EPICUREAN PHYSICS.
In his physical theories Epicurus followed Leucippus and Democritus. He expounds these theories in his letters to Herodotus and Pythocles, which are preserved in Diogenes Laertius.785We shall be guided mainly by his own statements, and when his meaning is obscure, or his exposition is incomplete, we shall avail ourselves of the more elaborate statements of Lucretius,786who is uniformly faithful to the doctrine of Epicurus, and universally regarded as its best expounder.
The fundamental principle of his philosophy is the ancient maxim--"de nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil fosse reverti;" but instead of employing this maxim in the sense in which it is used by Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and others, to prove there must be something self-existent and eternal, or in other words, "that nothing which once was not can ever of itself come into being," he uses it to disprove a divine creation, and even presents the maxim in an altered form--viz., "nothing is everdivinelygenerated from nothing;"787and he thence concludes that the world was by no means made for us bydivinepower.788Nature is eternal. "The universal whole always was such as it now is, and always will be such." "The universe also is infinite, for that which is finite has a limit, but the universe has no limit."789
Footnote 785:(return)"Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x.
Footnote 786:(return)"De Natura Rerum."
Footnote 787:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i.
Footnote 788:(return)Ibid.
Footnote 789:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxiv.
The two great principles of nature are avacuum, and aplenum.The plenum isbody, or tangible nature; the vacuum isspace, or intangible nature. "We know by the evidences of the senses (which are our only rule of reasoning) thatbodieshave a real existence, and we infer from the evidence of the senses that the vacuum has a real existence; for if space 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 analogy 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" (ἄτοµοι). These atoms are "the first principles" and "seeds" of all things.791They are "infinitein number," and, as their name implies, they are "infrangible" "unchangeable" and "indestructible."792Matter is, therefore, not infinitely divisible; there must be a point at which division ends.793
The only qualities of atoms areform,magnitude, anddensity.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 somethingsolidandindestructible,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:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxiv.
Footnote 791:(return)Id., ib., bk. x. ch. xxv.
Footnote 792:(return)Id., ib., bk. x. ch. xxiv.
Footnote 793:(return)Id., ib.; Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 616-620.
Footnote 794:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxiv.
The atoms are not all of oneform, 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 inmagnitudeanddensity. 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."795To assert that atoms are of every kind of form, magnitude, and density, would be "tocontradict the phenomena; "for experience teaches us that objects have a finite magnitude, and form necessarily supposes limitation.
Footnote 795:(return)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 coolwater, incessantly recruit the immense sea; it has also atoms from whichfirearises.... Moreover, the earth contains atoms from which it can raise up richcornand cheerfulgrovesfor the tribes of men...." So that "no object in nature is constituted 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,"796or primordial "seeds of things."
"The atoms are in a continual state ofmotion" and "have moved withequal rapidityfrom 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 isin 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:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 582-600.
Footnote 797:(return)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.798How are they made to deviate from a straight line? This deviation must beintroducedarbitrarily, or by someexternal cause. And inasmuch as Epicurus admits of no causes "but space and matter," and rejects all divine or supernatural interposition, thenewmovement must be purely arbitrary. They deviatespontaneously,and of their own accord. "The system of nature immediately appearsas a free agent, released from tyrant masters, to do every thing of itself spontaneously, without the help of the gods."799The manner in which Lucretius proves this doctrine is a good example of the petitio principii. He assumes, 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 willto 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 space, 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 thatnothing is produced from nothing."800Besides form, extension, and density, Epicurus has found another inherent or essential quality of matter or atoms, namely, "spontaneous" motion.
Footnote 798:(return)"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:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things" bk. ii. 1. 1092-1096.
