1. New
    1. Member Announcements
  2. Home
    1. Get Started - Activities
    2. Posting Policies
    3. Community Standards
    4. Terms of Use
    5. Moderator Team
    6. Site Map
    7. Quizzes
    8. Articles
      1. Featured Articles
    9. All Blog Posts
      1. Elli's Blog / Articles
  3. Wiki
    1. Wiki Home
    2. FAQ
    3. Classical Epicureanism
    4. Physics
    5. Canonics
    6. Ethics
    7. Search Assistance
    8. Not NeoEpicurean
    9. Foundations
    10. Navigation Outlines
    11. Key Pages
  4. Forum
    1. New Activity
    2. New Threads
    3. Welcome
    4. General Discussion
    5. Featured
    6. Activism
    7. Shortcuts
    8. Dashboard
    9. Full Forum List
    10. Level 3+
    11. Most Discussed
  5. Podcast
    1. Lucretius Today Podcast
    2. Episode Guide
    3. Lucretius Today At Youtube
    4. EpicureanFriends Youtube Page
  6. Texts
    1. Overview
    2. Diogenes Laertius
    3. Principal Doctrines
    4. Vatican Sayings
    5. Lucretius
    6. Herodotus
    7. Pythocles
    8. Menoeceus
    9. Fragments - Usener Collection
    10. Torquatus On Ethics
    11. Velleius On Gods
    12. Greek/Latin Help
  7. Gallery
    1. Featured images
    2. Albums
    3. Latest Images
    4. Latest Comments
  8. Calendar
    1. Upcoming Events List
    2. Zoom Meetings
    3. This Month
    4. First Monday Zoom Meetings
    5. Wednesday Zoom Meeting
    6. Twentieth Zoom Meetings
    7. Zoom Meetings
  9. Other
    1. Featured Content
    2. Blog Posts
    3. Files
    4. Logbook
    5. EF ToDo List
    6. Link-Database
  • Login
  • Register
  • Search
This Thread
  • Everywhere
  • This Thread
  • This Forum
  • Forum
  • Articles
  • Blog Articles
  • Files
  • Gallery
  • Events
  • Pages
  • Wiki
  • Help
  • FAQ
  • More Options

Welcome To EpicureanFriends.com!

"Remember that you are mortal, and you have a limited time to live, and in devoting yourself to discussion of the nature of time and eternity you have seen things that have been, are now, and are to come."

Sign In Now
or
Register a new account
  1. New
    1. Member Announcements
  2. Home
    1. Get Started - Activities
    2. Posting Policies
    3. Community Standards
    4. Terms of Use
    5. Moderator Team
    6. Site Map
    7. Quizzes
    8. Articles
      1. Featured Articles
    9. All Blog Posts
      1. Elli's Blog / Articles
  3. Wiki
    1. Wiki Home
    2. FAQ
    3. Classical Epicureanism
    4. Physics
    5. Canonics
    6. Ethics
    7. Search Assistance
    8. Not NeoEpicurean
    9. Foundations
    10. Navigation Outlines
    11. Key Pages
  4. Forum
    1. New Activity
    2. New Threads
    3. Welcome
    4. General Discussion
    5. Featured
    6. Activism
    7. Shortcuts
    8. Dashboard
    9. Full Forum List
    10. Level 3+
    11. Most Discussed
  5. Podcast
    1. Lucretius Today Podcast
    2. Episode Guide
    3. Lucretius Today At Youtube
    4. EpicureanFriends Youtube Page
  6. Texts
    1. Overview
    2. Diogenes Laertius
    3. Principal Doctrines
    4. Vatican Sayings
    5. Lucretius
    6. Herodotus
    7. Pythocles
    8. Menoeceus
    9. Fragments - Usener Collection
    10. Torquatus On Ethics
    11. Velleius On Gods
    12. Greek/Latin Help
  7. Gallery
    1. Featured images
    2. Albums
    3. Latest Images
    4. Latest Comments
  8. Calendar
    1. Upcoming Events List
    2. Zoom Meetings
    3. This Month
    4. First Monday Zoom Meetings
    5. Wednesday Zoom Meeting
    6. Twentieth Zoom Meetings
    7. Zoom Meetings
  9. Other
    1. Featured Content
    2. Blog Posts
    3. Files
    4. Logbook
    5. EF ToDo List
    6. Link-Database
  1. New
    1. Member Announcements
  2. Home
    1. Get Started - Activities
    2. Posting Policies
    3. Community Standards
    4. Terms of Use
    5. Moderator Team
    6. Site Map
    7. Quizzes
    8. Articles
      1. Featured Articles
    9. All Blog Posts
      1. Elli's Blog / Articles
  3. Wiki
    1. Wiki Home
    2. FAQ
    3. Classical Epicureanism
    4. Physics
    5. Canonics
    6. Ethics
    7. Search Assistance
    8. Not NeoEpicurean
    9. Foundations
    10. Navigation Outlines
    11. Key Pages
  4. Forum
    1. New Activity
    2. New Threads
    3. Welcome
    4. General Discussion
    5. Featured
    6. Activism
    7. Shortcuts
    8. Dashboard
    9. Full Forum List
    10. Level 3+
    11. Most Discussed
  5. Podcast
    1. Lucretius Today Podcast
    2. Episode Guide
    3. Lucretius Today At Youtube
    4. EpicureanFriends Youtube Page
  6. Texts
    1. Overview
    2. Diogenes Laertius
    3. Principal Doctrines
    4. Vatican Sayings
    5. Lucretius
    6. Herodotus
    7. Pythocles
    8. Menoeceus
    9. Fragments - Usener Collection
    10. Torquatus On Ethics
    11. Velleius On Gods
    12. Greek/Latin Help
  7. Gallery
    1. Featured images
    2. Albums
    3. Latest Images
    4. Latest Comments
  8. Calendar
    1. Upcoming Events List
    2. Zoom Meetings
    3. This Month
    4. First Monday Zoom Meetings
    5. Wednesday Zoom Meeting
    6. Twentieth Zoom Meetings
    7. Zoom Meetings
  9. Other
    1. Featured Content
    2. Blog Posts
    3. Files
    4. Logbook
    5. EF ToDo List
    6. Link-Database
  1. EpicureanFriends - Home of Classical Epicurean Philosophy
  2. Forum
  3. General Discussion - Start Here
  4. General Discussion
  • Sidebar
  • Sidebar

