Download Lucretius, epicurean and poet by John Masson PDF book 1907





The writer condemns it on the ground of minor omissions, which he magnifies as if they were central points. At the same time, he entirely omits to mention that in the Preface and elsewhere an ' Appendix,' or supplementary volume, is frequently referred to for subjects which there was no space to treat in full. The critic, who is of the extreme academic type, does not attempt to grasp the real ' content ' of the book, while in his remarks upon Epicureanism he is satisfied to deal with its merest surface. But, apart from this total difference of standpoint, his criticisms cover only a small portion of the matters dealt with. Notably, he avoids the greater doctrines.While emphasizing details, he does not even name central and capital Epicurean tenets, treated at length in chapters that embody much fresh research. I refer, for example, to atomic Declination and Epicurus' theology, certainly the most difficult and among the most distinctive of his doctrines. I am with regard to the ' Electron.' Several of these have forgotten that the new knowledge resulting from the discovery of radium has in no way destroyed the Atomic Theory as a working hypothesis. No doubt the ' atom ' in the strict sense of the word is now the Electron — that is to say. if only we knew a little more about that particle! In the essential quality of indivisibility, on which Lucretius bases the fact of law in Nature and the persistence of all things in the world, his atom corresponds to the Electron.The unchangeableness of the atom is dogma at present demonstrably false. But would Lucretius have accepted the Electron as equivalent to his atom? I do not think he would. The Lucretian atom has another quality — that of forming groups, and entering into combination with other atoms, to form substances, in which quality it answers to the modern chemical atom, of which the essential property is that it can combine in fixed proportions with other atoms. 1 But what do we know as to the combining properties of the ' Electron '? The doctrine of atoms that have been evolved during the nineteenth century is a conception which chemistry will never be able to dispense with as a working hypothesis, so far as one can judge, for all time to come.Author: John MassonPublication Date:1907