Footnote 800:(return)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; "theystrike 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 theysuccessfully 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:(return)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 mass of matter firstHow 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 seedsFirst harmonize, or move with powers precise.But countless crowds in countless manners urged,From time eternal, by intrinsic weightAnd ceaseless repercussion, to combineIn all the possibilities of forms,Of actions, and connections, and exertIn every change some effort to create--Reared the rude frame at length, abruptly reared,Which, when once gendered, must the basis proveOf things sublime; and whence eventual roseHeaven, earth, and ocean, and the tribes of sense.Yet now nor sun on fiery wheel was seenRiding 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 partsParts joined congenial; and the rising worldGradual evolved: its mighty members eachFrom each divided, and matured completeFrom 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 actTill now could follow, nor the seeds themselvesE'en though conjoined in mutual bonds, coThus 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 mostAnd most perplext, in close embraces clung,And towards the centre conglobating sunk.And as the bond grew firmer, ampler forthPressed they the fluid essences that rearedSun, 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 hasteRushed the bright ether, towering high, and swiftStreams of fire attracting as it flowed.Then mounted, next, the base of sun and moon,'Twixt earth and ether, in the midway airRolling their orbs; for into neither theseCould blend harmonious, since too light with earthTo sink deprest, while yet too ponderous farTo fly with ether toward the realms extreme:So 'twixt the two they hovered;vitalthereMoving forever, parts of the vast whole;As move forever in the frame of manSome active organs, while some oft repose.802
But from this boundless mass of matter firstHow 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 seedsFirst harmonize, or move with powers precise.But countless crowds in countless manners urged,From time eternal, by intrinsic weightAnd ceaseless repercussion, to combineIn all the possibilities of forms,Of actions, and connections, and exertIn every change some effort to create--Reared the rude frame at length, abruptly reared,Which, when once gendered, must the basis proveOf things sublime; and whence eventual roseHeaven, earth, and ocean, and the tribes of sense.Yet now nor sun on fiery wheel was seenRiding 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 partsParts joined congenial; and the rising worldGradual evolved: its mighty members eachFrom each divided, and matured completeFrom 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 actTill now could follow, nor the seeds themselvesE'en though conjoined in mutual bonds, coThus 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 mostAnd most perplext, in close embraces clung,And towards the centre conglobating sunk.And as the bond grew firmer, ampler forthPressed they the fluid essences that rearedSun, 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 hasteRushed the bright ether, towering high, and swiftStreams of fire attracting as it flowed.Then mounted, next, the base of sun and moon,'Twixt earth and ether, in the midway airRolling their orbs; for into neither theseCould blend harmonious, since too light with earthTo sink deprest, while yet too ponderous farTo fly with ether toward the realms extreme:So 'twixt the two they hovered;vitalthereMoving forever, parts of the vast whole;As move forever in the frame of manSome active organs, while some oft repose.802
But from this boundless mass 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;vitalthere
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:(return)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 surveyFirst 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 largeShone with the verdant tincture, and the treesFelt the deep impulse, and with outstretched armsBroke from their bonds rejoicing. As the downShoots from the winged nations, or from beastsBristles or hair, so poured the new-born earthPlants, fruits, and herbage. Then, in order next,Raised she the sentient tribes, in various modes,By various powers distinguished: for not heavenDown dropped them, nor from ocean's briny wavesSprang they, terrestrial sole; whence, justlyEarthClaims the dear name of mother, since aloneFlowed from herself whate'er the sight surveys.E'en now oft rears she many a sentient tribeBy showers and sunshine ushered into day.803Whence less stupendous tribes should then have risenMore, and of ampler make, herself new-formed,In flower of youth, andEtherall mature.804Of these birds first, of wing and plume diverse,Broke their light shells in spring-time: as in springStill breaks the grasshopper 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 wombsShot, and expanded, to the genial swardBy fibres fixt; and as, in ripened hour,Their liquid orbs the daring foetus brokeOf breath impatient, nature here transformedTh' assenting earth, and taught her opening veinsWith juice to flow lacteal; as the fairNow with sweet milk o'erflows, whose raptured breastFirst hails the stranger-babe, since all absorbedOf nurture, to the genial tide converts.Earth fed the nursling, the warm ether clothed,And the soft downy grass his couch compressed.805
