Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 43

The two great principles of nature are a _vacuum_, and a _plenum._ The plenum is _body_, or tangible nature; the vacuum is _s.p.a.ce_, or intangible nature. "We know by the evidences of the senses (which are our only rule of reasoning) that _bodies_ have a real existence, and we infer from the evidence of the senses that the vacuum has a real existence; for if s.p.a.ce have no real existence, there would be nothing in which bodies can move, as we see they really do move. Let us add to this reflection that one can not conceive, either in virtue of perception, or of any a.n.a.logy founded on perception, any general quality peculiar to all beings, which is not either an attribute, or an accident, of the body or of the vacuum."[790]

Of bodies some are "combinations"--concrete bodies--and some are primordial "elements," out of which combinations are formed. These primordial elements, out of which the universe is generated, are "_atoms_" (?t???). These atoms are "the first principles" and "seeds"

of all things.[791] They are "_infinite_ in number," and, as their name implies, they are "_infrangible" "unchangeable_" and "_indestructible."_[792] Matter is, therefore, not infinitely divisible; there must be a point at which division ends.[793]

The only qualities of atoms are _form_, _magnitude_, and _density._ All the other sensible qualities of matter--the secondary qualities--as color, odor, sweetness, bitterness, etc.--are necessarily inherent in form. All secondary qualities are changeable, but the primary atoms are unchangeable; "for in the dissolution of combined bodies there must be something _solid_ and _indestructible,_ of such a kind that it will not change, either into what does not exist, or out of what does not exist, but the change results from a simple displacement of parts, which is the most usual case, or from an addition or subtraction of particles."[794]

[Footnote 790: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x.

ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 791: Id., ib., bk. x. ch. xxv.]

[Footnote 792: Id., ib., bk. x. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 793: Id., ib.; Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l.

616-620.]

[Footnote 794: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x.

ch. xxiv.]

The atoms are not all of one _form_, but of different forms suited to the production of different substances by combination; some are square, some triangular, some smooth and spherical, some are hooked with points.

They are also diversified in _magnitude_ and _density_. The number of original forms is "incalculably varied," but not infinite. "Every variety of forms contains an infinitude of atoms, but there is not, for that reason, an infinitude of forms; it is only the number of them which is beyond computation."[795] To a.s.sert that atoms are of every kind of form, magnitude, and density, would be "to contradict the phenomena; "for experience teaches us that objects have a finite magnitude, and form necessarily supposes limitation.

[Footnote 795: Id., ib.]

A variety of these primordial forms enter into the composition of all sensible objects, because sensible objects possess different qualities, and these diversified qualities can only result from the combination of different original forms. "The earth has, in itself, primary atoms from which springs, rolling forth cool _water_, incessantly recruit the immense sea; it has also atoms from which _fire_ arises.... Moreover, the earth contains atoms from which it can raise up rich _corn_ and cheerful _groves_ for the tribes of men...." So that "no object in nature is const.i.tuted of one kind of elements, and whatever possesses in itself must numerous powers and energies, thus demonstrates that it contains more numerous kinds of primary particles,"[796] or primordial "seeds of things."

"The atoms are in a continual state of _motion_" and "have moved with _equal rapidity_ from all eternity, since it is evident the vacuum can offer no resistance to the heaviest, any more than the lightest." The primary and original movement of all atoms is _in straight lines, by virtue of their own weight_. The vacuum separates all atoms one from another, at greater or less distances, and they preserve their own peculiar motion in the densest substances.[797]

[Footnote 796: Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 582-600.]

[Footnote 797: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x.

ch. xxiv.; Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 80-92.]

And now the grand crucial question arises--_How do atoms combine so as to form concrete bodies?_ If they move in straight lines, and with equal rapidity from all eternity, then they can never unite so as to form concrete substances. They can only coalesce by deviating from a straight line.[798] How are they made to deviate from a straight line? This deviation must be introduced _arbitrarily_, or by some _external cause_.

