Chapter 21

(F. A. P.)

Bibliography.—Editio princeps (Florence, 1496); valuable editions with notes by T. Hemsterhuis and J. F. Reitz (1743-1746, withLexicon Lucianeumby C. C. Reitz) and J. T. Lehmann (1822-1831). Editions of the text by C. Jacobitz (1886-1888) and J. Sommerbrodt (1886-1899). The scholia have been edited by H. Rabe in the Teubner series (1906). There are numerous editions of separate portions of Lucian’s works and translations in most European languages; amongst the latter may be mentioned the German version by C. M. Wieland (1788), with valuable notes and commentaries: English; one by several hands (1711), for which Dryden had previously written an unsatisfactory life of the author, by T. Francklin (1780) and W. Tooke (1820): and French; ofThe Ass, by P. L. Courier, with full bibliography by A. J. Pons (1887), and of the complete works by E. Talbot (1866) and Belin de Ballu (1789; revised ed. by L. Humbert, 1896). A complete modern English translation, racy and colloquial, appeared in 1905,The Works of Lucian of Samosata, by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler. On Lucian generally, the best work is M. Croiset’sEssai sur la vie et les œuvres de Lucien(1882); see also E. Egger, “Parallèle de Lucien et Voltaire,” inMémoires de littérature ancienne(1862); C. Martha,Les Moralistes sous l’empire romain(1866); H. W. L. Hime,Lucian, the Syrian Satirist(1900); Sir R. C. Jebb,Essays and Addresses(1907); “Lucian,” by W. L. Collins in Blackwood’sAncient Classics for English Readers; the Prolegomena to editions of select works with notes by Sommerbrodt; and the exhaustive bibliography of the earlier literature in Engelmann,Scriptores Graeci(1880). On some special questions see E. Rohde,Über Lucians SchriftΔούκιος ἤ Ὄνος(Leipzig, 1869); C. Buerger,De Lucio Patrensi(Berlin, 1887); J. Bernays,Lucian und die Kyniker(Berlin, 1879); C. G. Jacob,Characteristik Lucians von Samosata(Hamburg, 1832); C. F. Hermann,Charakteristik Lucians(Göttingen, 1849); P. M. Bolderman,Studia Lucianea(Leiden, 1893); R. Helm, “Lucian und die Philosophenschulen,” inNeue Jahrb. f. das klassische Altertum(1901), pp. 188, 263, 367.

1In theAlexander(25) we are told that the province of Pontus, due north of Syria, was “full of Christians.”2Philopatris, 12,ὑψιμέδοντα Θεὸν μέγαν ἄμβροτον οὐρανίωνα, υἱὸν Πατρὸς, Πνεῦμα ἐκ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ἔν ἐκ τριῶν καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία, a passage which bears on the controverted procession “a Patre Filioque.”3Philopatris, 13. Aesch.Eum.265,δελτογράφῳ δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾷ φρενί.4InHermotimus(51) Hermotimus says to Lycinus (who must be assumed to represent Lucian himself),ὑβριστὴς ἀεὶ σὺ, καὶ οὐκ οἷδ᾽ ὄ τι παθὼν μισεῖς φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ἐς τοῦς φιλοσοφοῦντας ἀποσκώπτεις. InIcaromenippus(5; see also 29) he says he always guessed who were the best physical philosophers “by their sour-faced looks, their paleness of complexion and the length of their beards.”5He says (speaking asΣύροςinBis accusatus, 34) that he found dialogue somewhat out of repute from the too numerous questions (i.e.employed by Plato), and brought it up to a more human and natural standard, substituting banter and repartee for dialectic quibbles and close logical reasoning.6He says (p. 127) that he saw punished in Hades, more severely than any other sinners, writers of false narratives, among whom were Ctesias of Cnidus and Herodotus. Yet in the short essay inscribedHerodotus(p. 831), he wishes it were possible for him to imitate the many excellencies of that writer.7E.g. “A stone is a body; a living creature is a body; you are a living creature; therefore you are a stone.” Again: “Iseverybody possessed of life?” “No.” “Is a stone possessed of life?” “No.” “Areyoua body?” “Yes.” “Alivingbody?” “Yes.” “Then, if a living body, you are not a stone.”

1In theAlexander(25) we are told that the province of Pontus, due north of Syria, was “full of Christians.”

2Philopatris, 12,ὑψιμέδοντα Θεὸν μέγαν ἄμβροτον οὐρανίωνα, υἱὸν Πατρὸς, Πνεῦμα ἐκ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ἔν ἐκ τριῶν καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία, a passage which bears on the controverted procession “a Patre Filioque.”

3Philopatris, 13. Aesch.Eum.265,δελτογράφῳ δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾷ φρενί.

4InHermotimus(51) Hermotimus says to Lycinus (who must be assumed to represent Lucian himself),ὑβριστὴς ἀεὶ σὺ, καὶ οὐκ οἷδ᾽ ὄ τι παθὼν μισεῖς φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ἐς τοῦς φιλοσοφοῦντας ἀποσκώπτεις. InIcaromenippus(5; see also 29) he says he always guessed who were the best physical philosophers “by their sour-faced looks, their paleness of complexion and the length of their beards.”

5He says (speaking asΣύροςinBis accusatus, 34) that he found dialogue somewhat out of repute from the too numerous questions (i.e.employed by Plato), and brought it up to a more human and natural standard, substituting banter and repartee for dialectic quibbles and close logical reasoning.

6He says (p. 127) that he saw punished in Hades, more severely than any other sinners, writers of false narratives, among whom were Ctesias of Cnidus and Herodotus. Yet in the short essay inscribedHerodotus(p. 831), he wishes it were possible for him to imitate the many excellencies of that writer.

7E.g. “A stone is a body; a living creature is a body; you are a living creature; therefore you are a stone.” Again: “Iseverybody possessed of life?” “No.” “Is a stone possessed of life?” “No.” “Areyoua body?” “Yes.” “Alivingbody?” “Yes.” “Then, if a living body, you are not a stone.”

