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fee there is nothing fo prudent, nothing fo true, nothing fo virtuous, but what, by being mifre. prefented, may be made to appear its contrary. Nor indeed is it probable, that fo many excellent and wife men, who were fuch great ornaments and fupports of the Roman commonwealth, would fo affiduously have frequented the gardens of Epicurus, or have engaged themselves to one another in the ties of friendship, as even their defamers allow they did, had they not been fully convinced of the good morals and innocence of life of that philofopher who first founded their fect: Galen, in Art. Med. witnesses of him, that he conftantly exclaimed aloud against the use of all venereal ac.. tions, that he neglected the advantages of life, that he contemned all daintinefs and excefs in eating, drinking, and apparel; and that he would often lay, that bread and water, when taken by thofe that wanted them, afforded the greateft pleasure. And in his epiftles, which Diogenes Laërtius had the good fortune to fee, he teftifies of himself, that he was content to live on brown bread and water only; but send me, says he, a little of your Cyprian cheese, that I may feaft myfelf deliciously, "if I'should have a mind to do so. Diocles reports of his difciples too, that they were fatisfied with the meanest and the poorest fare: They scarce, fays he, ever tafted of wine, and water was their chief beverage. To confirm this, it is obferved, that this abftemiousness of theirs was the reason that they were the better able to undergo hardships, when Demetrius befieged Athens, during which fiege, fays Plutarch in the life of that prince, the philofopher Epicurus fup. ported thofe of his fect, fharing with them daily a certain small number of beans. Cicero himself, though he was a profeffed enemy to this fect, yet fays in many places, that the Epicureans were generally good men, and that none of the philofophers were lefs addicted to vice: And Seneca too witneffes of Epicurus, that he was a man eminently remarkable for his temperance and conti

pence.

Thus lived Epicurus, whose very name nevertheless has for many ages been used as a proverb, to denote an atheistical voluptuous wretch, addicted to all manner of fenfualities. Thus too lived his followers, who nevertheless are generally deemed to have been impious libertines, and reprefented as a herd of fwine, indulging themselves in pleasure, and wallowing in all manner of impurities. How groundless this cenfure, how unmerited this reproach, the reader is left to judge, from the foregoing teftimonies of the ancients, which, among many others that might have been produced, I have given in defence of the morals and innocence of life, both of Epicurus and his followers.

mighty from the government of the world: But this impiety of his proceeded from an excefs of fu perftition: For he apprehended that the eternal happiness, which the divine effence enjoys, muft be perplexed and disturbed with the affairs of the lower world; nor could he comprehend how the most perfect and happy Being, that stands not in need of any thing in the power of man, could be pleafed at their good, or offended at their wicked deeds. For he imagined and taught, that bufinefs and cares, and anger, and joy, and gratitude, were inconfiftent with perfect happiness, and proceeded from infirmity and weakness, and from fear and indigence. But what juft fentiments he had of the Deity we find in his epiftle to Menceceus: God, fays he, is an immortal and ever bleffed being; and even common reason teaches, that nothing can be ascribed to the Deity, that is repugnant either to immortality or beatitude: That there are gods we know for certain; but yet they are not such as many believe them to be: He therefore is not impious who denies the gods of the multitude; but who afcribes to the gods the opinions of the multitude: For those opinions are not principles known by the light of nature; but merely falfe notions, that many conceive of the gods. Nor will I omit what Epicurus immediately fubjoins: The gods, fays he, punish the wicked, and reward the good: For being, as they are, all virtue and goodness, they take delight in whatever is virtuous and like themfelves. And in the compendium of his philofophy, which he writ to Herodotus, fpeaking of the meteors, we find the following paffage: You ought not, says he, to believe, that the motion and converfion of the heavens, the rifing and fetting of the planets, their eclipfes, and the like, are the labour and work of any one, or effected by any other caufe, but only by his will and command, who enjoys at once all immortality and beatitude.