And inasmuch as Epicurus admits of no causes "but s.p.a.ce and matter," and rejects all divine or supernatural interposition, the _new_ movement must be purely arbitrary. They deviate _spontaneously,_ and of their own accord. "The system of nature immediately appears _as a free agent_, released from tyrant masters, to do every thing of itself spontaneously, without the help of the G.o.ds."[799] The manner in which Lucretius proves this doctrine is a good example of the pet.i.tio principii. He a.s.sumes, in opposition to the whole spirit and tendency of the Epicurean philosophy, that man has "a free will," and then argues that if man who is nothing but an aggregation of atoms, can "turn aside and alter his own movements," the primary elements, of which his soul is composed, must have some original spontaneity. "If all motion is connected and dependent, and a new movement perpetually arises from a former one in a certain order, and if the primary elements do not produce any commencement of motion by deviating from the straight line to break the laws of fate, so that cause may not follow cause in infinite succession, _whence comes this freedom of will_ to all animals in the world? whence, I say, is this liberty of action wrested from the fates, by means of which we go wheresoever inclination leads each of us? whence is it that we ourselves turn aside, and alter our motions, not at any fixed time, nor in any fixed part of s.p.a.ce, but just as our own minds prompt?....

Wherefore we must necessarily confess that the same is the case with the seeds of matter, and there is some other cause besides strokes and weight [resistance and density] from which this power [of free movement]

is innate in them, since we see that _nothing is produced from nothing_."[800] Besides form, extension, and density, Epicurus has found another inherent or essential quality of matter or atoms, namely, "_spontaneous" motion._

[Footnote 798: "At some time, though at no fixed and determinate time, and at some point, though at no fixed and determinate point, they turn aside from the right line, but only so far as you can call the least possible deviation."--Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. ii. l.

216-222.]

[Footnote 799: Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things" bk. ii. 1.

1092-1096.]

[Footnote 800: Id., ib., bk. ii. l. 250-290.]

By a slight "voluntary" deflection from the straight line, atoms are now brought into contact with each other; "they strike against each other, and by the percussion new movements and new complications arise"--"movements from high to low, from low to high, and horizontal movements to and fro, in virtue of this reciprocal percussion." The atoms "jostling about, _of their own accord_, in infinite modes, were often brought together confusedly, irregularly, and to no purpose, but at length they _successfully coalesced_; at least, such of them as were thrown together suddenly became, in succession, the beginnings of great things--as earth, and air, and sea, and heaven."[801]

[Footnote 801: Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. ii. l.

1051-1065.]

And now Lucretius shall describe the formation of the different parts of the world according to the cosmogony of Epicurus. We quote from Good's translation:

But from this boundless ma.s.s of matter first How heaven, and earth, and ocean, sun, and moon, Rose in nice order, now the muse shall tell.

For never, doubtless, from result of thought, Or mutual compact, could primordial seeds First harmonize, or move with powers precise.

But countless crowds in countless manners urged, From time eternal, by intrinsic weight And ceaseless repercussion, to combine In all the possibilities of forms, Of actions, and connections, and exert In every change some effort to create-- Reared the rude frame at length, abruptly reared, Which, when once gendered, must the basis prove Of things sublime; and whence eventual rose Heaven, earth, and ocean, and the tribes of sense.

Yet now nor sun on fiery wheel was seen Riding sublime, nor stars adorned the pole, Nor heaven, nor earth, nor air, nor ocean lived, Nor aught of prospect mortal sight surveyed; But one vast chaos, boisterous and confused.

Yet order hence began; congenial parts Parts joined congenial; and the rising world Gradual evolved: its mighty members each From each divided, and matured complete From seeds appropriate; whose wild discortderst, Reared by their strange diversities of form, With ruthless war so broke their proper paths, Their motions, intervals, conjunctions, weights, And repercussions, nought of genial act Till now could follow, nor the seeds themselves E'en though conjoined in mutual bonds, co Thus air, secreted, rose o'er laboring earth; Secreted ocean flowed; and the pure fire, Secreted too, toward ether sprang sublime.

But first the seeds terrene, since ponderous most And most perplext, in close embraces clung, And towards the centre conglobating sunk.

And as the bond grew firmer, ampler forth Pressed they the fluid essences that reared Sun, moon, and stars, and main, and heaven's high wall.

For those of atoms lighter far consist, Subtiler, and more rotund than those of earth.

Whence, from the pores terrene, with foremost haste Rushed the bright ether, towering high, and swift Streams of fire attracting as it flowed.

Then mounted, next, the base of sun and moon, 'Twixt earth and ether, in the midway air Rolling their orbs; for into neither these Could blend harmonious, since too light with earth To sink deprest, while yet too ponderous far To fly with ether toward the realms extreme: So 'twixt the two they hovered; _vital_ there Moving forever, parts of the vast whole; As move forever in the frame of man Some active organs, while some oft repose.[802]

[Footnote 802: Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," b. v. l. 431-498]

After explaining the origin and causes of the varied celestial phenomena, he proceeds to give an account of the production of plants, animals, and man:

Once more return we to the world's pure prime, Her fields yet liquid, and the tribes survey First she put forth, and trusted to the winds.