LUCIFER(d. 370/1), bishop of Cagliari (hence calledCaralitanus), an ardent supporter of the cause of Athanasius. After the unfavourable result of the synod of Arles in 353 he volunteered to endeavour to obtain a new and impartial council. He was accordingly sent by Pope Liberius, with Pancratius the presbyter and Hilarius the deacon, but could not prevent the condemnation of Athanasius, which was renewed at Milan in 355. For his own persistent adherence to the orthodox creed he was banished to Germanicia in Commagene; he afterwards lived at Eleutheropolis in Palestine, and finally in the upper Thebaid. His exile came to an end with the publication of Julian’s edict in 362. From 363 until his death in 371 he lived at Cagliari in a state of voluntary separation from ecclesiastical fellowship with his former friends Eusebius of Vercelli, Athanasius and the rest, on account of their mild decision at the synod of Alexandria in 362 with reference to the treatment of those who had unwillingly Arianized under the persecutions of Constantius. Lucifer was hardly sufficiently educated to appreciate the real question at issue, and the sect which he thus founded did not continue long after his death. It is doubtful whether it ever formulated any distinctive doctrine; certainly it developed none of any importance. The memory of Lucifer is still cherished in Sardinia; but, although popularly regarded there as a saint, he has never been canonized.

The controversial writings of Lucifer, dating from his exile, are chiefly remarkable for their passionate zeal, and for the boldness and violence of the language addressed to the reigning emperor, whom he did not scruple to call the enemy of God and a second Saul, Ahab and Jeroboam. Their titles, in the most probable chronological order, areDe non parcendis in Deum delinquentibus,De regibus apostaticis,Ad Constantium Augustum pro Athanasio libri ii.,De non conveniendo cum haereticis and Moriendum esse pro Filio Dei. Their quotations of Scripture are of considerable value to the critical student of the Latin text before Jerome. They were first collected and edited by Tilius (Paris, 1568); the best edition is that of W. Hartel in the ViennaCorpus, Script. Eccl. Lat.(1886). See also G. Krüger,Lucifer Bischof von Cagliari und das Schisma der Luciferianer(Leipzig, 1886); F. G. Kenyon,Textual Criticism, pp. 181, 221.

LUCIFER(the Latinized form of Gr.φωσφόρος, “light-bearer”), the name given to the “morning star,”i.e.the planet Venus when it appears above the E. horizon before sunrise, and sometimes also to the “evening star,”i.e.the same planet in the W. sky after sundown, more usually called Hesperus (q.v.). The term “day star” (so rendered in the Revised Version) was used poetically by Isaiah for the king of Babylon: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations” (Is. xiv. 12, Authorized Version). The words ascribed to Christ in Luke x. 18: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (cf. Rev. ix. 1), were interpreted by the Christian Fathers as referring to the passage in Isaiah; whence, in Christian theology, Lucifer came to be regarded as the name ofSatan before his fall. This idea finds its most magnificent literary expression in Milton’sParadise Lost. In this sense the name is most commonly associated with the familiar phrase “as proud as Lucifer.”

LUCILIUS, GAIUS(c.180-103B.C.), the earliest Roman satirist, of whose writings only fragments remain, was born at Suessa Aurunca in Campania. The dates assigned by Jerome for his birth and death are 148 and 103 or 102B.C.But it is impossible to reconcile the first of these dates with other facts recorded of him, and the date given by Jerome must be due to an error, the true date being about 180B.C.We learn from Velleius Paterculus that he served under Scipio at the siege of Numantia in 134. We learn from Horace that he lived on the most intimate terms of friendship with Scipio and Laelius, and that he celebrated the exploits and virtues of the former in his satires. Fragments of those books of his satires which seem to have been first given to the world (books xxvi.-xxix.) clearly indicate that they were written in the lifetime of Scipio. Some of these bring the poet before us as either corresponding with, or engaged in controversial conversation with, his great friend. One line—

Percrepa pugnam Popilli, facta Corneli cane—

in which the defeat of M. Popillius Laenas, in 138, is contrasted with the subsequent success of Scipio, bears the stamp of having been written while the news of the capture of Numantia was still fresh. It is in the highest degree improbable that Lucilius served in the army at the age of fourteen; it is still more unlikely that he could have been admitted into the familiar intimacy of Scipio and Laelius at that age. It seems a moral impossibility that between the age of fifteen and nineteen—i.e.between 133 and 129, the year of Scipio’s death—he could have come before the world as the author of an entirely new kind of composition, and one which, to be at all successful, demands especially maturity of judgment and experience. It may further be said that the well-known words of Horace (Satires, ii. 1, 33), in which he characterizes the vivid portraiture of his life, character and thoughts, which Lucilius bequeathed to the world,

quo fit ut omnisVotiva pateat veluti descripta tabellaVita senis,1

quo fit ut omnis

Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella

Vita senis,1

lose much of their force unlesssenisis to be taken in its ordinary sense—which it cannot be if Lucilius died at the age of forty-six. He spent the greater part of his life at Rome, and died, according to Jerome, at Naples. Lucilius belonged to the equestrian order, a fact indicated by Horace’s notice of himself as “infra Lucili censum.” Though not himself belonging to any of the great senatorial families, he was in a position to associate with them on equal terms. This circumstance contributed to the boldness, originality and thoroughly national character of his literary work. Had he been a “semi-Graecus,” like Ennius and Pacuvius, or of humble origin, like Plautus, Terence or Accius, he would scarcely have ventured, at a time when the senatorial power was strongly in the ascendant, to revive the rôle which had proved disastrous to Naevius; nor would he have had the intimate knowledge of the political and social life of his day which fitted him to be its painter. Another circumstance determining the bent of his mind was the character of the time. The origin of Roman political and social satire is to be traced to the same disturbing and disorganizing forces which led to the revolutionary projects and legislation of the Gracchi.