Thus, whatever impious notions Epicurus might once have entertained of the Deity, it is not unreasonable to believe, that he was at length convinced of his error in that particular, and became, from an impious, a very pious philofopher. He perfifted indeed to the last in his erroneous doctrine concerning the human foul; which he held to be corporeal, to confift of minute corpufcles, and alike with the body, to be obnoxious to mortality. In this, I own, he grievously erred: but yet, methinks, his censurers might animadvert with lefs feverity against a poor fhipwrecked heathen; fince the Sadducees themselves, though they were brought up in the bofom of the law. ftruck on the fame rock; considering besides, that by the confent, even of the beft Chriftians, the immortality of the foul is an ocean that cannot be founded, nor the danger avoided, without the immeafurable plummet of faith.

I wish there were as much to be faid in behalf of their theology: Let me not, however, be thought to endeavour to patronize and defend their im- Let none be offended that I have ventured thus pieties; if, in a few words I give the opinion of far in defence of Epicurus, contrary to the comEpicurus concerning the Deity; against whom, Imonly received opinion of that philofopher. It own, be grievously offended, in abfolutely denying matters not much to our prefent purpofe, whea divine Providence, and in dethroning the Alther he recanted his impieties or not; fince it

cannot be denied but that Lucretius ftrenuously afferts them, and labours with all his force to inculcate his errors. Affertions of fuch a nature ought not to pafs uncontrouled in fo corrupt an age as ours; when even the very arguments, by which Lucretius endeavours to make good his impieties, are revived afrefh; and alleged to juftify new-broached opinions, that vifibly tend to the establishment of deifm, and confequently to the fubverfion of all revealed religion: for which reafon I have chiefly laboured in the following notes, to demonftrate the weaknefs and invalidity of thofe arguments, that are brought in confirmation of propofitions, that are repugnant to our holy Chriftian faith.

Befides, books that treat of fubjects that are naturally fo crabbed and obfcure, as are many of thofe of which Lucretius argues, cannot be turned into our language in fuch a manner, as, by a bare tranflation only, to make them intelligible to a reader merely English, and that has no knowledge of the languages, in which the originals were compofed; for the terms, though dark and difficult, muft of neceffity be retained; and yet they will not be understood by a great number of English readers. For example, the definition of the void, which we find in the first book of Lucretius, v. 334. is tranflated as follows:

A void is fpace intangible.

Now I would fain know if those words do not as much require to be explained to a reader, who underftands only the English language, as to one who knows the Latin, the following paffage of Lucretius, of which they are the tranflation?

-Locus eft inta&us, inanc, vacanfque.

And yet how many fheets have been filled, and what labour has been bestowed. to explain the meaning of them, by the commentators on the Epicurean philofophy, is notorious to all the learned world. The leafts of Epicurus, both mathematical and phyfical, the homomery of Anaxagoras, the harmony of Ariftoxenus, are, till they are explained, no lefs difficult to underftand; and ten thousand other inftances of the like nature, that the reader will find in the folJowing tranflation, are abundantly fuflicient to evince the usefulness, and even the neceflity of thefe notes. For, not to understand what we read, is at beft but lofs of time; and to take things in a wrong fenfe, or to gain an imperfect notice of them, as they must neceffarily do, who understand by halves what they read, is always alike dangerous, and often proves of bad confequence, efpecially when the weak and unwary amufe themselves in the lectures of fuch authors as treat of fubjects like thofe of which our poet difputes. Such readers, like men who fail in unknown feas, ought to be shown the rocks and thelvings, otherwife they are in great danger of being loft; for they are ever the moft fubject to take the frongeft impreflions; and it is no cafy

task to eradicate from the minds of the lefs intel ligent part of mankind, and difpoffefs them of thofe opinions which they have fwallowed with greedy delight, and been long accustomed to believe. Such an inveterate credulity, like a disease of long ftanding, and that has gained a head, is not easy to cure; and, what is yet worse, we often find that the fiffeft obftinacy attends the moft erroneous belief.

