thrown off by bodies and travelling on until they touch soul-atoms. These films may still exist
when the bodies from which they originally proceeded have been dissolved; this accounts for
dreams. At death, the soul is dispersed, and its atoms, which of course survive, are no longer
capable of sensation, because they are no longer connected with the body. It follows, in the words
of Epicurus, that "Death is nothing to us; for that which is dissolved, is without sensation, and that
which lacks sensation is nothing to us."
As for the gods, Epicurus firmly believes in their existence, since he cannot otherwise account for
the wide-spread existence of the idea of gods. But he is persuaded that they do not trouble
themselves with the affairs of our human world. They are rational hedonists, who follow his
precepts, and abstain from public life; government would be an unnecessary labour, to which, in
their life of complete blessedness, they feel no temptation. Of course, divination and augury and
all such practices are purely supersitions, and so is the belief in Providence.
There is therefore no ground for the fear that we may incur the anger of the gods, or that we may
suffer in Hades after death. Though subject to the powers of nature, which can be studied
scientifically, we yet have free will, and are, within limits, the masters of our fate. We cannot
escape death, but death, rightly understood, is no evil. If we live prudently, according to the
maxims of Epicurus, we shall probably achieve a measure of freedom from pain. This is a
moderate gospel, but to a man impressed with human misery it sufficed to inspire enthusiasm.
Epicurus has no interest in science on its own account; he values it solely as providing naturalistic
explanations of phenomena which superstition attributes to the agency of the gods. When there are
several possible naturalistic explanations, he holds that there is no point in trying to decide
between them. The phases of the moon, for example, have been explained in many different ways;
any one of these, so long as it does not bring in the gods, is as good as any other, and it would be
idle curiosity to attempt to determine which of them is true. It is no wonder that the Epicureans
contributed practically nothing to natural knowledge. They served a useful purpose by their protest
against the increasing devotion of the later pagans to magic, astrology, and divination; but they
remained, like their