In Imitation of Lucretius–Bevil Higgons, 1670 to 1735

  • Joshua
  • January 15, 2021 at 9:39 PM
  • Go to last post
Regularly Checking In On A Small Screen Device? Bookmark THIS page!
Sunday Weekly Zoom.  This and every upcoming Sunday at 12:30 PM EDT we will continue our new series of Zoom meetings targeted for a time when more of our participants worldwide can attend.   This week our special topic will be: "Is Pain Properly Considered To Be An Evil?" To find out how to attend CLICK HERE.
  • Joshua
    05 - Administrator
    Points
    14,895
    Posts
    1,888
    Quizzes
    3
    Quiz rate
    95.8 %
    • January 15, 2021 at 9:39 PM
    • #1

    http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId…=&brand=default

    Yet another random find.

    When I saw that this was published posthumously I started to get my hopes up. Too salacious to let out in his lifetime? Sadly not. This poem should be called Against Lucretius. It's basically a systematic refutation of Lucretius' Epicureanism as expressed in the first part of DNR Book I. First there's the invocation of the biblical creator. Then a paean to the triumph of Britain; next, a nod toward atomism but bracketed by the claims that God is the designer of the atoms, and that materialism itself could never proceed past the point of random chaos.

    All boiler-plate up to here, but then an interesting turn: an inversion of the crime of Agamemnon. After laying out his belief that all races are brothers (as all men are sons of Adam), it is fratricide that marks out the real crime. Slavery, suggests Higgons, is proof that man is hopelessly sinful without the guidance of God. He might as well have translated it literally—"to such heights of evil are men driven without religion."

    And just a few other features of interest. His science is mostly adequate for its time, but with an oddity or two. If I'm reading it correctly, he says in one line that gravity causes heavier objects to fall faster than lighter objects–something even Lucretius knew was wrong. He also acknowledges the probable existence of life on other worlds, which is somewhat odd for someone who believes in the myths of Genesis.

    Its a fairly quick read, but doesn't amount to much for us. A few pages of serviceable but uninspired heroic couplets.

  • Joshua
    05 - Administrator
    Points
    14,895
    Posts
    1,888
    Quizzes
    3
    Quiz rate
    95.8 %
    • January 15, 2021 at 10:12 PM
    • #2

    Side note: he precedes his poem with a Latin inscription from Ovid:

    "Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe—quem dixere Chaos;"

    "There was one countenance upon all of the world—which they call Chaos;"

  • Joshua
    05 - Administrator
    Points
    14,895
    Posts
    1,888
    Quizzes
    3
    Quiz rate
    95.8 %
    • January 15, 2021 at 10:45 PM
    • #3

    Second side note: on the line "W–– govern'd in a B–– Reign";

    I'm not entirely clear who is referenced here, but Higgons and his family were well-known Jacobites who held fast to the House of Stuart after the Glorious Revolution and the installation of the Hanoverian dynasty with George I.

