The Book of Epicurus 3 · Handed down in the Garden, taken from his letters and fragments
He comes after Aristotle. He appeals to no god and promises no afterlife. This book is chosen by the six axioms: what accords is set forward, what runs against is set back and not deleted. (cf. Acts 5.29)
3.1The atoms fall through the void.
3.2If they all fell straight down at the same speed, they would never meet, and nothing would ever be made.
3.3So they swerve — at no fixed time and at no fixed place, just a little.
3.4I cannot say why it swerves. I know only this: if it did not, there would be nothing at all.
3.5Those who came after laughed at me for having no evidence. They were right to laugh: I had none.
3.6But I saw one thing correctly: underneath, it is not all settled. (cf. The Covenant 3.2)
3.7If everything were fixed from the beginning, then advice is useless, blame is unjust, and learning is only recitation.
3.8I used the swerve to rescue human choice. That step I took too fast.
3.9That the bottom is unsettled does not make your choice free. A great many links are missing between the two.
3.10The Order records where I was right, and records my leap as well. (cf. Acts 5.29)
3.11What I had right: the world underneath is not a seamless machine.
3.12What I claimed too much: that this therefore makes a man free.