The reputation which Lucilius enjoyed in the best ages of Roman literature is proved by the terms in which Cicero and Horace speak of him. Persius, Juvenal and Quintilian vouch for the admiration with which he was regarded in the first century of the empire. The popularity which he enjoyed in his own time is attested by the fact that at his death, although he had filled none of the offices of state, he received the honour of a public funeral. His chief claim to distinction is his literary originality. He may be called the inventor of poetical satire, as he was the first to impress upon the rude inartistic medley, known to the Romans by the name ofsatura, that character of aggressive and censorious criticism of persons, morals, manners, politics, literature, &c. which the word satire has ever since denoted. In point of form the satire of Lucilius owed nothing to the Greeks. It was a legitimate development of an indigenous dramatic entertainment, popular among the Romans before the first introduction of the forms of Greek art among them; and it seems largely also to have employed the form of the familiar epistle. But the style, substance and spirit of his writings were apparently as original as the form. He seems to have commenced his poetical career by ridiculing and parodying the conventional language of epic and tragic poetry, and to have used the language commonly employed in the social intercourse of educated men. Even his frequent use of Greek words, phrases and quotations, reprehended by Horace, was probably taken from the actual practice of men, who found their own speech as yet inadequate to give free expression to the new ideas and impressions which they derived from their first contact with Greek philosophy, rhetoric and poetry. Further, he not only created a style of his own, but, instead of taking the substance of his writings from Greek poetry, or from a remote past, he treated of the familiar matters of daily life, of the politics, the wars, the administration of justice, the eating and drinking, the money-making and money-spending, the scandals and vices, which made up the public and private life of Rome in the last quarter of the 2nd centuryB.C.This he did in a singularly frank, independent and courageous spirit, with no private ambition to serve, or party cause to advance, but with an honest desire to expose the iniquity or incompetence of the governing body, the sordid aims of the middle class, and the corruption and venality of the city mob. There was nothing of stoical austerity or of rhetorical indignation in the tone in which he treated the vices and follies of his time. His character and tastes were much more akin to those of Horace than of either Persius or Juvenal. But he was what Horace was not, a thoroughly good hater; and he lived at a time when the utmost freedom of speech and the most unrestrained indulgence of public and private animosity were the characteristics of men who took a prominent part in affairs. Although Lucilius took no active part in the public life of his time, he regarded it in the spirit of a man of the world and of society, as well as a man of letters. His ideal of public virtue and private worth had been formed by intimate association with the greatest and best of the soldiers and statesmen of an older generation.

The remains of Lucilius extend to about eleven hundred, mostly unconnected lines, most of them preserved by late grammarians, as illustrative of peculiar verbal usages. He was, for his time, a voluminous as well as a very discursive writer. He left behind him thirty books of satires, and there is reason to believe that each book, like the books of Horace and Juvenal, was composed of different pieces. The order in which they were known to the grammarians was not that in which they were written. The earliest in order of composition were probably those numbered from xxvi. to xxix., which were written in the trochaic and iambic metres that had been employed by Ennius and Pacuvius in theirSaturae. In these he made those criticisms on the older tragic and epic poets of which Horace and other ancient writers speak. In them too he speaks of the Numantine War as recently finished, and of Scipio as still living. Book i., on the other hand, in which the philosopher Carneades, who died in 128, is spoken of as dead, must have been written after the death of Scipio. Most of the satires of Lucilius were written in hexameters, but, so far as an opinion can be formed from a number of unconnected fragments, he seems to have written the trochaic tetrameter with a smoothness, clearness and simplicity which he never attained in handling the hexameter. The longer fragments produce the impression of great discursiveness and carelessness, but at the same time of considerable force. He appears, in the composition of his various pieces, to have treated everything that occurred to him in the most desultory fashion, sometimes adopting the form of dialogue, sometimes that of an epistle or an imaginary discourse, and often to have spoken in his own name, giving an account of his travels and adventures, or of amusing scenes that he had witnessed, or expressing the results of his private meditations and experiences. Like Horace he largely illustrated his own observations by personal anecdotes and fables. The fragments clearly show how often Horace has imitated him, not only in expression, but in the form of his satires (see for instance i. 5 and ii. 2), in the topics which he treats of, and the class of social vices and the types of character which he satirizes. For students of Latin literature, thechief interest of studying the fragments of Lucilius consists in the light which they throw on the aims and methods of Horace in the composition of his satires, and, though not to the same extent, of his epistles. They are important also as materials for linguistic study; and they have considerable historical value.Editions by F. D. Gerlach (1846), L. Müller (1872), C. Lachmann (1876, posthumous), F. Marx (1905); see also L. Müller,Leben und Werke des Lucilius(1876); “Luciliana,” by H. A. J. Munro, in theJournal of Philology, vii. (1877); Mommsen,Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 13; “Luciliana,” by A. E. Housman, inClassical Quarterly(April, 1907); C. Cichorius,Untersuchungen zu Lucilius(Berlin, 1908).

Editions by F. D. Gerlach (1846), L. Müller (1872), C. Lachmann (1876, posthumous), F. Marx (1905); see also L. Müller,Leben und Werke des Lucilius(1876); “Luciliana,” by H. A. J. Munro, in theJournal of Philology, vii. (1877); Mommsen,Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 13; “Luciliana,” by A. E. Housman, inClassical Quarterly(April, 1907); C. Cichorius,Untersuchungen zu Lucilius(Berlin, 1908).

(W. Y. S.; X.)

1“And so it happens that the whole life of the old man stands clearly before us, as if it were represented on a votive picture.”

LUCILIUS JUNIOR,a friend and correspondent of the younger Seneca, probably the author ofAetna, a poem on the origin of volcanic activity, variously attributed to Virgil, Cornelius Severus (epic poet of the Augustan age) and Manilius. Its composition has been placed as far back as 44B.C., on the ground that certain works of art, known to have been removed to Rome about that date, are referred to as being at a distance from the city. But as the author appears to have known and made use of theQuaestiones Naturalesof Seneca (writtenA.D.65), and no mention is made of the great eruption of Vesuvius (A.D.79), the time of its composition seems to lie between these two dates. In favour of the authorship of Lucilius are the facts that he was a friend of Seneca and acquainted with his writings; that he had for some time held the office of imperial procurator of Sicily, and was thus familiar with the locality; that he was the author of a poem on Sicilian subjects. It is objected that in the 79th letter of Seneca, which is the chief authority on the question, he apparently asks that Lucilius should introduce the hackneyed theme of Aetna merely as an episode in his contemplated poem, not make it the subject of separate treatment. The sources of the Aetna are Posidonius of Apamea, and perhaps the pseudo-AristotelianDe Mundo, while there are many reminiscences of Lucretius. It has come down in a very corrupt state, and its difficulties are increased by the unpoetical nature of the subject, the straining after conciseness, and the obtrusive use of metaphor.

Editions by J. Scaliger (1595), F. Jacob (1826), H. A. J. Munro (1867), M. Haupt (in his edition of Virgil, 1873), E. Bährens (inPoetae latini minores, ii), S. Sudhaus (1898), R. Ellis (1901, containing a bibliography of the subject); see also M. Haupt’sOpuscula, i. 40, ii. 27, 162, iii. 437 (notes, chiefly critical); R. Ellis inJournal of Philology, xvi. 292; P. R. Wagler,De Aetna poemate quaestiones criticae(1884); B. Kruczkiewicz,Poema de Aetna Monte(1883, in which the ancient view of the authorship of Virgil is upheld); L. Alzinger,Studia in Aetnam collata(1896); R. Hildebrandt,Beiträge zur Erklärung des Gedichtes Aetna(1900); J. Vessereau (text, translation and commentary, 1905); Teuffel-Schwabe,Hist. of Roman Literature(Eng. trans. §§ 307, 308).