    My best guess is that "W" is Robert Walpole, who governed under "B", being King George (either the First or Second), Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Walpole was a Whig and the Jacobites were associated with the Tory's.

  • Charles
    03 - Member
    Points
    2,582
    Posts
    348
    Quizzes
    4
    Quiz rate
    88.9 %
    • January 16, 2021 at 4:28 AM
    • #4

    This reminds me of a poem I came across just the other night. http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Darwin/temple0.html

    It's titled: "The Temple of Nature: Or, The Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes" by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of *that* Darwin).

    It opens up with a few lines from Vergil's Aenid.

    Unde hominum pecudumque genus, vitæque volantum,

    Et quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus?

    Igneus est illis vigor, & cælestis origo.

    Its primarily Darwin's own thoughts and ideas, presented as his version or creative equivalent of On the Nature of Things, given its wide scope and invocations of Venus at times and many references to Lucretius. Have yet to read the full thing, but perhaps this can serve as Higgon's foil.

    “If the joys found in nature are crimes, then man’s pleasure and happiness is to be criminal.”

Unread Threads

    1. Title
    2. Replies
    3. Last Reply
    1. Daily life of ancient Epicureans / 21st Century Epicureans 38

      • Like 3
      • Robert
      • May 21, 2025 at 8:23 PM
      • General Discussion
      • Robert
      • May 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
    2. Replies
      38
      Views
      1.9k
      38
    3. Pacatus

      May 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
    1. Emily Austin's "LIving For Pleasure" Wins Award. (H/T to Lowri for finding this!)

      • Like 4
      • Cassius
      • May 28, 2025 at 10:57 PM
      • General Discussion
      • Cassius
      • May 28, 2025 at 10:57 PM
    2. Replies
      0
      Views
      145
    1. Confusion: "The feelings are only two" 49

      • Like 3
      • Rolf
      • May 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
      • General Discussion
      • Rolf
      • May 28, 2025 at 1:09 PM
    2. Replies
      49
      Views
      1.1k
      49
    3. Rolf

      May 28, 2025 at 1:09 PM
    1. Brain-storming Ideas for Future Study Groups 10

      • Like 3
      • Kalosyni
      • May 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
      • General Discussion
      • Kalosyni
      • May 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
    2. Replies
      10
      Views
      302
      10
    3. Patrikios

      May 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
    1. Words of wisdom from Scottish comedian Billy Connolly 5

      • Like 4
      • Don
      • May 25, 2025 at 8:33 AM
      • General Discussion
      • Don
      • May 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
    2. Replies
      5
      Views
      312
      5
    3. Don

      May 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM

Latest Posts

  • Episode 282 - Is A Trifling Pain A Greater Evil Than The Worst Infamy?

    Bryan May 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
  • Sunday Zoom - How to Attend - Summer 2025

    Cassius May 29, 2025 at 3:57 PM
  • Daily life of ancient Epicureans / 21st Century Epicureans

    Pacatus May 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
  • Happy Birthday General Thread

    Cassius May 29, 2025 at 4:12 AM
  • Emily Austin's "LIving For Pleasure" Wins Award. (H/T to Lowri for finding this!)

    Cassius May 28, 2025 at 10:57 PM
  • Confusion: "The feelings are only two"

    Rolf May 28, 2025 at 1:09 PM
  • Brain-storming Ideas for Future Study Groups

    Patrikios May 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
  • First Monday Monthly Zoom - 8pm ET

    Kalosyni May 27, 2025 at 2:27 PM
  • Sunday Zoom: "Discussion on the Forum FAQ Section" - Sundays @ 12:30pm EDT

    Kalosyni May 26, 2025 at 2:31 PM
  • Welcome Karim!

    Karim May 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM

EpicureanFriends - Classical Epicurean Philosophy

  1. Home
    1. About Us
    2. Classical Epicurean Philosophy
  2. Wiki
    1. Getting Started
  3. Frequently Asked Questions
    1. Site Map
  4. Forum
    1. Latest Threads
    2. Featured Threads
    3. Unread Posts
  5. Texts
    1. Core Texts
    2. Biography of Epicurus
    3. Lucretius
  6. Articles
    1. Latest Articles
  7. Gallery
    1. Featured Images
  8. Calendar
    1. This Month At EpicureanFriends
Powered by WoltLab Suite™ 6.0.22
Style: Inspire by cls-design
Stylename
Inspire
Manufacturer
cls-design
Licence
Commercial styles
Help
Supportforum
Visit cls-design