rself, without the meddling of the gods.'
[Footnote: Monro's translation. In his criticism of this work
('Contemporary Review' 1867) Dr. Hayman does not appear to be aware of
the really sound and subtile observations on which the reasoning of
Lucretius, though erroneous, sometimes rests.]

To meet the objection that his atoms cannot be seen, Lucretius
describes a violent storm, and shows that the invisible particles of
air act in the same way as the visible particles of water. We
perceive, moreover, the different smells of things, yet never see them
coming to our nostrils. Again, clothes hung up on a shore which waves
break upon, become moist, and then get dry if spread out in the sun,
though no eye can see either the approach or the escape of the
water-particles. A ring, worn long on the finger, becomes thinner; a
water-drop hollows out a stone; the ploughshare is rubbed away in the
field; the street-pavement is worn by the feet; but the particles that
disappear at any moment we cannot see. Nature acts through invisible
particles. That Lucretius had a strong scientific imagination the
foregoing references prove. A fine illustration of his power in this
respect, is his explanation of the apparent rest of bodies whose atoms
are in motion. He employs the image of a flock of sheep with skipping
lambs, which, seen from a distance, presents simply a white patch upon
the green hill, the jumping of the individual lambs being quite
invisible.

His vaguely grand conception of the atoms falling eternally through
space, suggested the nebular hypothesis to Kant, its first propounder.
Far beyond the limits of our visible world are to be found atoms
innumerable, which have never been united to form bodies, or which, if
once united, have been again dispersed--falling silently through
immeasurable intervals of time and space. As everywhere throughout
the All the same conditions are repeated, so must the phenomena be
repeated also. Above us, below us, beside us, therefore, are worlds
without end; and this, when considered, must dissipate every thought
of a deflection of the universe by the gods. The worlds come and go,
attracting new atoms out of limitless space, or dispersing their own
particles. The reputed death of Lucretius, which forms the basis of
Mr. Tennyson's noble poem, is in strict accordance with his
philosophy, which was severe and pure.

2.

Still earlier than these three philosophers, and during the centu