LUCINA,goddess of light, a title given to Juno and Diana as presiding over childbirth and bringing children into the light of the world. The full name islucina dea, “the light-bringing goddess” (lux, light, hence adj.lucinus). It is also given to Hecate (Tibullus 3. 4. 13), as the bringer of terrible dreams, and is used metaphorically as a synonym for child-birth (Virg.Georg, iii. 60; Ovid,Ars. Amai.iii. 785).

LUCIUS,the name of three popes.

Lucius I., pope for eight months (253-254), spent a short period of his pontificate in exile. He is referred to in several letters of Cyprian (seeEpist.lxviii. 5) as having been in agreement with his predecessor Cornelius in preferring the milder view on the question as to how the lapsed penitent should be treated. He is commemorated on the 4th of March.

(L. D.*)

Lucius II.(Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso), pope from the 12th of March 1144 to the 15th of February 1145, a Bolognese, successively canon at his native city, cardinal priest of Sta Croce in Gerusalemme, treasurer of the Roman Church, papal legate in Germany for Honorius II., chancellor and librarian under Innocent II., was the successor of Celestine II. His stormy pontificate was marked by the erection of a revolutionary republic at Rome which sought to deprive the pope of his temporal power, and by the recognition of papal suzerainty over Portugal. He was succeeded by Eugenius III.

His letters are in J. P. Migne,Patrol. Lat.vol. 179. A single unreliable writer, Godfrey of Viterbo (in J. M. Watterich,Pontif. Roman. Vitae), is authority for the statement that Lucius II. perished in an attempt to storm the Capitol. See Jaffé-Wittenbach,Regesta pontif. Roman. (1885-1888); J. Langen,Geschichte der römischen Kirche von Gregor VII. bis Innocenz III.(Bonn, 1893); F. Gregorovius,Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 4, trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1896).

Lucius III.(Ubaldo Allucingoli), pope from the 1st of September 1181 to the 25th of November 1185, a native of Lucca and a Cistercian monk, named cardinal-priest of Sta Prassede by Innocent II. and cardinal-bishop of Ostia and Velletri by Adrian IV., succeeded Alexander III. He lived at Rome from November 1181 to March 1182, but dissensions in the city compelled him to pass the remainder of his pontificate in exile, mainly at Velletri, Anagni and Verona. He disputed with the emperor Frederick I. the disposal of the territories of the Countess Matilda. In November 1184 he held a synod at Verona which condemned the Cathari, Paterines, Waldensians and Arnoldists, and anathematized all heretics and their abettors. Lucius died in the midst of preparations for a crusade in answer to appeals of Baldwin IV. of Jerusalem. His successor was Urban III.

His letters are in J. P. Migne,Patrol. Lat.vol. 201. Consult J. M. Watterich,Pontif. Roman. Vitae, vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1862); and Jaffé-Wattenbach,Regesta Pontif. Roman. (1885-1888). See J. Langen,Geschichte der römischen Kirche von Gregor VII. bis Innocenz III.(Bonn, 1893); F. Gregorovius,Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 4, trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1896); P. Scheffer-Boichorst, “Zu den mathildinischen Schenkungen,” inMittheilungen des österreichen Instituts(1888).

(C. H. Ha.)

LUCK,a term for good or bad fortune, the unforeseen or unrecognized causes which bring success or failure in any enterprise, particularly used of the result of chances in games of skill or chance (seeProbability). The word does not occur in English before the 16th century. It was taken from the Low Ger.luk, a shortened form ofgeluk, cf. Modern Ger.Glück, happiness, good fortune. TheNew English Dictionaryconsiders the word to have been introduced from the Low Countries as a gambling term. The ultimate origin is doubtful; it has been connected with the Germangelingen, to succeed (cf.Druck, pressure, fromdringen), or withlocken, to entice.

At Eden Hall in Cumberland, the seat of the Musgrave family, has been long preserved a vessel known as “the luck,” supposed to be of Venetian or Byzantine make, and dating from the 10th century. It is a chalice of enamelled glass, and on its safe preservation the fortunes of the Musgrave family are supposed to depend, in accordance with the rhyme:—

“Should this cup either break or fall,Farewell the luck of Edenhall.”

“Should this cup either break or fall,

Farewell the luck of Edenhall.”

LÜCKE, GOTTFRIED CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH(1791-1855), German theologian, was born on the 24th of August 1791, at Egeln near Magdeburg, where his father was a merchant. He studied theology at Halle and Göttingen. In 1813 he becamerepetentat Göttingen, and in 1814 he received the degree of doctor in philosophy from Halle; in 1816 he removed to Berlin, where he became licentiate in theology, and qualified asprivat-docent. He soon became intimate with Schleiermacher and de Wette, and was associated with them in 1819 in the redaction of theTheologische Zeitschrift. Meanwhile his lectures and publications (among the latter aGrundriss der Neutestamentlichen Hermeneutik, 1816) had brought him into considerable repute, and he was appointed professor extraordinarius in the new university of Bonn in the spring of 1818; in the following autumn he became professor ordinarius. From Bonn, where he had J. C. W. Augusti (1772-1841), J. K. L. Gieseler, and Karl Immanuel Nitzsch for colleagues, he was called in 1827 to Göttingen to succeed K. F. Stäudlin (1761-1826). In that year he helped to found theTheologische Studien und Kritiken, the chief organ of the “mediation” theology (Vermittelungstheologie). At Göttingen he remained, declining all further calls elsewhere, as to Erlangen, Kiel, Halle, Tübingen, Jena and Leipzig, until his death, which occurred on the 4th of February 1855.

Lücke, who was one of the most learned, many-sided and influential of the so-called “mediation” school of evangelical theologians (Vermittelungstheologie), is now chiefly known by hisKommentar über die Schriften d. Evangelisten Johannes(4 vols., 1820-1832); it has since passed through two new and improved editions (the last volume of the 3rd edition by E. Bertheau, 1856). He is an intelligentmaintainer of the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel; in connexion with this thesis he was one of the first to argue for the early date and non-apostolic authorship of the Apocalypse. HisEinleitung in die Offenbarung Johanniswas published in 1832 (2nd ed., 1848-1852). He also published aSynopsis Evangeliorum, conjointly with W. M. L. de Wette (1818, 2nd ed., 1840). See Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie.

LUCKENWALDE,a town in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Nuthe, 30 m. S. of Berlin, on the main line to Dresden and Leipzig. Pop. (1905) 22,263. Its cloth and wool manufactories are among the most extensive in Prussia. Among its other industries are cotton printing and dye works, brewing, and the making of metal and bronze goods.

