The Roman Poets of the Republic Part 42

he regards as the only true religion for man: the 'mute and uncomplaining' peace of the grave reconciles him to the thought of everlasting death. The inadequacy of his philosophy may thus be traced partly to his vivid impressibility of imagination, which made him too exclusively sensible of the awe produced on man's spirit by the mystery of the universe, partly to his defective sympathy with the active interests and duties of life. Partly, too, the bent of his mind towards material observation and enquiry had some share in determining his convictions. In dwelling on the outward appearances of decay and death, he seems to have shut his eyes to those inward conditions of the human spirit which to Plato, Cicero, and Virgil appeared the witnesses of immortality. The inability to form the definite conception of a G.o.d without human limitations, as well as his strong sense of the imperfection of the world, forced upon him the absolute denial of any Divine providence over human affairs.

Yet a modern reader, without accepting the conclusions of his philosophy, may sympathise with much of his spirit. In his firm faith in the laws which govern the universe, he will recognise a great position established, as essential to the progress of religious as of scientific thought. He will see, in the earnest intensity of his feeling and the sincerity of his expression, a spirit akin to the purer kinds of religious fervour in modern times. In no other writer, ancient or modern, will he find a profounder sense of human dignity, of the supreme claims of affection, of the superiority of a natural to a conventional life. From the direct exhortation and the indirect teaching of Lucretius, he may learn such lessons as these,--that it is man's first business to know and obey the laws of his being,--that the sphere of his happiest activity is to be found in contemplation rather than in action,--that his well-being consists in valuing rightly the real blessings of life rather than in following the illusions of fancy or of custom,--in reverencing the sanct.i.ty of family life,--and in cherishing a kindly sympathy with all living things. If there was nothing especially new in the views which he enunciated, the power of realising the common conditions of life, the pa.s.sionate effort not only to rise himself above human weakness, but to redeem the whole race of man from the curse of ignorance, and the force of imaginative sympathy with which he executed this part of his task were, perhaps, something altogether new in the world.

The same 'vivida vis' with which he observes natural phenomena characterises his insight into human character and pa.s.sion. He penetrates below the surface of life with the searching insight of a great satirist, and sees more clearly into the hearts of men, and has a more subtle perception of the secret springs of their unhappiness, than any of his countrymen. The aim of his satire is not to make men seem objects of ridicule or scorn, but to restore them to the dignity which they had forfeited through weakness and ignorance. The observation of Horace is wider and more varied, but it ranges much more over the surface of life. He has neither the same sense of the mystery of our being, nor the same sympathy with the common conditions of mankind.

The power of truthful moral painting which Lucretius exercises is seen in that pa.s.sage in which he reveals the secret of the 'amari aliquit,'

'amid the very flowers of love,'--

Aut c.u.m conscius ipse animus se forte remordet Desidiose agere aetatem l.u.s.trisque perire, Aut quod in ambiguo verb.u.m iaculata reliquit Quod cupido adfixum cordi vivescit ut ignis, Aut nimium iactare oculos aliumve tueri Quod putat in voltuque videt vestigia risus[40]:

and in that in which he describes the satiety and restlessness which is the avenging nemesis of an opulent and luxurious society,--

Exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille, Esse domi quem pertaesumst, subitoque revert.i.t, Quippe foris nilo melius qui sentiat esse.

Currit agens mannos ad villam praecipitanter, Auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instans; Oscitat extemplo, tetigit c.u.m limina villae, Aut abit in somnum gravis atque oblivia quaerit, Aut etiam properans urbem pet.i.t atque revisit[41].

There is always poetry and pathos in the satire of Lucretius. There is no trace in him of the malice or the love of detraction which is seldom wholly absent from satiric writing. The futility of human effort is the burden of his complaint[42]: and this (as has been pointed out by M. Martha) is the explanation of the pathetic recurrence of the word 'nequicquam' in so many pa.s.sages of his poem.

His scorn and indignation are shown only in exposing the impostures which men mistake for truths. There is thus infinite compa.s.sion for the common lot of man blended with the irony of the pa.s.sage in which he represents the aged husbandman complaining of the general decay of piety as the cause of the failure of the earth to respond to his labours. His direct and realistic power of expression enhances his power as a moral painter and teacher. Though the writings of Horace supply many more quotations applicable to various situations in life, and expressed in equally apposite language, yet such lines as these in the older poet seem to come from the heart of one ever 'sounding a deeper and more perilous way' over the sea of human life, than suited the more worldly wisdom of Horace,--

Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum[43].-- Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis[44]?-- Vitaque mancipio nulli datur omnibus usu[45].-- Surgit amari aliquit quod in ipsis floribus augat[46].-- Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Eiciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res[47].-- Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce Aequo animo[48].

Many other lines and expressions of similar force will occur to every reader familiar with Lucretius. As his ordinary style brings the outward aspects of the world vividly before the mind, so the language in which his moral teaching is enforced, or the result of his moral observation is expressed, stamps powerfully on the mind important and permanent truths of human nature. His thoughts are uttered sometimes with the impressive dignity of Roman oratory, sometimes with the nervous energy, not without flashes of the vigorous wit, of Roman satire. There are occasionally to be heard also higher and deeper tones than those familiar to cla.s.sical poetry. His burning zeal and indignation against idolatry, and the scorn with which he exposes the impotence of false G.o.ds--

Cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant?

