we recollect that men eminent for dazzling talents and fallacious virtues, Epicurus, Democritus, Pliny, Lucretius, Euripides,[1] and innumerable others, dared publicly to avow their faith in Atheism with impunity, and that the Theists, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras and Plato, vainly endeavoured by that human reason, which is truly incommensurate to so vast a purpose, to establish among philosophers the belief in one Almighty God, the creator and preserver of the world; when we recollect that the multitude were grossly and ridiculously idolatrous, and that the magistrates, if not Atheists, regarded the being of a God in the
- ↑ Imperfectæ verò in homine naturæ præcipua solatia ne Deum quidem posse omnia. Namque nec sibi potest mortem consiscere, si velit, quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitæ pœnis; nec mortales æternitate donare, ant revocare defunctos; nec facere ut qui vixit non vixerit, qui honores gessit non gesserit, nullumque habere in præteritum jus præterquam oblivdonis, atque ut facetis quoque argumentis societas hæc cum Deo copuletur ut bis dena viginti non sint, et multa similiter efficere non posse. Per quæ, declaratur haud dubiè, naturæ potentiam id quoque esse, quod Deum vocamus.
Plin. Nat. His. Cap. de Deo.
Φησιν τις, ειναι δητ᾽εν ȣρανῳ Θεȣς ;
Ουκ εισιν, ουκ εισ᾽ .ει τις ανθρωπων λεγει,
Μη τῳ ϖαλαιῳ μωρος ων χρησθω λογῳ.
Σκεψασθε δ᾽αυτα, μη᾽πι τοις εμοις λογοις
Γνωμην εχοντες. Φημ᾽ εγω, τυρννιδα
Κτεινειν τε πολλȣς, κτηματων τ᾽αϖοστερειν,
Ορκȣστε παραβαινοντας εκϖορθειν ϖολεις
Και ταυτα δρωντες μαλλον εισ᾽ ευδαιμονες
Των ευσεβȣντων ἡσυχῃ κάθ᾽ ἡμεραν.
Πολειστε μικρας οιδα τιμȣσας Θεȣς,
Αι μειζονων κλυȣσι δυσσεβεστερον
Λογχης αριϑμῳ ϖλειονος κρατȣμεναι.
Οιμαι δ᾽αν υμας, ει τις αργος ων Θεοις
Ευχοιτο, και μη χειρι συλλεγοι βιον· * * *Euripides Belerophon. Frag. XXV.
Hunc igitur terrorem animi, tenebrasque necesse est
Non radii solis, neque lucida tela diei
Discutient, sed naturæ species ratioque:
Principium hinc cujus nobis exordia sumet,
Nullam Rem nihilo gigni divinitus unquam.Luc. de Rer. Nat. Lib. I. [Shelley's Note.]