The site of Luckenwalde was occupied in the 12th century by a Cistercian monastery, but the village did not spring up till the reign of Frederick the Great. It was made a town in 1808.

LUCKNOW,a city, district and division of British India. The city was the capital of Oudh from 1775 until it was merged in the United Provinces in 1901. Pop. (1901) 264,049. It lies mainly on the right bank of the winding river Gumti, which is crossed by two railway and three road bridges. It contains the Canning college (1864), with an Oriental department, and La Martinière college, where about 100 boys are educated, the institution being in part supported by an endowment left by General Claude Martin in 1800. There are native manufactures of gold and silver brocade, muslins, embroidery, brass and copper wares, pottery and moulding in clay. There are also important European industrial establishments, such as iron-works and paper-mills. Lucknow is the centre of the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway system, with large workshops. Lines radiate to Cawnpore, Bareilly, Gonda, Fyzabad and Rae Bareli. Lucknow is the headquarters of the 8th division of the northern army. The cantonments are situated 3 m. E. of the city.

Lucknow is chiefly notable in the history of British India as the capital of the nawabs who had dealings with Warren Hastings, and their successors the kings of Oudh, whose deposition by Lord Dalhousie was one of the chief causes of the Mutiny. Amongst the events of the Mutiny the defence of the residency of Lucknow comes only second in historic interest to the massacre at Cawnpore itself. For the two sieges, see Indian Mutiny. The name of the residency is now applied not only to the residency itself, but to the whole of the outbuildings and entrenchments in which Sir Henry Lawrence concentrated his small force. These entrenchments covered almost 60 acres of ground, and consisted of a number of detached houses, public edifices, outhouses and casual buildings, netted together, and welded by ditches, parapets, stockades and batteries into one connected whole. On the summit of the plateau stands the residency proper, the official residence of the chief commissioner, a lofty building three storeys high, with a fine portico. Near the residency comes the banqueting hall, and beyond the Baillie Guardgate lie the ruins of the surgeon’s house, where Sir Henry Lawrence died of a shell-wound, and where the ladies of the garrison were sheltered in underground rooms. Round the line of the entrenchments are pillars marked with the name of the various “posts” into which the garrison was distributed. The most dangerous of these was the Cawnpore battery post, where the stockade was directly exposed to the enemy’s fire. The mutineers had rifles fixed in rests in the house opposite, and swept the road that led through the residency enclosure at this point. Close to the residency is the Lawrence Memorial, an artificial mound 30 ft. high crowned by a marble cross.

Among the other buildings of interest in Lucknow is the Imambara, which is one of the largest rooms in the world (162 ft. by 54), having an arched roof without supports. This room was built by the Nawab Asaf-ud-dowlah in 1784, to afford relief to the famine-stricken people. The many monuments of his reign include his country palace of Bibiapur, outside the city. Among later bulldings are the two palaces of Chhattar Manzil, erected for the wives of Ghazi-ud-din Haidar (1814), the remains of the Farhat Baksh, dating from the previous reign, and adjoining the greater Chhattar Manzil, the observatory (now a bank) of Nasir-ud-din Haidar (1827), the imambara or mausoleum and the unfinished great mosque (Jama Masjid) of Mahommed Ali Shah (1837), and the huge debased Kaisar Bagh, the palace of Wajid Ali Shah (1847-1856).

TheDistrict of Lucknowlies on both sides of the river Gumti, and has an area of 967 sq. m. Its general aspect is that of an open champaign, well studded with villages, finely wooded and in parts most fertile and highly cultivated. In the vicinity of rivers, however, stretch extensive barren sandy tracts (bhúr), and there are many wastes of saline efflorescence (usár). The country is an almost dead level, the average slope, which is from N.W. to S.E., being less than a foot per mile. The principal rivers are the Gumti and the Sai with their tributaries. The population in 1901 was 793,241, showing an increase of 2.5% in the preceding decade.TheDivision of Lucknowcontains the western half of the old province of Oudh. It comprises the six districts of Lucknow, Unao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Kheri. Its area is 12,051 sq. m. and its population in 1901 was 5,977,086, showing an increase of 2.06% in the decade.SeeLucknow District Gazetteer(Allahabad, 1904). For a fuller description of the city see G. W. Forrest,Cities of India(1903).

TheDivision of Lucknowcontains the western half of the old province of Oudh. It comprises the six districts of Lucknow, Unao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Kheri. Its area is 12,051 sq. m. and its population in 1901 was 5,977,086, showing an increase of 2.06% in the decade.

SeeLucknow District Gazetteer(Allahabad, 1904). For a fuller description of the city see G. W. Forrest,Cities of India(1903).

LUÇON,a town of western France, in the department of Vendée, 23 m. S.E. of La Roche-sur-Yon, on the railway from Nantes to Bordeaux, and on the canal of Luçon (9 m. long), which affords communication with the sea in the Bay of Aiguillon. Pop. (1906) 6163. Between Luçon and the sea stretch marshy plains, the bed of the former gulf, partly drained by numerous canals, and in the reclaimed parts yielding excellent pasturage, while in other parts are productive salt-marshes, and ponds for the rearing of mussels and other shell-fish. Luçon is the seat of a bishopric, established in 1317, and held by Richelieu from 1607 to 1624. The cathedral, partly of the 12th-century and partly of later periods, was originally an abbey church. The façade and the clock tower date from about 1700, and the tower is surmounted by a crocketed spire rising 275 ft. above the ground, attributed to the architect François Leduc of Tuscany. The cloisters are of the late 15th century. Adjacent is the bishop’s palace, possessing a large theological library and Titian’s “Disciples of Emmaus,” and there is a fine public garden. A communal college and an ecclesiastical seminary are among the public institutions. During the Vendean wars, Luçon was the scene of several conflicts, notably in 1793.

LUCRE(Lat.lucrum, gain; the Indo-European root is seen in Gr.ἀπολάυειν, to enjoy, and in Ger.Lohn, wages), a term now only used in the disparaging sense of unworthy profit, or money that is the object of greed, especially in the expression “filthy lucre” (1 Tim. iii. 3). In the adjective “lucrative,” profitable, there is, however, no sense of disparagement. In Scots law the term “lucrative succession” (lucrativa acquisitio) is used of the taking by an heir, during the lifetime of his ancestor, of a free grant of any part of the heritable property.

