1. deum: genitive with which caelitum agrees. 3. abeat: is not so.— Sellar.
8. Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 76. Note the alliterations in the passage. 1. dacrumis: older form of lacrimis and related to it as dingua to lingua. nec…faxit: and let none weep at my funeral, faxit is perfect subjunctive. 2. Volito…virum: I still live as I fly along the lips of men. Cf. Vergil, Georgics, 3. 9: victorque virum volitare per ora, and Shakspere, Sonnet 82:
You still shall live—such virtue hath my pen—
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
II. LUCRETIUS.
98-55 B.C.
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum
subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.
Vergil, Georgics, 2. 490-492.
He…died
Chief poet on the Tiber-side.
Mrs. Browning, Vision of Poets.
This doctrine of Lucretius, though antagonistic to the popular religion, is not atheistic or pantheistic; it is not definite enough to be theistic. It is rather the twilight between an old and a new faith.— Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 355.
The joy and glory of his art come second in his mind to his passionate love of truth, and the deep moral purport of what he believes to be the one true message for mankind. The human race lies fettered by superstition and ignorance; his mission is to dispel their darkness by that light of truth which is 'clearer than the beams of the sun and the shining shafts of day.'—Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 43.
The De Rerum Natura, Lucretius' only work, left at his death unfinished, is a didactic poem in six books which aims to give an explanation of the origin and nature of the universe. All things are declared to be composed of atoms—even the soul, which is therefore mortal—and have been developed by a process of 'evolution' and 'survival of the fittest' under the uninterrupted control of natural law. Gods exist, but have little to do with the world. On the ethical side contentment, self-control, obedience, humility, are earnestly enjoined.