Vitaque mancipio nulli datur omnibus usu.—[491]
Surgit amari aliquit quod in ipsis floribus angat.—[492]
Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo
Eiciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res.—[493]
Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce
Aequo animo.[494]
Many other lines and expressions of similar force will occur to every reader familiar with Lucretius. As his ordinary style brings the outward aspects of the world vividly before the mind, so the language in which his moral teaching is enforced, or the result of his moral observation is expressed, stamps powerfully on the mind important and permanent truths of human nature. His thoughts are uttered sometimes with the impressive dignity of Roman oratory, sometimes with the nervous energy, not without flashes of the vigorous wit, of Roman satire. There are occasionally to be heard also higher and deeper tones than those familiar to classical poetry. His burning zeal and indignation against idolatry, and the scorn with which he exposes the impotence of false gods—
Cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant?
An tum bracchia consuescunt firmantque lacertos?[495]—
show some affinity of spirit to the prophets of another race and an earlier time. The 'grandeur of desolation' uttered in the reproof of Nature,—