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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[430] [The force of the poet’s satire is in this petty merchandise.]
[431] [See Plato’s remark upon what he calls this disease, De Leg., x., finely expounded in Plato cont. Atheos (note ix. p. 114) by Tayler Lewis.]
[432] There is another reading, “adversus parentes impio,” “to the son whose conduct to his parents is unnatural.”
[433] Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, ii. 1101, Munro.
[434] [This age is favoured with a reproduction of these absurdities; and what has happened in consequence before, will be repeated now.]
[435] See Lucretius, book ii.
[436] [See vol. ii. p. 465, the whole of 14th chapter.]
[437] Lucretius, iii. 1056.
[438] The reading of the text, which appears to be the true one, is “quo nos etiamnum sumus.” There is another reading, “quo et nos jam non sumus.” This latter reading would be in accordance with the sentiment of Epicurus, which is totally opposed to the view taken by Lactantius.
[439] [For his pious talk, however, see T. Lewis, Plato, etc., p. 258.]
[440] [These operations of the unbelieving mind have appeared in our day in the Communisme of Paris. They already threaten the American Republic, the mass of the population being undisciplined in moral principle, and our lawgivers as well.]
[441] Cleanthes was a Stoic philosopher, who used to draw water by night for his support, that he might devote himself to the study of philosophy by day. He ended his life by refusing to take food.
[442] Chrysippus was a disciple of Zeno, and, after Cleanthes, the chief of the Stoic sect. According to some accounts, he died front an excessive draught of wine; according to others, from excessive laughter.
[443] Zeno, the chief of the Stoic sect. He is said to have died from suffocation.
[444] Empedocles was a philosopher and poet. There are various accounts of his death; that mentioned in the text is usually received.
[445] There are various accounts respecting the death of Democritus.
[446] Lucretius, iii. 1041.
[447] Cleombrotus of Ambracia.
[448] Heautontim., v. 2, 18. This advice is given to a young man, who, not knowing the value of life, is prepared rashly to throw it away in consequence of some check to his plans.
[449] Pythagoras taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and affirmed that he had lived already as Euphorbus, one of the heroes of Troy, who was slain by Menelaus in the Trojan war. Lactantius again refers to this subject, book vii. ch. 23, infra.
[450] This passage is not contained in Cicero’s treatise on the Laws, but the substance of it is in the Tusculan Questions
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