Once more return we to the world's pure prime,Her fields yet liquid, and the tribes surveyFirst 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 largeShone with the verdant tincture, and the treesFelt the deep impulse, and with outstretched armsBroke from their bonds rejoicing. As the downShoots from the winged nations, or from beastsBristles or hair, so poured the new-born earthPlants, fruits, and herbage. Then, in order next,Raised she the sentient tribes, in various modes,By various powers distinguished: for not heavenDown dropped them, nor from ocean's briny wavesSprang they, terrestrial sole; whence, justlyEarthClaims the dear name of mother, since aloneFlowed from herself whate'er the sight surveys.E'en now oft rears she many a sentient tribeBy showers and sunshine ushered into day.803Whence less stupendous tribes should then have risenMore, and of ampler make, herself new-formed,In flower of youth, andEtherall mature.804Of these birds first, of wing and plume diverse,Broke their light shells in spring-time: as in springStill breaks the grasshopper 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 wombsShot, and expanded, to the genial swardBy fibres fixt; and as, in ripened hour,Their liquid orbs the daring foetus brokeOf breath impatient, nature here transformedTh' assenting earth, and taught her opening veinsWith juice to flow lacteal; as the fairNow with sweet milk o'erflows, whose raptured breastFirst hails the stranger-babe, since all absorbedOf nurture, to the genial tide converts.Earth fed the nursling, the warm ether clothed,And the soft downy grass his couch compressed.805
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, justlyEarth
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 sunshine ushered into day.803
Whence less stupendous tribes should then have risen
More, and of ampler make, herself new-formed,
In flower of youth, andEtherall mature.804
Of these birds first, of wing and plume diverse,
Broke their light shells in spring-time: as in spring
Still breaks the grasshopper 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' assenting 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 grass his couch compressed.805
Footnote 803:(return)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:(return)Ether is the father, earth the mother of all organized being.--Id., ib., bk. i. l. 250-255.
Footnote 805:(return)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 instituted; how civilization commenced; and how religion arose out of ignorance of natural causes; how the artsof life were discovered, and how science sprang up. And all this, as he is careful to tell us, without any divine instruction, or any assistance from the gods.
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 aninfinitenumber of atoms, and afinitenumber 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 God.
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 God.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 gods, 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
Footnote 806:(return)"Let us trample religion underfoot, that the victory gained over it may place us on an equality with heaven" (book i.). See Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxiv. pp. 453,454 (Bohn's edition); Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 54-120.
Footnote 807:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. vi. l. 51-60.
To "expel these fancies from the mind" as "inconsistent with its tranquillity and opposed to human happiness," is the end,and, as Lucretius believes, the glory of the Epicurean philosophy. To accomplish this, God must be placed at an infinite distance from the universe, and must be represented as indifferent to every thing that transpires within it. We "must beware of making the Deity interpose here, for that Being we ought to supposeexempt from all occupation, and perfectly happy,"808--that is, absolutely impassible. God did not make the world, and he does not govern the world. There is no evidence of design or intelligence in its structure, and "such is the faultiness with which it stands affected, that it can not be the work of a Divine power."809
Epicurus is, then, an unmistakable Atheist. He did not admit a God in any rational sense. True, heprofessedto believe in gods, but evidently in a very equivocal manner, and solely to escape the popular condemnation. "They are not pure spirits, for there is no spirit in the atomic theory; they are not bodies, for where are the bodies that we may call gods? In this embarrassment, Epicurus, compelled to acknowledge that the human race believes in the existence of gods, addresses himself to an old theory of Democritus--that is, he appeals to dreams. As in dreams there are images that act upon and determine in us agreeable or painful sensations, without proceeding from exterior bodies, so the gods are images similar to those of dreams, but greater, having the human form; images which are not precisely bodies, and yet not deprived of materiality which are whatever you please, but which, in short, must be admitted, since the human race believes in gods, and since the universality of the religious sentiment is a fact which demands a cause."810
Footnote 808:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxv.; Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 55-60.
Footnote 809:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. v. l. 195-200.
Footnote 810:(return)Cousin's "Lectures on the History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 431.
It is needless to offer any criticism on the reasoning of Epicurus. One fact will have obviously presented itself to the mind of the reflecting reader. He starts with atoms havingform, magnitude, and density, and essays to construct a universe; but he is obliged to be continually introducing, in addition, a "nameless something" which "remains in secret," to help him out in the explanation of the phenomena.811He makes life to arise out of dead matter, sense out of senseless atoms, consciousness out of unconsciousness, reason out of unreason, without an adequate cause, and thus violates the fundamental principle from which he starts, "that nothing can arise from nothing."
Footnote 811:(return)As,e.g., Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. iii. l. 260-290.