LUCRETIA,a Roman lady, wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, distinguished for her beauty and domestic virtues. Having been outraged by Sextus Tarquinius, one of the sons of Tarquinius Superbus, she informed her father and her husband, and, having exacted an oath of vengeance from them, stabbed herself to death. Lucius Junius Brutus, her husband’s cousin, put himself at the head of the people, drove out the Tarquins, and established a republic. The accounts of this tradition in later writers present many points of divergence.

Livy i. 57-59; Dion. Halic. iv. 64-67, 70, 82; Ovid,Fasti, ii. 721-852; Dio Cassius, frag. 11 (Bekker); G. Cornewall Lewis,Credibility of Early Roman History, i.

LUCRETILIS MONS,a mountain of the Sabine territory, mentioned by Horace (Od.i. 17, 1) as visible from his Sabine farm, and probably identical with the “Mons Lucretius” mentioned in theLiber Pontificalis(ed. Duchesne, i. 183), which speaks of “possessio in territorio Sabinensi quae cognominatur ad duas casas sub monte Lucretio” in the time of Constantine. The name “ad duas casas” is supposed to survive in the chapel of the Madonna della Casa near Rocca Giovane, and the Mons Lucretilis is generally (and rightly) identified with Monte Gennaro, a limestone peak 4160 ft. high, which forms a prominent feature in the view N.E. of Rome. Excavations on the supposed site of Horace’s farm were begun by Professor Pasqui in September 1909.

(T. As.)

LUCRETIUS(Titus Lucretius Carus) (c.98-55B.C.), the great Latin didactic poet. Our sole information concerning his life is found in the brief summary of Jerome, written more than four centuries after the poet’s death. Jerome followed, often carelessly, the accounts contained in the lost work of SuetoniusDe Viris Illustribus, written about two centuries after the death of Lucretius; and, although it is likely that Suetonius used the information transmitted by earlier grammarians, there is nothing to guide us to the original sources. According to this account the poet was born in 95B.C.; he became mad in consequence of the administration of a love-philtre; and after composing several books in his lucid intervals, which were subsequently corrected by Cicero, he died by his own hand in the forty-fourth year of his age. Donatus states in his life of Virgil, a work also based on the lost work of Suetonius, that Lucretius died on the same day on which Virgil assumed thetoga virilis, that is, in the seventeenth year of Virgil’s life, and on the very day on which he was born, and adds that the consuls were the same, that is Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus, consuls in 70 and again in 55. The statements cannot be perfectly reconciled; but we may say with certainty that Lucretius was born between 98 and 95B.C., and died in 55 or 54. A single mention of his poem, theDe rerum natura(which from the condition in which it has reached us may be assumed to have been published posthumously) in a letter of Cicero’s to his brother Quintus, written early in 54B.C., confirms the date given by Donatus as that of the poet’s death. The statements of Jerome have been questioned or disbelieved on the ground of their intrinsic improbability. They have been regarded as a fiction invented later by the enemies of Epicureanism, with the view of discrediting the most powerful work ever produced by any disciple of that sect. It is more in conformity with ancient credulity than with modern science to attribute a permanent tendency to derangement to the accidental administration of any drug, however potent. A work characterized by such strength, consistency and continuity of thought is not likely to have been composed “in the intervals of madness” as Jerome says. Donatus, in mentioning the poet’s death, gives no hint of the act of suicide. The poets of the Augustan age, who were deeply interested both in his philosophy and in his poetry, are entirely silent about the tragical story of his life. Cicero, by his professed antagonism to the doctrines of Epicurus, by his inadequate appreciation of Lucretius himself and by the indifference which he shows to other contemporary poets, seems to have been neither fitted for the task of correcting the unfinished work of a writer whose genius was so distinct from his own, nor likely to have cordially undertaken such a task.

Yet these considerations do not lead to the absolute rejection of the story. The evidence afforded by the poem rather leads to the conclusion that the tradition contains some germ of fact. It is remarkable that in more than one passage of his poem Lucretius writes with extraordinary vividness of the impression produced both by dreams and by waking visions. It is true that the philosophy of Epicurus put great stress on these, as affording the explanation of the origin of supernatural beliefs. But the insistence with which Lucretius returns to the subject, and the horror with which he recalls the effects of such abnormal phenomena, suggest that he himself may have been liable to such hallucinations, which are said to be consistent with perfect sanity, though they may be the precursors either of madness or of a state of despair and melancholy. Other passages, where he describes himself as ever engaged, even in his dreams, on his task of inquiry and composition, produce the impression of an unrelieved strain of mind and feeling, which may have ended in some extreme reaction of spirit, or in some failure of intellectual power, that may have led him to commit suicide. But the strongest confirmation of the tradition is the unfinished condition in which the poem has reached us. The subject appears indeed to have been fully treated in accordance with the plan sketched out in the introduction to the first book. But that book is the only one which is finished in style and in the arrangement of its matter. In all the others, and especially in the last three, the continuity of the argument is frequently broken by passages which must have been inserted after the first draft of the arguments was written out. Thus, for instance, in his account of the transition from savage to civilized life, he assumes at v. 1011 the discovery of the use of skins, fire, &c., and the first beginning of civil society, and proceeds at 1028 to explain the origin of language, and then again returns, from 1090 to 1160, to speculate upon the first use of fire and the earliest stages of political life. These breaks in continuity show what might also be inferred from frequent repetitions of lines which have appeared earlier in the poem, and from the rough workmanship of passages in the later books, that the poem could not have received the final revision of the author. Nor is there any great difficulty in believing that Cicero edited it; the word “emendavit,” need not mean more than what we call “preparing for press.”

From the absence of any claim on the part of any other district of Italy to the honour of having given birth to Lucretius it is inferred that he was of purely Roman origin. No writer certainly is more purely Roman in personal character and in strength of understanding. His silence on the subject of Roman greatness and glory as contrasted with the prominence of these subjects in the poetry of men of provincial birth such as Ennius, Virgil and Horace, may be explained by the principle that familiarity had made the subject one of less wonder and novelty to him. The Lucretian gens to which he belonged was one of the oldest of the great Roman houses, nor do we hear of the name, as we do of other great family names, as being diffused over other parts of Italy, or as designating men of obscure or servile origin. It may well be assumed that Lucretius was a member of the Roman aristocracy, belonging either to a senatorian or to one of the great equestrian families. If the Roman aristocracy of his time had lost much of the virtue and of the governing qualities of their ancestors, they showed in the last years before the establishment of monarchy a taste for intellectual culture which might have made Rome as great in literature as in arms and law. A new taste for philosophy had developed among members of the governing class during the youth of Lucretius, and eminent Greek teachers of the Epicurean sect settled at Rome at the same time, and lived on terms of intimacy with them. The inference that Lucretius belonged to this class is confirmed by the tone in which he addresses Gaius Memmius, a man of an eminent senatorian family, to whom the poem is dedicated. His tone is quite unlike that in which Virgil or even Horace addresses Maecenas. He addresses him as an equal; he expresses sympathy with the prominent part he played in public life, and admiration for his varied accomplishments, but on his own subject claims to speak to him with authority.

