The Roman Poets of the Republic Part 37

In another place he says--

Et quid quaeque queant per foedera naturai Quid porro nequeant, sancitum quandoquidem extat[44].

All knowledge and speculative confidence are declared to rest on this truth--

Certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquit crescat et insit[45].

Superst.i.tion, the great enemy of truth, is said to be the result of ignorance of 'what may be and what may not be.' This is the thought which underlies and gives cogency to the whole argument. The subject of the poem is 'maiestas cognita rerum,'--the revelation of the majesty and order of the universe. The doctrine proclaimed by Lucretius was, that creation was no result of a capricious or benevolent exercise of power, but of certain processes extending through infinite time, by means of which the atoms have at length been able to combine and work together in accordance with their ultimate conditions. The conception of these ultimate conditions and of their relations to one another involves some more vital agency than that of blind chance or an iron fatalism[46]. The 'foedera naturai'

are opposed to the 'foedera fati.' The idea of law in Nature, as understood by Lucretius, is not, necessarily, inconsistent with that of a creative will determining the original conditions of the elemental substances. Though the ultimate principles of Lucretius are incompatible with a belief in the popular religions of antiquity, his mode of conceiving the operation of law in the universe is not irreconcileable with the conceptions of modern Theism.

The idea of law not only supports the whole fabric of his physical philosophy, but moulds his convictions on human life and imparts to his poetry that contemplative elevation by which it is pervaded. It is from this ground that he makes his most powerful a.s.sault on the strongholds of superst.i.tion. Nature is thus declared to be free from the arbitrary and capricious agency of the G.o.ds:--

Libera continuo dominis privata superbis[47].

Man also is under the same law, and is made free by his knowledge and acceptance of this condition. A sense of security is thus gained for human life; a sense of elevation above its weakness and pa.s.sions, and the courage to bear its inevitable evils[48]. This absolute reliance on law does not act upon his mind with the depressing influence of fatalism. Although the fortunes of life and the phases of individual character are said to be the results of the infinite combinations of blind atoms, yet man is made free by knowledge and the use of his reason. Notwithstanding the original const.i.tution of his nature, arising out of influences over which there is no control, he still has it in his power to live a life worthy of the G.o.ds:--

Illud in his rebus videor firmare potesse, Usque adeo naturarum vestigia linqui Parvola, quae nequeat ratio depellere n.o.bis Ut nil inpediat dignam dis degere vitam[49].

From these high places of his philosophy,--'the "templa serena"

well-bulwarked by the learning of the wise'[50] he derives not only a sense of certainty in thought and security in life, but also his wide contemplative view, and his profound feeling of the majesty of the universe. The idea of universal law enables him to apprehend in all the processes of Nature a presence which awakens reverence and enforces obedience. This idea imparts unity of tone to the whole poem, informs its language, and seems to mould the very rhythm of its verse.

(2) But a closer view brings another aspect of the world into light; viz. the interdependence of all things on one another. There is not only fixed order, but there is also infinite mobility in Nature. The sum of all things remains unchanged, though all individual existences decay and perish. So too the sum of force remains the same[51]. There is no rest anywhere; all things are continually changing and pa.s.sing into one another; decay and renovation form the very life and being of all things. Nothing is ever lost. 'Nature repairs one thing from another, and allows of no birth except through the death of something else':--

Haud igitur penitus pereunt quaec.u.mque videntur, Quando alid ex alio reficit natura nec ullam Rem gigni pat.i.tur nisi morte adiuta aliena[52]?

As the 'ever-during peace' at the heart of all things is supposed to result from the eternal and immutable properties of the atoms, this 'endless agitation' arises out of their unceasing motion through infinite s.p.a.ce. There are two kinds of motion,--the one tending to the renewal,--the other, to the destruction of things as they now exist.

The maintenance of our whole system depends on the equilibrium of these opposing forces--

Sic aequo geritur certamine principiorum Ex infinito contractum tempore bellum[53].

There is thus seen to be not only absolute order, but also infinite change in the processes of Nature. Decay and renovation, death and life, support the existing creation in unceasing harmony. The imagination represents this process under the impressive symbol of an endless battle, in which now one side now the other gains some position, but neither, as yet, can become master of the field--

Nunc hinc nunc illic superant vitalia rerum, Et superantur item[54].