EPICUREAN PSYCHOLOGY.
In the system of Epicurus, the soul is regarded as corporeal or material, like the body; they form, together, one nature or substance. The soul is composed of atoms exceedingly diminutive, smooth, and round, and connected with or diffused through the veins, viscera, and nerves. The substance of the soul is not to be regarded as simple and uncompounded; its constituent parts areaura, heat, and air. These are not sufficient, however, even in the judgment of Epicurus, to account forsensation; they are not adequate to generate sensible motives such as revolve any thoughts in the mind. "A certain fourth nature, or substance, must, therefore, necessarily be added to these,that is wholly without a name; it is a substance, however, than which nothing exists more active or more subtile, nor is any thing more essentially composed of small and smooth elementary particles; and it is this substance which first distributes sensible motions through the members."812
Footnote 812:(return)Id., ib., bk. iii. l. 237-250.
Epicurus is at great pains to prove that the soul is material; and it can not be denied that he marshals his arguments with great skill. Modern materialism may have added additional illustrations, but it has contributed no new lines of proof. The weapons are borrowed from the old arsenal, and they are not wielded with any greater skill than they were by Epicurus himself, I. The soul and the body act and react upon eachother; and mutual reaction can only take place between substances of similar nature. "Such effects can only be produced bytouch, and touch can not take place withoutbody."8132. The mind is produced together with the body, it grows up along with it, and waxes old at the same time with it.8143. The mind is diseased along with the body, "it loses its faculties by material causes, as intoxication, or by severe blows; and is sometimes, by a heavy lethargy, borne down into a deep eternal sleep."8154. The mind, like the body, is healed by medicines, which proves that it exists only as a mortal substance.8165. The mind does not always, and at the same time, continueentireandunimpaired, some faculties decay before the others, "the substance of the soul is therefore divided." On all these grounds the soul must be deemed mortal; it is dissolved along with the body, and has no conscious existence after death.
Footnote 813:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. iii. l. 138-168.
Footnote 814:(return): Id., ib., bk. iii. l. 444-460.
Footnote 815:(return)Id., ib., bk. iii. l. 438-490.
Footnote 816:(return)Id., ib., bk. iii. l. 500-520.
Such being the nature of the soul, inasmuch as it is material, all its knowledge must be derived from sensation. The famous doctrine of perception, as taught by Epicurus, is grounded upon this pre-supposition that the soul is corporeal. "The ειδωλα ἀπόῤῥοιαι--imagines, simulacra rerum, etc., are, like pellicles, continually flying off from objects; and these material 'likenesses,' diffusing themselves everywhere in the air, are propelled to the perceptive organs." These images of things coming in contact with the senses producesensation(αἴσθησις). A sensation may be considered either as regards its object, or as regards him who experiences it. As regards him who experiences it, it is simply a passive affection, an agreeable or disagreeable feeling, passion, or sentiment (τὸ πάθος). But along with sensation there is inseparably associated some knowledge of the object which excites sensation; and it is for this reason that Epicurus marked the intimate relation of these two phenomena by giving them analogous names. Because the second phenomenon is joined to the first, he calls it ἐπαίσθησις--perception. It is sensation viewed especially in regard to its object--representative sensation, or the "sensible idea" of modern philosophy. It is from perception that we draw our general ideas by a kind of prolepsis (πρόληψις) an anticipation or laying hold by reason of that which is implied in sensation. Now all sensations are alike true in so far as they are sensations, and error arises from false reasoning about the testimony of sense. All knowledge is purely relative and contingent, and there is no such thing as necessary and absolute truth.