To apply what I have been saying to the mat ter in hand, there is reafon to fufpect that fome have not been wanting, and, I fear, are still to be found, who, not being capable of themselves to form a true judgment of these arguments of Lucretius, and for want of a right difcernment, have imbibed fome of his falle notions, and yielded tog eafy an affent to them: they have taken the fha. dow for the fubftance of reafon, and thus have been wretchedly feduced into error. The following notes are chiefly intended, not only to undeceive fuch perfons, but also to prevent others from falling into the like mistakes; and, if they compass that effect, I fhail have no reason to think my labour mifemployed, nor to fear the censure of the public.

Having given this fhort account of the reafons that induced me to compose these annotations, it remains only to acquaint the reader with the helps I have had, and with the method I have obferved in this undertaking.

As to the first of those points, the alphabetical catalogue of the names of the authors cited in the notes and animadverfions, is a fufficient indication that I have spared no pains, nor wanted any afliftante that could be required to render this work as perfect in its kind, as any thing of this nature can be expected to be, and that whatever defects fhall be found in it, muft be imputed to my want of judgment and capacity, fince I was abundantly fupplied with all the materials that were requifite to accomplish my undertaking. And through out the whole work, I feldom advance any thing of my own, but have collected only the opinion of others, and left the reader to judge and de termine concerning them.

In the text itfelf I have taken care to fupply all the verses which Mr. Creech had not tranflated; and that were never before in any of the former editions of this English Lucretius. Thofe that were omitted towards the end of the fourth Book, where the poet treats of the nature of love, are taken from Mr. Dryden's tranflation of that part of our author. Of all the other verfes that are now first inferted, I have given an account in their due places, in the notes upon them: Meanwhile, I have included all the verses that are thus fupplied between crotchets, as a mark of diftinc tion, to let the reader know that they were not in any of the former editions. Besides, I have prefixed to every book a feveral Argument, in which may be feen, at one view, not only the feveral fubjects treated of in each of the fix books; but like wife the manner in which they are handled, the me thod of the poet's difputation, and the connection of the following book to that which precedes

it. And each book concludes with an animadverfon, briefly recapitulating the contents of it, and condemning or approving the maxims and arguments contained and afferted in it. This method our tranflator himself has obferved in his Latin edition of Lucretius; from whence the animadverfion, which the reader will find at the end of each book, is chiefly taken. Moreover, to make this edition more perfect than any of the former, where, in many places, feveral of the poet's arguments and propofitions are joined together, without any diftinction where one ends or the other begins, I have been careful to diftinguish them from one another, by beginning each argument and propofition with a break; fo that the reader will readily difcern where it begins and where it ends and that too the more eafily, because each note begins by expreffing the number of the verfes that each argument or propofition contains.

As for the tranflator's own excellent and learned notes on Lucretius, which have hitherto been printed at the end of all the former editions, and all together by themselves, I have now difpofed them into the feveral places to which he had directed them, and they properly belong : infomuch that the reader will now find them, not as before, in a body by themfelves, but intermixed with my annotations, without the leaft alteration, and in their proper place *.

Each note has a number prefixed before it,

which directs to the number in the margin of the text; which last number, for the greater cafe of the reader, marks every tenth verse of the tranflation, and fhows how many verfes are contained in each book.

only done juftice to Lucretius, but in fome meafure even to his tranflator likewife: of whom I may fay, without any derogation to his fame, that he had not fo thoroughly digefted his author when he tranflated him, as he had done afterwards when he came to publifh his Latin notes upon him. And here, by the way, I cannot but with that he had not been fo fevere on Du Fay, the editor of the Lucretius in Ufum Delphini, in lafhing him at the unmerciful rate Le does in many places in thofe notes, for errors of which himfelf had once been guilty, and into which they had both been alike led by Lambine; efpecially, too, fince it is most evident that he is often indebted to that interpreter, I mean Du Fay, for the true understanding of the fenfe of his author. This will manifeftly appear to any one, who will compare the notes of thofe two interpreters together, and reflect on the difference of time in which they were published.

