gods, afraid of retribution, afraid of death because of the
stories of what comes after death. This incessant fear and
anxiety is one of the chief causes of the unhappiness of men.
Destroy it, and we have at least got rid of the prime hin-
drance to human happiness. We can only do this by means
of a suitable doctrine of physics. What is necessary is to
be able to regard the world as a piece of mechanism, gov-
erned solely by natural causes, without any interference by
supernatural beings, in which man is free to find his hap-
piness how and when he will, without being frightened by
the bogeys of popular religion. For though the world is
ruled mechanically, man, thought Epicurus in opposition
to the Stoics, possesses free will, and the problem of phi-
losophy is to ascertain how he can best use this gift in a
world otherwise mechanically governed. What he required,
therefore, was a purely mechanical philosophy. To invent
such a philosophy for himself was a task not suited to his
indolence, and for which he could not pretend to possess
the necessary {356} qualifications. Therefore he searched
the past, and soon found what he wanted in the atomism
of Democritus. This, as an entirely mechanical philosophy,
perfectly suited his ends, and the pragmatic spirit in which
he chose his beliefs, not on any abstract grounds of their ob-
jective truth, but on the basis of his subjective needs and
personal wishes, will be noted. It is a sign of the times.
When truth comes to be regarded as something that men
may construct in accordance with their real or imagined
needs, and not in accordance with any objective standard,
we are well advanced upon the downward path of decay.
Epicurus, therefore, adopted the atomism of Democritus
en bloc, or with trifling modifications. All things are com-
posed of atoms and the void. Atoms differ only in shape
and weight, not in quality. They fall eternally through the
void. By virtue of free will, they deviate infinitesimally
from the perpendicular in their fall, and so clash against
one another. This, of course, is an invention of Epicurus,
and formed no part of the doctrine of Democritus. It might
be expected of Epicurus that his modifications would not be
improvements. In the present case, the attribution of free
will to the atoms adversely affects the logical consistency of
the mechanical theory. From the collision of atoms arises
a whirling movement out of which the world emerges. Not
only the world, but all individual phenomena, are to be ex-
plained mechanically. Teleology is rigorously excluded. In
any particular case, however, Epicurus is not interested to
know what particular causes determine a phenomenon. It
is enough for him to be sure that it is wholly determined
by mechanical causes, and that supernatural agencies are
excluded.{357}The soul being composed of atoms which are scattered at
death, a future life is not to be thought of. But this is to be
regarded as the greatest blessing. It frees us from the fear
of death, and the fear of a hereafter. Death is not an evil.
For if death is, we are not; if we are, death is not. When
death comes we shall not feel it, for is it not the end of all
feeling and consciousness? And there is no reason to fear
now what we know that we shall not feel when it comes.Having thus disposed of the fear of retribution in a future
life, Epicurus proceeds to dispose of the fear of the inter-