The system of Epicurus is thus a system of pure materialism, but not a system of materialism drawn, as a logical consequence, from a careful and unprejudiced study of the whole phenomena of mind. His openly avowed design is to deliver men from the fear of death, and rid them of all apprehension of a future retribution. "Did men but know that there was a fixed limit to their woes, they would be able, in some measure, to defy the religious fictions and menaces of the poets; but now, since we must fear eternal punishment at death, there is no mode, no means of resisting them."817] To emancipate men from "these terrors of the mind," they must be taught "that the soul is mortal, and dissolves with the body"--that "death is nothing to us, for that which is dissolved is devoid of sensation, and that which is devoid of sensation is nothing to us."818Starting with the fixed determination to prove that
"Death is nothing, and naught after death,"
he will not permit any mental phenomena to suggest to him the idea of an incorporeal spiritual substance. Matter, under any form known to Epicurus, is confessedly insufficient to explain sensation and thought; a "nameless something" must besupposed. But may not "that principle whichlies entirely hid, and remains in secret"819--and about which even Epicurusdoes not know any thing--be a spiritual, animmaterialprinciple? For aught that he knows it may as properly be called "spirit" as matter. May notsensationandcognitionbe the result of the union of matter and spirit; and if so, may not their mutual affections, their common sympathies, be the necessary conditions of sensation and cognition in the present life? A reciprocal relation between body and mind appears in all mental phenomena. A certain proportion in this relation is called mental health. A deviation from it is termed disease. This proportion is by no means an equilibrium, but the perfect adaptation of the body, without injury to its integrity, to the purposes of the mind. And if this be so, all the arguments of materialism fall to the ground.
Footnote 817:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. i. l. 100-118.
Footnote 818:(return)Diogenes Laertius, Maxim 2, in "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. x. ch. xxxi.
Footnote 819:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. iii. l. 275-280.
The concluding portion of the third book, in which Lucretius discourses ondeath, is a mournful picture of the condition of the heathen mind before Christianity "brought life and immortality fully to light." It comes to us, like a voice from the grave of two thousand years, to prove they were "without hope." To be delivered from the fear of future retribution, they would sacrifice the hope of an immortal life. To extintinguish guilt they would annihilate the soul. The only way in which Lucretius can console man in prospect of death is, by reminding him that he willescape the ills of life.
"'But thy dear home shall never greet thee more!No more the best of wives!--thy babes beloved,Whose haste half-met thee, emulous to snatchThe dulcet kiss that roused thy secret soul,Again shall never hasten!--nor thine arm,With deeds heroic, guard thy country's weal!--Oh mournful, mournful fate!' thy friends exclaim!'One envious hour of these invalued joysRobs thee forever!--But they add not here,'It robs thee, too, of all desire of joy'--A truth, once uttered, that the mind would freeFrom every dread and trouble. 'Thou art safeThe sleep of death protects thee,and securesFrom all the unnumbered woes of mortal life!While we, alas! the sacred urn aroundThat holds thine ashes, shall insatiate weep,Nor time destroy the eternal grief we feel!'What, then, has death, if death be mere repose,And quiet only in a peaceful grave,--What has it thus to mar this life of man?"820
"'But thy dear home shall never greet thee more!No more the best of wives!--thy babes beloved,Whose haste half-met thee, emulous to snatchThe dulcet kiss that roused thy secret soul,Again shall never hasten!--nor thine arm,With deeds heroic, guard thy country's weal!--Oh mournful, mournful fate!' thy friends exclaim!'One envious hour of these invalued joysRobs thee forever!--But they add not here,'It robs thee, too, of all desire of joy'--A truth, once uttered, that the mind would freeFrom every dread and trouble. 'Thou art safeThe sleep of death protects thee,and securesFrom all the unnumbered woes of mortal life!While we, alas! the sacred urn aroundThat holds thine ashes, shall insatiate weep,Nor time destroy the eternal grief we feel!'What, then, has death, if death be mere repose,And quiet only in a peaceful grave,--What has it thus to mar this life of man?"820
"'But thy dear home shall never greet thee more!
No more the best of wives!--thy babes beloved,
Whose haste half-met thee, emulous to snatch
The dulcet kiss that roused thy secret soul,
Again shall never hasten!--nor thine arm,
With deeds heroic, guard thy country's weal!--
Oh mournful, mournful fate!' thy friends exclaim!
'One envious hour of these invalued joys
Robs thee forever!--But they add not here,
'It robs thee, too, of all desire of joy'--
A truth, once uttered, that the mind would free
From every dread and trouble. 'Thou art safe
The sleep of death protects thee,and secures
From all the unnumbered woes of mortal life!
While we, alas! the sacred urn around
That holds thine ashes, shall insatiate weep,
Nor time destroy the eternal grief we feel!'
