Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-02

We are putting on in this column
this week. if you will, a six-ring lit
erary circus, with the words of Lu'
cretius playing the parts of lions
tigers. m everything.
Here to your right, ladies and gen.
tlemen, are the atoms, the seeds of
things" which this old Roman de-
clared were the foundation of the
world.
On the left you see before your as
founded eyes a discussion Of 1.-The void
in things" or the empty space within
and without the atom, as finally dis
covered some 1000 years later.
How did this old fellow think this
out?
Ask us not. He had some queer
ideas about things" as he called
everything, and many of them seem
to have turned out to be more or less
true.
Everything "just happened" &C.
cording to the Epicurean theory,
which is what Lucretius expounds in
his "Of the Nature of Things"
For verify not by design did the
first beginnings (the atoms) of things
station themselves each in it's right
place. guided by keen intelligence,
nor did they bargain, sooth to say,
what motions each should assume"
Now what interests the modern
reader here is. not that this account
does not agree with the Christian
truth of a great intelligence ruling
the universe, but that it seems to
contain hint at the latest scientific
discoveries as to the electrical com.
position of the atom, with the result
Ing movement of the electrons within
the atom
Now, please don't be scared at these
words. They are just some Of Lu-
cretius' tigers. They won't hurt you.
* X X X
Montaigne says that at first Epi-
Gurus mad his atoms coming straight
down like rain, whereupon some one
said nothing would ever then take
place, so Epicurus made them swerve
little and gave them hooks-which
gives Montaigne. in one Of his in
lmitable essays, a chance to ridi-
Guile the whole theory. and with some
reason. Yet modern science shows
the atomic theory Is probably true.
But as to what Is behind the
atoms-well. "some call it nature and
others call 1t Cod" as the poet said.
Now we listen to one of the first
word pictures Of the destruction of
the world:
Space have already proved to
be infinite; and space being infinite,
matter as l have said must also be
infinite, lest after the winged fashion
OF flames, the walls of the world
should suddenly break up and fly
abroad along the mighty void, and all
other things follow for like reasons,
and the innermost quarters Of heaven
HI IN oh
an instant withdraw from beneath
our feet and amid the commingled
ruins Of things in it and of heaven.
ruins unloosing the first bodies,
should wholly pass away along the
unfathomable void, so that in a mo-
ment Of time not a wrack should
be left behind, nothing save I'M
tenanted space and viewless first be-
ginnings."
The opening of the second book of
de Rerum Natura" is one of the
most famous pieces of writing in
world literature. We present it here
in the translation of Munro:
1T Is sweet, when on the great
sea the winds trouble it's waters, to
behold from land another's deep dis
treSs; not that it is a pleasure and
delight that any should be afflicted,
but because it is sweet to see from
what evils you are yourself exempt.
1T is sweet also to look upon the
mighty struggles of war arrayed along
the plains, without sharing yourself
in the danger.
But nothing is more welcome than
to hold the lofty and serene positions
we'll fortified by the learning of the
wise. from which you may look down
upon others and see them wandering