The great beauty of the poetry of Lucretius is its variety. One might expect sublimity in the philosopher who penetrates the secrets of the natural world, and discloses to the eye of man the hidden causes of its wonderful phenomena. His object was a lofty one; for, although the irrational absurdities of the national creed drove him into the opposite evils of skepticism and unbelief, his aim was to set the intellect free from the trammels of superstition. But besides grandeur and sublimity we find the totally different poetical qualities of softness and tenderness. Rome had long known nothing but war, and was now rent by that worst and most demoralizing kind of war, civil dissension. Lucretius yearned for peace; and his prayer, that the fabled goddess of all that is beautiful in nature would heal the wounds which discord had made, is distinguished by tenderness and pathos even more than by sublimity. The whole passage is superior to the poetry of Ovid in force, although inferior in facility. His versification is not so smooth and harmonious as that of Virgil, who flourished in a period when the language had attained a higher degree of perfection, and the Roman ear was more educated, and therefore more delicately attuned, but it is never harsh and rugged, and always falls upon the ear with a swelling and sonorous melody. Virgil appreciated his excellence, and imitated not only single expressions, but almost entire verses and passages.[475] As an example of sublimity, few passages can equal that in which he describes the prostration of human intellect under the grievous superstition, the dauntless purpose of Epicurus to free men from her oppressive rule, and to enable him to burst open the portals of Nature’s treasure-house, and thus gain a victory which will place him on an equality with the inhabitants of heaven:— Humana ante oculos fede quom vita jaceret In terris, oppressa gravi sub Religione, Quæ caput a cœli regionibus ostendebat, Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans; Primum Graius homo mortales tendere contra Est oculos ausus, primusque obsistere contra; Quem neque fama deûm nec fulmina nec minitanti Murmure compressit cœlum, sed eo magis acrem Irritât animi virtutem, effringere ut arcta Naturæ primus portarum claustra cupiret. Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra Processit longe flammantia mœnia mondi, Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque; Unde refert nobis victor, quid possit oriri, Quid nequeat; finita potestas denique quoique Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus hærens. Quare Religio, pedibus subjecta, vicissim Obteritur; nos exæquat victoria cœlo. Lib. i. 63.