What, then, has death, if death be mere repose,
And quiet only in a peaceful grave,--
What has it thus to mar this life of man?"820
Footnote 820:(return)Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things," bk. iii. l. 906-926.
This is all the comfort that Epicureanism can offer; and if "the wretch still laments the approach of death," she addresses him "with voice severe"--
"Vile coward! dry thine eyes--Hence with thy snivelling sorrows, and depart!"
"Vile coward! dry thine eyes--Hence with thy snivelling sorrows, and depart!"
"Vile coward! dry thine eyes--
Hence with thy snivelling sorrows, and depart!"
It is evident that such a system of philosophy outrages the purest and noblest sentiments of humanity, and, in fact, condemns itself. It was born of selfishness and social degeneracy, and could perpetuate itself only in an age of corruption, because it inculcated the lawfulness of sensuality and the impunity of injustice. Its existence at this precise period in Grecian history forcibly illustrates the truth, that Atheism is a disease of the heart rather than the head. It seeks to set man free to follow his own inclinations, by ridding him of all faith in a Divinity and in an immortal life, and thus exonerating him from all accountability and all future retribution. But it failed to perceive that, in the most effectual manner, it annihilated all real liberty, all true nobleness, and made of man an abject slave.
STOICISM.
The Stoical school was founded by Zeno of Citium, who flourished B.C. 290. He taught in the Stoa Poecile, or Painted Porch; and his disciples thence derived the name of Stoics. Zeno was succeeded by Cleanthes (B.C. 260); and Cleanthes by Chrysippus (B.C. 240), whose vigorous intellect gave unity and completeness to the Stoical philosophy. He is reported to have said to Cleanthes,--"Give me your doctrines, and I will find the demonstrations."821
Footnote 821:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. vii.
None of the writings of the early Stoics, save a "Hymn to Jupiter," by Cleanthes, have survived. We are chiefly indebtedto Diogenes Laertius822and Cicero823for an insight into their system. The Hymn of Cleanthes sheds some light on their Theology, and their moral principles are exhibited in "The Fragments" of Epictetus, and "The Life and Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius.
Footnote 822:(return)"Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii.
Footnote 823:(return)"De Fm.," and "De Natura Deorum."
The philosophy of the Stoics, like that of the Epicureans, was mainly a philosophy of life--that is, amoralphilosophy. The manner in which they approached the study of morals, and the principles upon which they grounded morality, were, however, essentially different.
The grand object of Epicurus was to make the current of life flow on as comfortably as possible, without any distracting thoughts of the past or any disturbing visions of the future. He therefore starts with this fundamental principle, that the true philosophy of life is to enjoy one's self--the aim of existence is to be happy. Whatever in a man's beliefs or conduct tends to secure happiness isright; whatever awakens uneasiness, apprehension, or fear, iswrong. And inasmuch as the idea of a Divine Creator and Governor of the universe, and the belief in a future life and retribution, are uncomfortable thoughts, exciting superstitious fears, they ought to be rejected. The Physics and the Psychology of Epicurus are thus the natural outgrowth of his Morality.
Zeno was evidently a more earnest, serious, and thoughtful man. He cherished a nobler ideal of life than to suppose "man must do voluntarily, what the brute does instinctively-- eschew pain, and seek pleasure." He therefore seeks to ascertain whether there be not some "principle of nature," or some law of nature, which determines what is right in human action --whether there be not some light under which, on contemplating an action, we may at once pronounce upon its intrinsicrightness, or otherwise. This he believes he has found in theuniversal reasonwhich fashioned, and permeates, and vivifies the universe, and is the light and life of the human soul. Thechief good is, confessedly, to live according to nature; which is to live according to virtue, for nature leads us to that point.... For our individual natures are all part of the universal nature; on which account, the chief good is to live in a manner corresponding to one's own nature, and to universal nature; doing none of those things which the common law of mankind (the universal conscience of our race) forbids.That common law is identical withRIGHT REASONwhich pervades every thing, being the same with Jupiter(Ζεύς),who is the regulator and chief manager of all existing things.824The foundation of the ethical system of the Stoics is thus laid in their philosophy of nature --their Physiology and Psychology. If, therefore, we would apprehend the logical connection and unity of Stoicism, we must follow their order of thought--that is, we must commence with their
Footnote 824:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. liii.
