BOOK I CH. XIX § 50. 149

were capable of producing it by their union ; otherwise they could never have met together in the infinitude of space: and since all infinites are equal according to Ep. (no doubt one of the points alluded to in the phrase magna contemplatione dignissima) it follows (1. 569 foll.) that the different kinds of atoms are equal in number, and that the elements of production and destruction wage an equal war (Lucr. v 392). Munro finds a further allusion to the law of icovopia in VI 542; see his notes, and Hirzel 85—90.
eam esse naturam—respondeant: ‘such is the constitution of the infinite whole that all its parts are exactly balanced one against the other’. On the repetition of words in distributive phrases see Beier Of. I 53.
aequabilem tributionem: ‘equal distribution’, a very rare meaning of tributio. [It is meant to be a literal translation of ico-voyia. R.] See the Academic criticism in § 109, where aequilibritas is used to translate izovoyia. C. is the only authority who formally attributes this doctrine to Ep.; the word is used by Dlut. Def. Or. 34 etrep odv 7 vows dare? rv icovopiay ev maor, and the equilibrium of positive and negative forces is often referred to in the early philosophers, as Heraclitus and Empedocles ; cf. too Plato Theaet. 176 on the necessary existence of an opposite to good, and Pseudo-Arist. De Mundo c. 5, Heracl. Alleg. 444, Orig. c. Cels. 1v 63 (quoted by Sch.) on the necessary equipoise of the four elements. ‘
quae interimant—quae conservent: this is not to be understood of substances or persons, but, as Lucr. 11 569 more accurately expresses it, of movements; nec superare queunt motus itaque exitialis | perpetuo neque tin aeternum sepelire salutem | nec porro rerum genitalis auctificique | motus perpetuo possunt servare creata. Since on the whole the destructive and conservative forces are equal, and since the destructive prevail here, there must be elsewhere a region where the conservative forces prevail, and what can this be but the intermundia? And, since mortals and immortals are equally balanced, and here experience shows that all is mortal, where can we find these immortal beings but in the Gods? In 1 1105 foll. Lucr. describes how a world gradually grows up under the shaping blows of the atoms, and then how, when it has once attained maturity, the destructive movements gain the upper hand, the constituent atoms fly apart, the external blows no longer weld the mass together, but break it down in ruin, a process of which, he says, we may already see the beginning in our earth. It is unkind to touch the card-castle of the Epicurean philosophy, or one might be disposed to ask why there might not be suffi- cient employment for the conservative forces in the constant building up of new worlds as the old ones perish, without finding a special seat for them in the intermundia ; and how these auctifict motus are to show themselves in a place sacred from the intrusion of atoms.
et quaerere: proceeding to a new topic ‘and then’, so § 100 ef eos vituperabas.
150 BOOK I CH. x1x § 50,
Balbe, soletis: ‘your school B. are accustomed’. Sch. compares De Orat. 1 160 quid est? Cotta, quid tacetis? On the general question of the mixture of Sing. and Pl. see below, deorwm and iis followed by agit, and so frequently in speaking of the Gods, e.g., § 101 deorum—habet, 106, 114 (vacant—cogitat), cf. 81n. Madv. Fin. 1 22: Davies in loc. gives illustrations from the Greek.
quae degatur aetas : ‘ how they spend their days’.
§ 51. nihil agit. Sce Cotta’s answer to this §§ 110, 114, 116, also Seneca Benef. 1v 4 quae maxima Epicuro felicitas videtur, nihil agit, Diog.