The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)
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a Strab., 1. xvi., p. 512; Sext. Empir., Adv. Mathem., p. 367. 6 Atom, in Greek dro/ios, is formed from the word T6/a>t, a part, to which Is joined the a privative.
Examinations of the Golden Verses 153
particular system which still bears this name. Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus adopted it, adding to it their own ideas; and Lucretius having naturalized it among the Romans, favoured its passage down to these modern times, when the greater part of our philosophers have done nothing but renovate it under other forms." Assuredly there is no system whence the fatal necessity of all things issues more inevitably than from that of atoms; also it is certain that Democritus was accused of admitting a compulsory destiny, * although, like Leibnitz, he admitted to each atom an animated and sentient nature.' It is not known if he replied to this accusation ; but there are certain proofs that Epicurus, who had less right than he to reject it, since he regarded atoms as absolutely inanimate,'' rejected it nevertheless, and not wishing to admit a dogma subversive of all morals, he declared himself against it, and taught the liberty of man.^
A singular thing is, that this fatality which appears attached to the system of atoms, whence the materialist promoters, true to their principle, banished the infltience of Divine Providence,-'^ followed still more naturally from the opposed system, wherein the spiritualist philosophers admitted this Providence to the full extent of its power. According to this last system, a sole and same spiritual substance filled the Universe, and by its diverse modifications produced there all the phenomena by which the senses are affected. Parmenides, Melissus, and Zeno of Elea, who adopted it, sustained it with great success: they asserted that matter was only pure illusion, that there is nothing in things, that bodies and all their variations are only pure
« Huet, Cens. Phil. Cartesian., c. 8, p. 21$. If one carefully examines the systems of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton, one will see that, after all, they are reduced either to atoms, or to inherent forces which move them.
l> Cic6r., de Fato, c. 17. <: August., Epist., 56. <l August., Epist., 56.
« Cic^r., de Nat. Dear., 1. i., c. 19; Qiuzst. Acad., 1. iv., c. 13; de Fato, c. 9.
/ Diog. Laert., 1. x., §123; Cic6r., de Nat. Dear., 1. i., c. 30.
154 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras appearances, and that therefore nothing really exists outside of spirit." Zeno of Elea particularly, who denied the existence of movement, brought against this existence some objections very difficult to remove.'' The Stoic philosophers became more or less strongly attached to this opinion. Chrysippus, one of the firmest pillars of the Porch, taught that God is the soul of the world, and the world, the universal extension of that soul. He said that by Jupiter, should be understood, the eternal law, the fatal necessity, the immutable truth of all future things." Now, it is evident that if, in accordance with the energetic expression of Seneca, this unique principle of the Universe has ordained once to obey always its own command,'' the Stoics were not able to escape from the reproach that was directed toward them, of admitting the most absolute fatality, since the soul of man being, according to them, only a portion of the Divinity, its actions could have no other cause than God Himself who had willed them.' Nevertheless Chrysippus rejected the reproach in the same manner as did Epicurus; he always sustained the liberty of man, notwithstanding the irresistible force that he admitted in the unique Cause^ ; and what seemed a manifest contradiction, he taught that the soul sins only by the impulse of its own will, and therefore that the blame of its errors should not be put upon destiny.*
But it suffices to reflect a moment upon the nature of the principles set down by Epicurus, by Chrysippus, and o Senec, Epist., 88; Sext. Empit., Adv. Math., l.vii., c. 2; Arist., Jlfetophys., 1. iii., c. 4.
* Arist., Physic., 1. vi., c. 9; voyez Bayle, Diet, crit., art. Zenon, rem. F.
« Cic6r., de Natur. Dear., 1. i., c 15.
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