This symbol is the poetical form of the old philosophical distinction of [Greek: auxesis] and [Greek: phthora]. It is another form of the [Greek: eris] and [Greek: philia] which to the imagination of Empedocles appeared to pervade the universe. The idea of a constant battle imparts to the infinite and all-pervading movement of Nature the interest and the life of human pa.s.sion on the grandest and widest sphere of action. The greatness of the thought makes each particular object in Nature pregnant with a deeper meaning, a.s.sociates trivial and ordinary phenomena with a sense of imaginative wonder, and throws an august solemnity around the familiar aspects of human life. The pa.s.sage in which this principle is most powerfully announced at ii.

575, etc., swells into deeper and grander tones, as the real human pathos involved in this strife of elements is made manifest. This struggle of life and decay is no mere war of abstractions: it is the daily and hourly process of existence. Birth and death are the fulfilment of this law. 'The old order changeth, yielding place to new'--

Cedit enim rerum novitate extrusa vetustas[55].

'New nations wax strong, while the old are waning away; the generations of living things are changed within a brief s.p.a.ce, and, like the runners in a race, pa.s.s on the torch of life'--

Augesc.u.n.t aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur, Inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt[56].

Man also must resign himself to the universal law, and accept his life not as a thing to be possessed for ever, but only to be used for a time--

Sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri Vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu[57].

Under this law of universal decay and restoration, we see the rains of heaven lost in the earth, but pa.s.sing into new life in the fruits from which all living things are supported--

Hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum, Hinc laetas urbes pueris florere videmus, Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique silvas[58].

Or we see the waters of a river lost in the sea and returning through the earth to their original source, and again flowing in a fresh stream along the channel first formed for them--

Inde super terras fluit agmine dulci Qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas[59].

Under the same law the earth is seen to be the parent of all things and their tomb (v. 259); the sea, which loses its substance through evaporation and the subsidence of its waters, is found to be ever renewed by its native sources and the abundant tribute of rivers (v.

267; i. 231; vi. 608); the air is ever giving away and receiving back its substance; the sun ('liquidi fons luminis'), moon, and stars, are ever losing and ever renewing their light. The day on which the 'long-sustained ma.s.s and fabric of the world' will pa.s.s away, leaving only void s.p.a.ce and the viewless atoms, is destined to come suddenly through the termination of this long balanced warfare:--

Denique tantopere inter se c.u.m maxima mundi Pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello, Nonne vides aliquam longi certaminis ollis Posse dari finem? vel c.u.m sol et vapor omnis Omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint; Quod facere intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrantur[60].

(3) It is to be observed, also, how vividly Lucretius realises and how steadfastly he keeps before his mind the ideas of the eternity and infinity of the primordial atoms and of s.p.a.ce. These conceptions support him in his antagonism to the popular religion, and deepen the feeling with which he contemplates human life and Nature. Our world of earth, sea, and sky is only one among infinite other systems. It stands to the universe in much the same proportion as any single man to the whole earth--

Et videas caelum summai totius unum Quam sit parvula pars et quam multesima constet Nec tota pars, h.o.m.o terrai quota totius unus[61].

It was the glory of Epicurus that he first pa.s.sed beyond the empyrean that bounds our world--

Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque[62].

The immensity of the universe is incompatible with the constant agency and interference of the G.o.ds,--

Quis regere immensi summam, quis habere profundi Indu manu validas potis est moderanter habenas[63].

This negative idea is, at least, a step in advance towards a higher conception of the attributes of Deity. The infinity and complexity of the universe protest against the limited and divided powers, as the natural feelings of human nature protest against the moral qualities attributed to the G.o.ds of the Pagan mythology.

The power of these conceptions is also seen in the poet's deep sense of the littleness of human life. Such pathetic expressions of the shortness and triviality of each man's mortal span, as that,--

Degitur hoc aevi quodc.u.mquest[64],

are called forth by the ever-present thought of the Infinite and the Eternal. But this thought, if a.s.sociated with a feeling of the pathos of human life does not lead Lucretius into cynicism or despair.

It rather elevates him and fortifies him to suppress all personal complaint in the presence of ideas so stupendous. His imagination expands in contemplating the objects either of thought or of sight, which produce the impression of immensity,--such as the vast expanse of earth, sea and sky,--or of great duration,--such as the 'aeterni sidera mundi' or the 'validas aevi vires.' Thus, as much of the majesty of his poetry may be connected with his contemplative sense of law, much of its pervading life with his sense of the mobility of Nature, so the sublimity of many pa.s.sages may be resolved into the influence of the ideas of immensity, both of time and s.p.a.ce, on his imagination.