Although our conception of the poet’s life is necessarily vague and meagre, yet his personal force is so remarkable and so vividly impressed on his poem, that we seem able to form a consistent idea of his qualities and characteristics. We know, for example, that the choice of a contemplative life was not the result of indifference to the fate of the world, or of any natural coldness or even calmness of temperament. In the opening lines of the second and third books we can mark the recoil of a humane and sensitive spirit from the horrors of the reign of terror which he witnessed in his youth, and from the anarchy and confusion which prevailed at Rome during his later years. We may also infer that he had not been through his whole career so much estranged from the social life of his day as he seems to have been in his later years. Passages in his poem attest his familiarity with the pomp and luxury of city life, with the attractions of the public games and with the pageantry of great military spectacles. But much the greater mass of the illustrations of his philosophy indicate that, while engaged on his poem he must have passed much of his time in the open air, exercising at once the keen observation of a naturalist and the contemplative vision of a poet. He seems to have found a pleasure, more congenial to the modern than to the ancient temperament, in ascending mountains or wandering among their solitudes (vi. 469, iv. 575). References to companionship in these wanderings, andthe well-known description of the charm of a rustic meal (ii. 29) speak of kindly sociality rather than of any austere separation from his fellows.

Other expressions in his poem (e.g.iii. 10, &c.) imply that he was also a student of books. Foremost among these were the writings of Epicurus; but he had also an intimate knowledge of the philosophical poem of Empedocles, and at least an acquaintance with the works of Democritus, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, Plato and the Stoical writers. Of other Greek prose writers he knew Thucydides and Hippocrates; while of the poets he expresses in more than one passage the highest admiration of Homer, whom he imitated in several places. Next to Homer Euripides is most frequently reproduced by him. But his poetical sympathy was not limited to the poets of Greece. For his own countryman Ennius he expresses an affectionate admiration; and he imitates his language, his rhythm and his manner in many places. The fragments of the old tragedian Pacuvius and of the satirist Lucilius show that Lucretius had made use of their expressions and materials. In his studies he was attracted by the older writers, both Greek and Roman, in whose masculine temperament and understanding he recognized an affinity with his own.

His devotion to Epicurus seems at first sight more difficult to explain than his enthusiasm for Empedocles or Ennius. Probably he found in his calmness of temperament, even in his want of imagination, a sense of rest and of exemption from the disturbing influences of life; while in his physical philosophy he found both an answer to the questions which perplexed him and an inexhaustible stimulus to his intellectual curiosity. The combative energy, the sense of superiority, the spirit of satire, characteristic of him as a Roman, unite with his loyalty to Epicurus to render him not only polemical but intolerant and contemptuous in his tone toward the great antagonists of his system, the Stoics, whom, while constantly referring to them, he does not condescend even to name. With his admiration of the genius of others he combines a strong sense of his own power. He is quite conscious of the great importance and of the difficulty of his task; but he feels his own ability to cope with it.

It is more difficult to infer the moral than the intellectual characteristics of a great writer from the personal impress left by him on his work. Yet it is not too much to say that there is no work in any literature that produces a profounder impression of sincerity. No writer shows a juster scorn of all mere rhetoric and exaggeration. No one shows truer courage, not marred by irreverence, in confronting the great problems of human destiny, or greater strength in triumphing over human weakness. No one shows a truer humanity and a more tender sympathy with natural sorrow.

The peculiarity of the poem of Lucretius, that which makes it unique in literature, is that it is a reasoned system of philosophy, written in verse. The prosaic titleDe Rerum Natura, a translation of the Gr.περὶ φύσεως, implies the subordination of the artistic to a speculative motive. As in the case of nearly all the great works of Roman literary genius, the form of the poem was borrowed from the Greeks. The rise of speculative philosophy in Greece was coincident with the beginning of prose composition, and many of the earliest philosophers wrote in the prose of the Ionic dialect; others, however, and especially the writers of the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, expounded their systems in continuous poems composed in the epic hexameter. Most famous in connexion with this kind of poetry are Xenophanes and Parmenides, the Eleatics and Empedocles of Agrigentum. The last was less important as a philosopher, but greater than the others both as a poet and a physicist. On both of these grounds he had a greater attraction to Lucretius. The fragments of the poem of Empedocles show that the Roman poet regarded that work as his model. In accordance with this model he has given to his own poem the form of a personal address, he has developed his argument systematically, and has applied the sustained impetus of epic poetry to the treatment of some of the driest and abstrusest topics. Many ideas and expressions of the Sicilian have been reproduced by the Roman poet; and the same tone of impassioned solemnity and melancholy seems to have pervaded both works. But Lucretius, if less original as a thinker, was probably a much greater poet than Empedocles. What chiefly distinguishes him from his Greek prototypes is that his purpose is rather ethical than purely speculative; the zeal of a teacher and reformer is more strong in him than even the intellectual passion of a thinker. His speculative ideas, his moral teaching and his poetical power are indeed interdependent on one another, and this interdependence is what mainly constitutes their power and interest. But of the three claims which he makes to immortality, the importance of his subject, his desire to liberate the mind from the bonds of superstition and the charm and lucidity of his poetry—that which he himself regarded as supreme was the second. The main idea of the poem is the irreconcilable opposition between the truth of the laws of nature and the falsehood of the old superstitions. But, further, the happiness and the dignity of life are regarded by him as absolutely dependent on the acceptance of the true and the rejection of the false doctrine. In the Epicurean system of philosophy he believed that he had found the weapons by which this war of liberation could be most effectually waged. Following Epicurus he sets before himself the aim of finally crushing that fear of the gods and that fear of death resulting from it which he regards as the source of all the human ills. Incidentally he desires also to purify the heart from other violent passions which corrupt it and mar its peace. But the source even of these—the passions of ambition and avarice—he finds in the fear of death; and that fear he resolves into the fear of eternal punishment after death.

