Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Lucretius, Epicurean and Poet

1908; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Volume: 54; Issue: 225 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1192/bjp.54.224.138

2514-9946

John Masson, William W. Ireland,

Classical Philosophy and Thought

Lucretius was a contemporary of Julius Cæsar, as Epicurus was a contemporary of Alexander. Dr. Masson has read all about Lucretius and everyone else who lived in those stirring times. In going through such critical disquisitions it is difficult to avoid the attraction or the recoil from a host of commentators. In this respect it is to be wished that Dr. Masson had less modesty or more self-reliance. In quoting the “opinions of the highest living authorities” on Cicero and Cæsar, he in many places gives us a set of stepping-stones instead of a bridge. While we wish to get into the times of Lucretius, the notes entering into small controversies continually drag us down to the mediocrities of the present age. We know not whether Dr. Masson's wide reading, wandering from Plato to Shelley and Victor Hugo, will add interest to the book with the readers of the twentieth century. We hope, however, that in another edition Dr. Masson may have the courage to sweep away most of his footnotes, as a carpenter, having finished his work, sweeps away his shavings. At the same time it would be unfair to deny that this excursive part of the work is often well written. At any rate our review will be confined to Lucretius and his philosophy. Of the poet himself we know scarcely anything save a few traditions loosely gathered by Eusebius. He was said to have become insane by a philtre given by his wife or mistress, and to have written his wonderful poem at sane intervals, and to have died by his own hand at the age of forty-four. His poem De Rerum Natura is dedicated to Memmius, who gained the rank of tribune and praetor, and took side against Cæsar in the civil war.