho which inculcates perfect scepticism, and discredits even the testimony of the senses, Lucretius held in utter and deserved contempt, and in the following passage he has in a striking manner laid open the absurdity of his tenets. It is a lesson still applicable at the commencement of the nineteenth century, and may with equal propriety be addressed to the disciples of Berkley and of Hume, for he who denies the existence of matter, must in almost every instance disbelieve the evidence of sense. Denique, nil sciri siquis putat, id quoque nescit, Et tamen hoc quoque uti concedam, scire, at id ipsum Quæram, quom in rebus veri nil viderit ante, Non (ut opinor) ita 'st: Nam seorsum quoique po testas Divisa 'st: sua vis quoique 'st: ideoque necesse 'st, |