An tum bracchia consuesc.u.n.t firmantque lacertos[49]?--

show some affinity of spirit to the prophets of another race and an earlier time. The 'grandeur of desolation' uttered in the reproof of Nature,--

Nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniamque, Quod placeat, nil est: eadem sunt omnia semper[50],--

recalls the old words of the Preacher--'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.'

[Footnote 1: Cf. Juv. xiv. 319:--

Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in hortis.]

[Footnote 2: 'But the sober exercise of reason, investigating the causes why we choose or avoid anything, and banishing those opinions which cause the greatest trouble in the soul.']

[Footnote 3: ii. 16-19.]

[Footnote 4: 'Thereupon he perceived that the vessel itself caused the evil, and that all external gains and blessings whatsoever were vitiated within through its fault, partly because he saw that it was so unsound and leaky that it could never be filled in any way, partly because he discerned that it tainted inwardly everything which it had received as it were with a nauseous flavour.'--vi. 17-23.]

[Footnote 5: iii. 39.]

[Footnote 6: vi. 404-5.]

[Footnote 7: 'O miserable race of man when they imputed to the G.o.ds such acts as these, and ascribed to them also angry pa.s.sions. What sorrow did they then prepare for themselves, what deep wounds for us, what tears for our descendants. For there is no holiness in being often seen, turning round with head veiled, in presence of a stone, and in drawing nigh to every altar; nor in lying prostrate in the dust, and uplifting the hands before the temples of the G.o.ds; nor in sprinkling altars with the blood of beasts, and in ever fastening up new votive offerings, but rather in being able to look at all things with a mind at peace.'--v. 1194-1203.]

[Footnote 8: vi. 75-78.]

[Footnote 9: 'The holy presence of the G.o.ds is revealed, and their peaceful dwelling-places, which neither the winds beat upon, nor the clouds bedew with rain; nor does snow, gathered in flakes by keen frost, and falling white, invade them; ever the cloudless ether enfolds them, and they are radiant with far-spread light.'--iii. 18-22.]

[Footnote 10: v. 145-225.]

[Footnote 11: The feelings with which Lucretius contemplates the solemn procession of Cybele may be ill.u.s.trated by the following pa.s.sage, quoted by Mr. Morley in his Life of Diderot, vol. ii. p. 65: 'Absurd rigorists do not know the effect of external ceremonies on the people: they can never have seen the enthusiasm of the mult.i.tude at the procession of the Fete Dieu, an enthusiasm that sometimes even gains me. I have never seen that long file of priests in their vestments, those young acolytes clad in their white robes, with broad blue sashes engirdling their waists, and casting flowers on the ground before the Holy Sacrament, the crowd, as it goes before and follows after them, hushed in religious silence, and so many with their faces bent reverently to the ground: I have never heard the grave and pathetic chant, as it is led by the priests and fervently responded to by an infinity of voices of men, of women, of girls, of little children, without my inmost heart being stirred, and tears coming into my eyes.

There is in it something, I know not what, that is grand, solemn, sombre, and mournful.']

[Footnote 12: From 830 till the end.]

[Footnote 13: iii. 842.]

[Footnote 14: iii. 877-8.]

[Footnote 15: iii. 929-30.]

[Footnote 16: Hic Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita.]

[Footnote 17: Iliad xxi. 106-7.]

[Footnote 18: iii. 830-1094.]

[Footnote 19: iii. 930.]

[Footnote 20: iii. 892.]

[Footnote 21: iii. 893.]

[Footnote 22: 'Soon shall thy home receive thee no more with glad welcome, nor thy true wife, nor thy dear children run to s.n.a.t.c.h the first kiss, touching thy heart with silent gladness.'--iii. 894-96.]

[Footnote 23: iii. 833.]

[Footnote 24: iii. 1027-8.]

[Footnote 25: iii. 970.]

[Footnote 26: Compare the metaphorical expressions at vi.

20-4.]

[Footnote 27: 'But there is no greater joy than to hold high aloft the tranquil abodes, well bulwarked by the learning of the wise, whence thou mayest look down on other men, and see them wandering every way, and lost in error, seeking the road of life; mayest mark the strife of genius, the rivalries of rank, the struggle night and day with surpa.s.sing effort to reach the highest place, and be master of the State.'--ii.

48-54.]

[Footnote 28: 'But if we see that all this is but folly and a mockery, and, in real truth, the fears of men and their d.o.g.g.i.ng cares dread not the clash of arms nor the fierce weapons of warfare, and boldly mix with kings and potentates, nor fear the splendour of gold or the bright glare of purple robes, canst thou doubt that it is the force of reason on which all this depends, especially since all our life is in darkness and tribulation?'--ii. 48-55.]

[Footnote 29: iii. 70.]

[Footnote 30: v. 1131.]

[Footnote 31: v. 1125.]