PHYSIOLOGY.
Diogenes Laertius tells us that the Stoics held "that there are two general principles in the universe--thepassiveprinciple (τὸ πάσχον), which is matter, an existence without any distinctive quality, and theactiveprinciple (τὸ ποιοῦν), which is the reason existing in the passive, that is to say, God. For that He, being eternal, and existing throughout all matter, makes every thing."825This Divine Reason, acting upon matter, originates the necessary and unchangeable laws which govern matter--laws which the Stoics called λόγοι σπερµατικοί-- generating reasons or causes of things. The laws of the world are, like eternal reason, necessary and immutable; hence the εἱµαρµένη--theDestinyof the Stoics, which is also one of the names of the Deity.826But by Destiny the Stoics could not understand a blind unconscious necessity; it is rather the highest reason in the universe. "Destiny (εἱµαρµένη) is a connected(εἰροµένη) cause of things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated."827
Footnote 825:(return)Id., ib., bk. vii. ch. lxviii.
Footnote 826:(return)"They teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind, andFate, and Jupiter."--Id., ib., bk. vii. ch. lxviii.
Footnote 827:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxxiv.
These two principles are not, however, regarded by the Stoics as having a distinct, separate, and independent existence. One is substance (οὐσία); the other is quality (ποῖος). The primordial matter is the passive ground of all existence--the original substratum for the Divine activity. The Divine Reason is the active or formative energy which dwells within, and is essentially united to, the primary substance. The Stoics, therefore, regarded all existence as reducible, in its last analysis, toone substance, which on the side of its passivity and capacity of change, they calledhyle(ὕλη);828and on the side of itschangeless energy and immutable order, they called God. The corporeal world--physical nature--is "a peculiar manifestation" of God, generated from his own substance, and, after certain periods, absorbed in himself. Thus God, considered in the evolution of His power, is nature. And nature, as attached to its immanent principle, is called God.829The fundamental doctrine of the Stoics was a spiritual, ideal, intellectual pantheism, of which the proper formula is,All things are God, but God is not all things.
Footnote 828:(return)Or "matter." A good deal of misapprehension has arisen from confounding the intellectual ὕλη of Aristotle and the Stoics with the gross physical "matter" of the modern physicist. By "matter" we now understand that which is corporeal, tangible, sensible; whereas by ὕλη, Aristotle and the Stoics (who borrowed the term from him) understood that which is incorporeal, intangible, and inapprehensible to sense,--an "unknown something" which must necessarily besupposedas the condition of the existence of things. Theformalcause of Aristotle is "the substance and essence"-- the primary nature of things, on which all their properties depend. Thematerialcause is "the matter or subject" through which the primary nature manifests itself. Unfortunately the term "material" misleads the modern thinker. He is in danger of supposing thehyleof Aristotle to be something sensible and physical, whereas it is an intellectual principle whose inherence is implied in any physical thing. It is something distinct frombody, and has none of those properties we are now accustomed to ascribe to matter. Body, corporeity, is the result of the union of "hyle" and "form." Stobaeus thus expounds the doctrine of Aristotle: Form alone, separate from matter (ὕλη) isincorporeal; so matter alone, separated from form, is notbody. But there is need of the joint concurrence of both these--matter and form--to make the substance of body. Every individual substance is thus a totality of matter and form--a σίνολον.The Stoics taught that God isoneliness(Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxviii.); that he iseternalandimmortal(bk. vii. ch. lxxii.); he could not, therefore, be corporeal, for "bodyinfinite, divisible,andperishable" (bk. vii. ch. lxxvii.). "All the parts of the world are perishable, for they change one into another; therefore the world is perishable" (bk. vii. ch. lxx.). The Deity is not, therefore, absolutely identified with the world by the Stoics. He permeates all things, creates and dissolves all things, and is, therefore,morethan all things. The world is finite; God is infinite.
The Stoics taught that God isoneliness(Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxviii.); that he iseternalandimmortal(bk. vii. ch. lxxii.); he could not, therefore, be corporeal, for "bodyinfinite, divisible,andperishable" (bk. vii. ch. lxxvii.). "All the parts of the world are perishable, for they change one into another; therefore the world is perishable" (bk. vii. ch. lxx.). The Deity is not, therefore, absolutely identified with the world by the Stoics. He permeates all things, creates and dissolves all things, and is, therefore,morethan all things. The world is finite; God is infinite.