But I have not taken upon me to correct our tranflator, only where he has palpably mistaken the fenfe of his author, but in thofe places likewife that he has rendered obfcurely or imperfectiy. One inftance of this, among too many others, the reader may obferve in the note on the 986th verfe of the fecond book, where Lucretius, enumerating all the conjuncts and events, or properties and accidents of the Epicurean atoms, has includ ed them all in the following verses:

Sic ipfis in rebus item jam materiäi
Intervalla, viæ, connexus, pondere, plage,
Concurfus, motus, ordo, pofitura, figuræ,
Cum permutantur, mutari res quoque debent.
Lib. ii. v. I. 1021.

To tranflate all which, Mr. Creech employs only
these two verfes and a half;

--In bodies fo

It will be obferved, that in the notes that are merely explanatory, I often differ from the fenfe of my author, I mean Mr. Creech; for I exactly follow the fenfe of Lucretius; whofe meaning As their feeds, order, figure, motion do, that interpreter has mistaken in many places of The things themfelves muft change and vary too. this tranflation. This I the more confidently affirm, because I have his own authority to ftrength- Now, how lamely and imperfectly the full fenfe en my affertion: for, in his Latin edition of Lu- and meaning of the above paffige of Lucretius is cretins, he often gives his author an interpretation expreffed in this tranflation of it, appears, at firft far different from, nay, fometimes quite contrary fight, to all that are acquainted with the Epicuto what he makes him fay in this tranflation. rean philofophy, and is fully made appear in the One manifeft inflance of this, among many others, note on these verfes, to which I refer the reader: may be feen in the note on the 547th verfe of the and, in this place will only take notice, that I fth book, to which I refer the reader: and will might juftly have been blamed for difcharging here only obferve, that our translator's mistakes of but ill the province I had undertaken, to explain this nature have often forced me to the neceffity Lucretius's fyftem of the Epicurean philofophy, of giving the original text of Lucretius; to the had I not fupplied what I found wanting in this end, that fech as understand the Latin may be place, in order to attain the perfect understanding convinced, that I have not taken upon me to of the fenfe of the original, which I found thus blame and correct him without reafon. And to wretchedly mangled in the tranflation. I have exempt myfelf from all manner of imputation up- obferved the like method throughout this whole on that account, I have fearce through the whole work, having ufed my utmost diligence in com. Course of these annotations, ever accufed this tranf-paring the tranflation with the original, and fhow. lator of error, except only in paffages to which Mr. ing all along in what it differs, from it; infomuch Creech himself in his Latin edition of our author, that the following annotations, in which is con. has given a different interpretation from what we tained a complete fyftem of the Epicurean philofofind in this tranflation; infomuch, that, by point-phy, are rather notes on the original poem of Lus ing cut thofe miftakes to the reader, I have not

This arrangement is altered in the prefent edition.
TRANS. II.

cretius, than on Mr. Creech's tranfiation of it.
To conclude: Though I have fwelled this work
to a great length, yet I have made my notes and
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THE prefent defign does not require an exact search into the rife of philofophy, nor a nice inquiry, whether it began amongst the Brachmans; and from them, as Lucian, in Fugitivis, ranks the countries, vifited Ethiopia, Egypt Scythia, Thrace, and Greece, or whether curiofity or neceffity was the parent of it. The Chaldeans were invited to aftronomy by the advantageousness of their wideextended plains; and the overflowing of the Nile forced the Egyptians to be curious in the properties of figures; but I fhall take it for granted, that philofophy came from the east. The truth of this, not to mention the weak oppofitions of Laërtius, in his preface, the travels of Thales and Pythagoras, of Democritus, Plato, and others, fufficiently evince; and the Egyptians affirm, that the feveral methods of philofophy of the abovemention. ed ancients, are only their notions difguifed, dreff. ed after a Greek fashion, and in that garb propofed to their admirers. Thus, it is probable, that Democritus received his notions from Mofchus, the Phoenician, or from the priests of Egypt, whofe ambition for antiquity made them embrace fome of thofe their abfurd opinions: or, if he travelled farther, he perhaps learned the whole fyftem of his philofophy, the fortuitous beginning of the world, and the origin of man, from the Indians, that being now the opinion of the principal philofophers in China, whither the learning of all India long ago retired.

upon the whole matter, we cannot but be amazed

at the unfettled humour of the man.