The selection of his subject and the order in which it is treated are determined by this motive. Although the title of the poem implies that it is a treatise on the “whole nature of things,” the aim of Lucretius is to treat only those branches of science which are necessary to clear the mind from the fear of the gods and the terrors of a future state. In the two earliest books, accordingly, he lays down and largely illustrates the first principles of being with the view of showing that the world is not governed by capricious agency, but has come into existence, continues in existence, and will ultimately pass away in accordance with the primary conditions of the elemental atoms which, along with empty space, are the only eternal and immutable substances. These atoms are themselves infinite in number but limited in their varieties, and by their ceaseless movement and combinations during infinite time and through infinite space the whole process of creation is maintained. In the third book he applies the principles of the atomic philosophy to explain the nature of the mind and vital principle, with the view of showing that the soul perishes with the body. In the fourth book he discusses the Epicurean doctrine of the images, which are cast from all bodies, and which act either on the senses or immediately on the mind, in dreams or waking visions, as affording the explanation of the belief in the continued existence of the spirits of the departed. The fifth book, which has the most general interest, professes to explain the process by which the earth, the sea, the sky, the sun, moon and stars, were formed, the origin of life, and the gradual advance of man from the most savage to the most civilized condition. All these topics are treated with the view of showing that the world is not itself divine nor directed by divine agency. The sixth book is devoted to the explanation, in accordance with natural causes, of some of the more abnormal phenomena, such as thunderstorms, volcanoes, earthquakes, &c., which are special causes of supernatural terrors.

The consecutive study of the argument produces on most readers a mixed feeling of dissatisfaction and admiration. They are repelled by the dryness of much of the matter, the unsuitableness of many of the topics discussed for poetic treatment, the arbitrary assumption of premises, the entire failure to establish the connexion between the concrete phenomena which the author professes to explain and these assumptions, and the erroneousness of many of the doctrines which are stated with dogmatic confidence. On the other hand, they are constantly impressed by his power of reasoning both deductively and inductively, by the subtlety and fertility of invention with whichhe applies analogies, by the clearness and keenness of his observation, by the fulness of matter with which his mind is stored, and by the consecutive force, the precision and distinctness of his style, when employed in the processes of scientific exposition. The first two books enable us better than anything else in ancient literature to appreciate the boldness and, on the whole, the reasonableness of the ancient mind in forming hypotheses on great matters that still occupy the investigations of physical science. The third and fourth books give evidence of acuteness in psychological analysis; the fourth and sixth of the most active and varied observation of natural phenomena; the fifth of original insight and strong common sense in conceiving the origin of society and the progressive advance of man to civilization. But the chief value of Lucretius as a thinker lies in his firm grasp of speculative ideas, and in his application of them to the interpretation of human life and nature. All phenomena, moral as well as material, are contemplated by him in their relation to one great organic whole, which he acknowledges under the name of “Natura daedala rerum,” and the most beneficent manifestations of which he seems to symbolize and almost to deify in the “Alma Venus,” whom, in apparent contradiction to his denial of a divine interference with human affairs, he invokes with prayer in the opening lines of the poem. In this conception of nature are united the conceptions of law and order, of ever-changing life and interdependence, of immensity, individuality, and all-pervading subtlety, under which the universe is apprehended both by his intelligence and his imagination.

Nothing can be more unlike the religious and moral attitude of Lucretius than the old popular conception of him as an atheist and a preacher of the doctrine of pleasure. It is true that he denies the doctrines of a supernatural government of the world and of a future life. But his arguments against the first are really only valid against the limited and unworthy conceptions of divine agency involved in the ancient religions; his denial of the second is prompted by his vital realization of all that is meant by the arbitrary infliction of eternal torment after death. His war with the popular beliefs of his time is waged, not in the interests of licence, but in vindication of the sanctity of human feeling. The cardinal line of the poem,

“Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum,”

is elicited from him as his protest against the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father. But in his very denial of a cruel, limited and capricious agency of the gods, and in his imaginative recognition of an orderly, all-pervading, all-regulating power, we find at least a nearer approach to the higher conceptions of modern theism than in any of the other imaginative conceptions of ancient poetry and art. But his conception even of the ancient gods and of their indirect influence on human life is more worthy than the popular one. He conceives of them as living a life of eternal peace and exemption from passion, in a world of their own; and the highest ideal of man is, through the exercise of his reason, to realize an image of this life. Although they are conceived of as unconcerned with the interest of our world, yet influences are supposed to emanate from them which the human heart is capable of receiving and assimilating. The effect of unworthy conceptions of the divine nature is that they render a man incapable of visiting the temples of the gods in a calm spirit, or of receiving the emanations that “announce the divine peace” in peaceful tranquillity. The supposed “atheism” of Lucretius proceeds from a more deeply reverential spirit than that of the majority of professed believers in all times.

His moral attitude is also far removed from that of ordinary ancient Epicureanism or of modern materialism. Though he acknowledges pleasure to be the law of life, yet he is far from regarding its attainment as the end of life. What man needs is not enjoyment, but “peace and a pure heart.” The victory to be won by man is the triumph over fear, ambition, passion, luxury. With the conquest over these nature herself supplies all that is needed for happiness. Self-control and renunciation are the lessons which he preaches.

It has been doubted whether Cicero,1in his short criticism in the letter already referred to, concedes to Lucretius both the gifts of genius and the accomplishment of art or only one of them. Readers of a later time, who could compare his work with the finished works of the Augustan age, would certainly disparage his art rather than his power. But with Cicero it was different. He greatly admired, or professed to admire, the genius of the early Roman poets, while he shows indifference to the poetical genius of his younger contemporaries. Yet he could not have been insensible to the immense superiority in rhythmical smoothness which the hexameter of Lucretius has over that of Ennius and Lucilius. And no reader of Lucretius can doubt that he attached the greatest importance to artistic execution, and that he took a great pleasure, not only in “the long roll of his hexameter,” but also in producing the effects of alliteration, assonance, &c., which are so marked a peculiarity in the style of Plautus and the earlier Roman poets. He allows his taste for these tricks of style to degenerate into mannerism. And this is the only drawback to the impression of absolute spontaneity which his style produces. He was unfortunate in living before the natural rudeness of Latin art had been successfully grappled with. His only important precursors in serious poetry were Ennius and Lucilius, and, though he derived from the first of these an impulse to shape the Latin tongue into a fitting vehicle for the expression of elevated emotion and imaginative conception, he could find in neither a guide to follow in the task he set before himself. The difficulty and novelty of his task enhances our sense of his power. His finest passages are thus characterized by a freshness of feeling and enthusiasm of discovery. But the result of these conditions and of his own inadequate conception of the proper limits of his art is that his best poetry is clogged with a great mass of alien matter, which no treatment in the world could have made poetically endurable.

Back to Index Next