And first the race she reared of verdant herbs, Glistening o'er every hill; the fields at large Shone with the verdant tincture, and the trees Felt the deep impulse, and with outstretched arms Broke from their bonds rejoicing. As the down Shoots from the winged nations, or from beasts Bristles or hair, so poured the new-born earth Plants, fruits, and herbage. Then, in order next, Raised she the sentient tribes, in various modes, By various powers distinguished: for not heaven Down dropped them, nor from ocean's briny waves Sprang they, terrestrial sole; whence, justly _Earth_ Claims the dear name of mother, since alone Flowed from herself whate'er the sight surveys.

E'en now oft rears she many a sentient tribe By showers and suns.h.i.+ne ushered into day.[803]

Whence less stupendous tribes should then have risen More, and of ampler make, herself new-formed, In flower of youth, and _Ether_ all mature.[804]

Of these birds first, of wing and plume diverse, Broke their light sh.e.l.ls in spring-time: as in spring Still breaks the gra.s.shopper his curious web, And seeks, spontaneous, foods and vital air.

Then rushed the ranks of mortals; for the soil, Exuberant then, with warmth and moisture teemed.

So, o'er each scene appropriate, myriad wombs Shot, and expanded, to the genial sward By fibres fixt; and as, in ripened hour, Their liquid orbs the daring foetus broke Of breath impatient, nature here transformed Th' a.s.senting earth, and taught her opening veins With juice to flow lacteal; as the fair Now with sweet milk o'erflows, whose raptured breast First hails the stranger-babe, since all absorbed Of nurture, to the genial tide converts.

Earth fed the nursling, the warm ether clothed, And the soft downy gra.s.s his couch compressed.[805]

[Footnote 803: The doctrine of "spontaneous generations" is still more explicitly announced in book ii. "Manifest appearances compel us to believe that animals, though possessed of sense, are generated from senseless atoms. For you may observe living worms proceed from foul dung, when the earth, moistened with immoderate showers, has contracted a kind of putrescence; and you may see all other things change themselves, similarly, into other things."--Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 867-880.]

[Footnote 804: Ether is the father, earth the mother of all organized being.--Id., ib., bk. i. l. 250-255.]

[Footnote 805: Id., ib., bk. v. l. 795-836.]

A state of pure savagism, or rather of mere animalism, was the primitive condition of man. He wandered naked in the woods, feeding on acorns and wild fruits, and quenched his thirst at the "echoing waterfalls," in company with the wild beast.

Through the remaining part of book v. Lucretius describes how speech was invented; how society originated, and governments were inst.i.tuted; how civilization commenced; and how religion arose out of ignorance of natural causes; how the arts of life were discovered, and how science sprang up. And all this, as he is careful to tell us, without any divine instruction, or any a.s.sistance from the G.o.ds.

Such are the physical theories of the Epicureans. The primordial elements of matter are infinite, eternal, and self-moved. After ages upon ages of chaotic strife, the universe at length arose out of an _infinite_ number of atoms, and a _finite_ number of forms, by a fortuitous combination. Plants, animals, and man were spontaneously generated from ether and earth. Languages, society, governments, arts were gradually developed. And all was achieved simply by blind, unconscious nature-forces, without any designing, presiding, and governing Intelligence--that is, without a G.o.d.

The evil genius which presided over the method of Epicurus, and perverted all his processes of thought, is clearly apparent. The end of his philosophy was not the discovery of truth. He does not commence his inquiry into the principles or causes which are adequate to the explanation of the universe, with an unprejudiced mind. He everywhere develops a malignant hostility to religion, and the avowed object of his physical theories is to rid the human mind of all fear of supernatural powers--that is, of all fear of G.o.d.[806] "The phenomena which men observe to occur in the earth and the heavens, when, as often happens, they are perplexed with fearful thoughts, overawe their minds with a dread of the G.o.ds, and humble and depress them to the earth. For ignorance of natural causes obliges them to refer all things to the power of the divinities, and to resign the dominion of the world to them; because of those effects they can by no means see the origin, and accordingly suppose that they are produced by divine influence."[807]