clear that the fear of punishment after death was common in fifthcentury Athens, and it is not
likely that it grew less in the interval between Socrates and Epicurus. (I am thinking not of the
educated minority, but of the general population.) Certainly, also, it was common to attribute
plagues, earthquakes, defeats in war, and such calamities, to divine displeasure or to failure to
respect the omens. I think that Greek literature and art are probably very misleading as regards
popular beliefs. What should we know of Methodism in the late eighteenth century if no record
of the period survived except its aristocratic books and paintings? The influence of Methodism,
like that of religiosity in the Hellenistic age, rose from below; it was already powerful in the
time of Boswell and Sir Joshua Reynolds, although from their allusions to it the strength of its
influence is not apparent. We must not, therefore, judge of popular religion in Greece by the
pictures on "Grecian Urns" or by the works of poets and aristocratic philosophers. Epicurus was
not aristocratic, either by birth or through his associates; perhaps this explains his exceptional
hostility to religion.
It is through the poem of Lucretius that the philosophy of Epicurus has chiefly become known
to readers since the Renaissance. What has most impressed them, when they were not
professional philosophers, is the contrast with Christian belief in such matters as materialism,
denial of Providence, and rejection of immortality. What is especially striking to a modern
reader is to have these views--which, now-a-days, are generally regarded as gloomy and
depressing-presented as a gospel of liberation from the burden of fear. Lucretius is as firmly
persuaded as any Christian of the importance of true belief in matters of religion. After
describing how men seek escape from themselves when they are the victims of an inner
conflict, and vainly seek relief in change of place, he says: *
Each man flies from his own self; Yet from that self in fact he has no power To escape: he
clings to it in his own despite, And loathes it too, because, though he is sick, He perceives not
the cause of his disease: Which if he could but comprehend aright,
* Bk. III, 1068-76. I again quote Mr. R. C. Trevelyan's translation.