Footnote 829:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxx.
Schwegler affirms that, in physics, the Stoics, for the most part, followed Heraclitus, and especially "carried out the proposition that nothing incorporeal exists; every thing is essentiallycorporeal." The pantheism of Zeno is therefore "materialistic."830This is not a just representation of the views of the early Stoics, and can not be sustained by a fair interpretation of their teaching. They say that principles and elements differ from each other. Principles have no generation or beginning, and will have no end; but elements may be destroyed. Also, that elements have bodies, and have forms,but principles have no bodies, and no forms.831Principles are, therefore,incorporeal.Furthermore, Cicero tells us that they taught that the universal harmony of the world resulted from all things being "contained by oneDivineSPIRIT;"832and also, that reason in man is "nothing else but part of theDivineSPIRIT merged into a human body."833It thus seems evident that the Stoics made a distinction between corruptibleelements(fire, air, earth, water) and incorruptibleprinciples, by which and out of which elements were generated, and also between corporeal and incorporeal substances.
Footnote 830:(return)Schwegler's "History of Philosophy," p. 140.
Footnote 831:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxviii.
Footnote 832:(return)"De Natura Deorum," bk. ii. ch. xiii.
Footnote 833:(return)Ibid, bk. ii. ch. xxxi.
On a careful collation of the fragmentary remains of the early Stoics, we fancy we catch glimpses of the theory held by some modern pantheists, that the material elements, "havingbody and form," are a vital transformation of the Divine substance; and that the forces of nature--"the generating causes or reasons of things" (λόγοι σπερµατικοί)--are a conscious transmutation of the Divine energy. This theory is more than hinted in the following passages, which we slightly transpose from the order in which they stand in Diogenes Laertius, without altering their meaning. "They teach that the Deity was in the beginning byhimself".... that "first of all, he made the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth." "The fire is the highest, and that is called æther, in which, first of all, the sphere was generated in which the fixed stars are set...; after that the air; then the water; and the sediment, as it were, of all, is the earth, which is placed in the centre of the rest." "He turned into water the whole substance which pervaded the air; and as the seed is contained in the product, so, too, He, being the seminal principle of the world, remained still in moisture, making matter fit to be employed by himself in the production of things which were to come after."834The Deity thus draws the universe out of himself, transmuting the divine substance into body and form. "God is a being of a certain quality, having for his peculiar manifestation universal substance. He is a being imperishable, and who never had any generation, being the maker of the arrangement and order that we see; and who at certain periods of timeabsorbs all substance in himself and then reproduces it from himself."835And now, in the last analysis, it would seem as though every thing is resolved intoforce. God and the world arepower, and its manifestation, and these are ultimately one. "This identification of God and the world, according to which the Stoics regarded the whole formation of the universe as but a period in the development of God, renders their remaining doctrine concerning the world very simple. Every thing in the world seemed to be permeated by the Divine life, and was regarded as the flowing out of this most perfect life through certainchannels, until it returns, in a necessary circle, back to itself."836
Footnote 834:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxviii., lxix.
Footnote 835:(return)Id., ib., bk. vii. ch. lxx.
Footnote 836:(return)Schwegler's "History of Philosophy," p. 141.
The God of the Stoics is not, however, a mere principle of life vitalizing nature, but anintelligentprinciple directing nature; and, above all, amoralprinciple, governing the human race. "God is a living being, immortal, rational, perfect, and intellectual in his happiness, unsusceptible of any kind of evil; having a foreknowledge of the world, and of all that is in the world."837He is also the gracious Providence which cares for the individual as well as for the whole; and he is the author of that natural law which commands the good and prohibits the bad. "He made men to this end that they might be happy; as becomes his fatherly care of us, he placed our good and evil in those things which are in our own power."838The Providence and Fatherhood of God are strikingly presented in the "Hymn of Cleanthes" to Jupiter--
Footnote 837:(return)Diogenes Laertius, "Lives of the Philosophers," bk. vii. ch. lxxii.
Footnote 838:(return)Marcus Aurelius, bk. iii. ch. xxiv.