How things are swayed; how, chiefly, those discerned
In heaven sublime--to SUPERSTITION back
Lapses, and fears a tyrant host, and then
Conceives, dull reasoner, they can all things do,
While yet himself nor knows what may be done,
Nor what may never, nature powers defined
Stamping on all, and bounds that none can pass:
Hence wide, and wider errs he as he walks. [41]
[Footnote 41: ][ (return) ] Lucretius, "De Natura Rerum," book vi. vs. 50-70.
In order to rid men of all superstitious fear, and, consequently, of all religion, Epicurus endeavors to show that "nature" alone is adequate to the production of all things, and there is no need to drag in a "divine power" to explain the phenomena of the world.