But when he had done that he did not forget that he was a genuine Roman and that man must be accorded the dignity due his commanding independence. At this point he took full advantage of the Epicurean _clinamen_ and asserted man’s power of self-mastery. In the finest soul-atom lies the germ of a free-will. “Whence I ask, has been wrested from the fates the power by which we go forward whither the will leads each?” And even after explaining temperament by reference to atomic make-up, he hastened to qualify his statement by adding: “traces of the different natures left behind, which reason is unable to expel from us, are so exceedingly slight that there is nothing to hinder us from living a life worthy of the gods.” Indeed his whole life-work was a mission that revealed him a thorough humanist. The man who devoted his days and nights to expel from society the palsy due to superstition, to induce men to use reason in order that they might gain a “life worthy of the gods” was not devoted to naturism in the modern sense of the word. Indeed in some passages Lucretius seems willing to accept human nature at a very high valuation. The ugliness of life is not primarily due to its flaws, but to nature perverted by imposed fears, unreasoned desires, and artificial institutions that enlightened reason might readily dispose of.[14] There is of course in all this some inconsistency, for there lies lurking beneath it all the age-long battle between Determinism and Freedom, and the inconsistency is made the more apparent because, curiously enough, in Lucretius the poet supports the scientist against the humanist. But when one has finished the poem one leaves it with the conviction that, while the poet has not been repressed, the Roman who was conscious of his moral responsibility has held the pen. In that respect the atomic theories of recent years have not demonstrated that Lucretius was in error. FOOTNOTES [1] W. Warde Fowler, _Religious Experience_, chap. XV. [2] _Athenaeus_ xii. 68. [3] _Patria_, iii. 260; iv. 970; i. 41. See the introduction of Merrill’s excellent edition of Lucretius, pp. 13-14. [4] Marx was of course in error in stating that the name Carus implied humble ancestry. See “The Name T. Lucretius Carus,” in _Studies in Honor of Hermann Collitz_ (1930); p. 63. [5] See _Class. Phil._ XIV, 286. [6] Dr. Osler’s Presidential Address to the Classical Association (England), 1918-19. [7] Lucr. v. 17. [8] Lucr. ii. 1168; v. 800, on the decay of agriculture. Most of the magnificent early tombs excavated during the last century were found already rifled; some of these had evidently been found by the Romans and must have yielded wares as rich as those of the Regolini-Galassi tomb. [9] v. 332 ff. (tr. Munro). [10] Seneca, _Epist. Mor._, 64. 7; 104. 16; _Quaest. Nat._ 1 pref., vii. 25-31.