(4) Another aspect of things vividly realised by Lucretius is that of their individuality. It was in the atomic philosophy, that the thought of 'the individual' first rose into prominence. The meaning of the word 'atom' is simply 'individual.' The sense of each separate existence is not merged in the conception of law, of change, or of the immensity of the universe. The atoms are not only infinite in number, they are also varied in kind and powerful in solid singleness,--'solida pollentia simplicitate.' From their variety and individuality the variety and individuality in Nature emerge. No two cla.s.ses and no two single objects are exactly alike. Between any two of the birds that gladden the sea-sh.o.r.e, the river banks, or the woods, there is some difference in outward appearance--

Invenies tamen inter se differre figuris[65].

Each individual of a flock is different from every other, and by this difference only can the mother recognise her offspring. This sense of individuality intensifies the pathos of many pa.s.sages in the poem.

By regarding each being as having an existence of its own, the poet enters with sympathy into the feelings of all sentient existence,--of dumb animals as well as of human creatures. The freshness and distinctness of all his pictures from Nature are the result of an eye trained by his philosophy to see each thing not only as part of the universal life, but as existing in and for itself.

(5) The thought, also, of the infinite subtlety of combination in the elements and forces of the world acts powerfully on his imagination.

The individuality of things depends on the fact that no two are composed of exactly the same elements, combined in the same way. The infinity of the elements, the immensity of the s.p.a.ces in which they meet, and the infinite possibilities in their modes of combination result in the endless variety of beauty and wonder which the world presents to the eye. The epithet 'daedala,' by which this subtlety is expressed is applied not only to Nature, but to the earth as the sphere in which the elements are most largely mixed, and the creative forces most powerfully active. The varied loveliness of the world,--the 'varii lepores,' by which the eye is gratified and relieved,--are the result of the variety in the elements and the infinite subtlety in their modes of combination. Their invisibility and inscrutable action enhance the imaginative sense of the power and beauty resulting from these causes.

(6) The abstract properties of the atoms, discussed in the first two books, so far from being arbitrary a.s.sumptions, without any relation to actual existence, are thus found to be the conditions which explain the order, life, immensity, individuality, and subtlety manifested in the universe. These conceptions, which bridge the chasm between the particles of lifeless matter and the living world, unite in the more general conception of Nature. What then is involved in this conception--the dominant conception of the poem in its philosophical as well as its imaginative aspects? Something more than the subsidiary conceptions mentioned above. There is, in the first place, all that is involved in the unity of an organic whole. But to this whole the imagination of the poet seems, in some pa.s.sages, to attach attributes scarcely reconcileable with the mechanical principles of his philosophy. In emanc.i.p.ating himself from the religious traditions of antiquity, Lucretius did not altogether escape from the power of an idea, so deeply rooted in the thought of past ages, as to seem to be an integral element of human consciousness. It is against the limitations which the ancient mythology imposed on the idea of Divine agency, rather than against the idea itself, as it is understood in modern times, that his philosophy protests. To Nature his imagination attributes not only life, but creative and regulative power. There would be more truth in calling this conception pantheistic than atheistic. But the sense of will, freedom, individual life, is so strong in Lucretius, that we think of the 'natura daedala rerum'

rather as a personal power, with attributes in some respects a.n.a.logous to those of man, than as a being in whose existence all other life is merged. Though this figurative attribution of personal qualities to great natural forces cannot be pressed as evidence of philosophical belief, yet as it shows, on the one hand, an unconscious survival of the state of mind which gave birth to mythology, so it seems to be the unconscious awakening of a spiritual conception of a creative and sustaining power in the universe.

This new and more vital conception which supersedes the old mythological modes of thought is not altogether independent of them.

Lucretius still interprets the world by a.n.a.logies and ill.u.s.trations which attach personal attributes to different phases and forces of Nature. Thus he speaks of Aether as the fructifying father, of Earth as the great mother of all living things. But the survival of the mythological conception of the universe, blended indeed with other modes of imaginative thought, appears most conspicuously in the famous invocation to the poem,--

Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas, Alma Venus.