After his death, though in his will he had made great provifion for the perpetuity of his fect, his opinions were but coldly received, and the school decayed, till C. Memnius, a man of ancient nobility, reftored the garden, and, as Cicero acquaints us, designed to raise a public building for the advancement of Epicurifm. His fame and authority drew many after him; and we find regiftered, at once as famous, Velleius, Patro, and our author Lucretius, of whose life antiquity has tranfmitted to us but few particulars, perhaps for the fame reafon that Ælian with reluctance mentions Diagoras, because he was an enemy to the gods; Oris yàg ixgós Diay'ógas, xaì ¿ μùs idım επιπλείσον μεμνήσθαι ἐντῶ, fays that author, lib. 2. cap. 23. What we know of him is as follows:

His name was Titus Lucretius Carus, and no other for what Lambinus pretends, that befides his first name Titus, by the Latins called Pranomen, and which aufwers to what we call our Chriftian name, befides the name of his family, Lucretius, and his furname, Carus, he may have been called either T. Lucretius Vefpillo Carus, or thus, T. Lucretius Offella Carus, is mere conjecture, and grounded on no authority whatfoever. Carus was a Roman furname, of which Ovid and many others make mention; but we no where find how it came to be given to Lucretius. However, it is not improbable but that it was conferred upon him, either on account of his excellent and fprightly wit, his affability and sweetnefs of temper and manners, or for fome other the like endearing qualities, that rendered him agreeable to thofe with whom he converfed.

This hypothefis, though commended to men as the ftrongelt expedient againft cares, and as the exactest method to obtain tranquillity, found not, nevertheless, many admizers, till Epicurus by an almost inficite number of volumes which he writ on that fubject, endeavoured to illuflrate and recommend it to the world. Yet, notwithstanding he was fo voluminous a writer, he, as Plutarch affures, added only one improvement to the hy-affures us of it: therefore, what Cornelius Nepos pothefis of Democritus, which is the declination, or inclining motion of an atom.

What Epicurus was in his morals, is not eafy to determine; for, fometimes he feems to have been temperate and model, otherwise Seneca would not have fo often used his fentences as ornaments, in his molt ferious epiftles: at other times, he feems to have been a moit loofe and d.folute voluptuary, for fuch his books declare him, if we may credit Tully, who, De. Fin. lib. 2. fect. 7. makes a very confident appeal to mannd for the fincerity of his quotations; fo that,

That he was a Roman, and born at Rome, is agreed on all hands, and even his own teftimony

writes of T. Pomponius Atticus, that it was the gift of fortune, that, preferable to all other places, he was born in that city where the feat of the empire of the whole earth was established, that he might have the fame country and fovereign, may well be applied to Lucretius, of whom we may fay, that the fame city which was his country was miftrefs of the world.

His very name directs us to the noble and ancient family of the Lucretii, which, being divided into many branches, comprehended under it the Tricipitini, the Cinna, the Vefpillones, the Trio

5

pes, the Offellæ, and the Galli, and gave to Rome many confuls, tribunes, and prætors, who were great fupports and ornaments of the commonwealth.

From which of the above branches our Lucretius fprung is not known, there being nothing any where recorded of his parentage. There lived, indeed, in those days, one Quintus Lucretius, but whether he was brother of our poet Lucretius, or in what degree of relation they were to one another, is altogether uncertain.

It has been obferved by fome, and the truth of it is uncontested, that the parentage of the best poets of antiquity is almost unknown, as if it had been induftrioufly concealed; and in this they are thought to have affected fomething of divinity

The time of his birth is almost as doubtful, fome placing it in one year, fome in another, in which, as in mott things elfe, the authors who have delivered it down to us, make good that inverted taunt of Seneca, who, in his treatise, De Morte Claudii, fays, "Citius inter horologia quam authores conveniet." Clocks will be found to agree fooner than authors.

