The Press. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1908. THE POET PHILOSOPHER OF ANCIENT ROME.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 136099, 25 April 1908, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1908. THE POET PHILOSOPHER OF ANCIENT ROME.

Wo make no apology for introducing a classical writer into these columns. If we understand aright the tendency of the day in the matter of the classics, it is, not to abolish them altogether, but to use every available means of breaking down the scholastic barriers ■which have long made of them a close preserve, and laying open whatever ot human interest they possess for the world at large. And there is no ancient writer "who makes a stronger appeal to modern readers than LucrejtioSy about whom one more book has

just appeared from the pen of I>r. John Masson. Ho appeals to us by the extraordinary combination in him of the noble poet and the ardent, speculative scientist. His importance for modern science wae elaborated with great force and eloquence long ago in 1874 by the late Professor Tyndall in his address before the British Association at Belfast. Since then the interest in Lucretius ac philosopher and scientist has gone on deepening and increasing. It is true that tho spirit of hia teaching is vehemently and aggressively heterodox; but modern Christians are not so much concerned about the stability of the crude Roman polytheism as to shrink from contact with the man who shrivelled it up in the steady fire of his genius.

To Lucretius the truth of his doctrine was all in all; hia poetic inspiration was only valued by him as the most effective agency for burning it into the brains and hearts of his hearers. In modern times this position of relative importance has been reversed. It is true that all who brood on the fundamental mystery of matter and spirit will continue to be fascinated by the grand, comprehensive system constructed by this great materialist. But foT one person who concerns himself about these things there will probably be twenty who read Lucretius' work as a great poem, full of warmth and glow, dignity and power. There is a curious irony about the whole thing. The source of his inspiration as a poet was, not poetic fancies nor flights of imagination, but the intensity of his conviction, the vision of truth, which met his gaae as it swept from the cradle of the world to its grave. I The poem thus inspired remains, and is immortal, while many of the doctrines which so fired "the soul of its author have passed into the limbo of exploded theories. But the fact is, that it is impossible to divide Lucretius into poet and scientist, and place each in a labelled compartment. It was his eternal glory that he made a superb poem out of a theme so unpromising as an atomic theory of the universe., iUomists had gone before him, such as Democritue and Epicurus; and many atomists have appeared since his time; but not one of them, ancient or modern, could have written the "De Rerum Nature.. ,, The atom itself is not a very inspiring conception for poetry: whether we shall find the electron more fruitful in this way remains to be seen. But poetry lies in everything, -if we have only the genius to find it. And here was a man who could look with steady, penetrating gaze at the birth of worlds; could see myriads and myriads of these mysterioufii particles streaming ever down and down through the awful void, swerving, colliding, clustering, under the influence of some mere blind power; and the sight was impressive enough to thrill his soul.

But even this vast desolation, aweinspiring though it were, would not have gone very far for poetry, aaid is a long way from accounting for the "I>e Rerum Natura." Lucretius saw not only beginnings, but processes. To evolve from this primeval union of atoms and a void the wonder and splendour of Nature, "the round ocean, and the living ■air, and the mind of ' roan," the everlasting interchange of generation and decay—such wis the task which he set himself, a*nd to which he invoked the aid of the Muses like a mere Homer singing of a fabled war. Deliberately and step by etep the great argument is followed out. In the dialectical and argumentative portions the style id calm and lucid, occasionally even prosaic. But the poet does not remain long on this lower level. In the middle of a scientific exposition, the contemplation of some operation, a i phenomenon of mature fires his imagination, and he soars away on tho wings [of poetry, until we forget atoms and their attractions and repulsions, and tho dark mystery of the "void." , Then he returns calmly to the course of his argument, until presently comes another burst, a contemptuous denunciation of superstitition and the fear of death and gods, followed by a rapturous paean on tho serenity of true wisdom and the philosophic mind. In his highest flights Lucretius is finer than anything in Latin literature, and is equalled by very few things in any literature. Indeed, the whole work is pervaded by a certain solemnity and grandeur, and by the fervour and earnestness of tho missionary. As with every great artist, his moods vary with the shifting phases of his theme. There is joy for him in tho contemplation of the throbbing energies of this groat universe, and in. the excellent aenso of tOie freedom of human thought; wth&Le on tie other hand there is a sombre imptressiveness in the long digression in which he marshals his indictment against the (apparent) blundering and maleficent influences of Nature, from wihidh he •infers the impossibEity of its being of divine, origin. lato this and kindred speculations we cannot here follow him. From the point of view of literary form, Lucretius was the first Latin writer who imparted freedom and strength to tho hexameter. By doing so he made the way easy for the more graceful mid polished versification of his great successor, Virgil. But his influence over Virgil was fax from being confined to versificait.Lwn. The singer of the divine origin of tho Roman people and the divine government of tho Roman world did not hesi- | tato to borrow whole phrases aaid images from tho iconoclastic freethinker, whose views must haire been intensely distasteful to has pious m-iw}, One word in conclusion. W© wrote in these columns veo&tniix, of the grow&g; importance of good translations, especially of the classics. Tlie-re is no better translation of any classical amtihor than tb-e prose version of Lucretius by H. A. J. Mmiro.