Eufebius, the fon of Pamphilus, brings him forth in the 171ft Olympiad, when C. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and C. Caffius Longinus were confuls, which was in the 657th year after the building of Rome. But Lydiat leaves it doubtfal, whether thefe were confuls in the first year of the 171ft, or the fourth of the 170th Olympiad. Voffius makes him born in the fecond year of the 171ft, whilst others place his birth in the 1724 Olympiad, when L. Lucinius Craffus, and QMucius Scævola were confuls, that is to fay, in the 658th year of Rome; so that the difference between them is not great, and the age in which he lived is certain.

About this time, the Romans began to apply themfelves to the ftudy of the philofophy of the Greeks. Suppofing, therefore, Lucretius to be nobly defcended, and a man of iprightly wit, it is an eafy inference, that he received a fuitable education, and, by his parents or other relations, was fent in his youth to ftudy at Athens. This is the more probable to be true, because it was then the cultom of the Romans to fend their youths thither to be inftructed in the learning of the Greeks. Thus, fome years after. Virgil too ftudied there, as we learn from himself, when, writing to Melfala, he says:

Etfi mi vario jactatum laudis amore,
Irritaque expertum fallacis præmia vulgi,
Cecropius fuaves expirans hortulus auras,
Florentis viridi fophiæ complectitur umbra.

And the learned Propertius too earnestly defired

Illic ftudiis animum emendare Platonis; ―aut hortis, docte Epicure, tuis.

Zeno, together with the courteous good-natured Pheirus, as Tully calls him, was then matter of

the gardens; and these were the preceptors of our Lucretius, as they were likewife of Pomponius Atticus, Memmius, Velleius, Pœtus, Caffius and many others, who in that age rendered themselves very illuftrious in the republic of Rome.

How Lucretius fpent his time, how studiously he improved it, let this poem be witness. That he fitted himself for the best company, is evident by what Cornelius Nepos tells us of the great intimacy between him, Pomponius Atticus, and Memmius; and, no doubt but he was intimate likewife with Tully and his brother, who make fuch honourable mention of him.

If we look into his morals, we may discover him to be a man fuitable to the Epicurean principles, diffolved in eafe and pleasure, flying public employment, as a derogation to wifdom, and a difturber of peace and quietnefs, and avoiding thofe diftractive cares which he imagined would make heaven itfelf unealy.

As most of the other poets, he too feems to have had his share in fenfual pleasures; and if the account which Eufebius gives of his death be true, it will ftrengthen this opinion; but it is hard to fay for certain what fort of death Lucretius died; nor is it much easier to determine in what year of his life his death happened. Some make him die on the very day when Virgil was born, in the forty-third year of his age, when Pompey the Great was the third time conful, and Cæcilius Metel. lus Pius was his colleague, in the year of the city 7e1, at which time there were great commotions in the republic; for Clodius was then killed by Milo; Memmius and many others being convicted of bribery, were banished from Rome into Greece; and Cæfar, who was then fortyfour years of age, was laying waste the provinces of Gaul. According to Eufebius, he died by his own hands, in the forty-fourth year of his age, being dementated by a philtre, which either his miftrefs, or his wife Lucilia, for fo fome call her, though without authority, in a fit of jealoufy, had given him; not with defign to deprive him of his fenfes, or to take away his life, but only to make him love her. Donatus, or whoever was the author of the life of Virgil that goes under his name, writes, that he died three years before, when Pompey the Great and M. Licinius Craffus were both of them the fecond time confuls. Others who allow that, having loft his fenfes, he laid violent hands on his own life, yet place his death in the twenty-fixth year of his age, and believe that his madnefs proceeded from the cares and melancholy that opprelled him on account of the banishment of his beloved Memmius: to which others again add likewife another caufe, the fatal calamities under which his country then laboured. And indeed it is certain, that a few years before his death, Lucretius was an eye witnefs of the wild adminiftration of affairs in the days of Clodius and Cataline, who gave fuch a blow to the republic of Rome, as not long after occafioned its total fubverfion. Of thefe commotions he himself complains, in the beginning of his firfl book, where, addreffing himself to Venus, be

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