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.
The style abounds in archaism, alliteration, and assonance. The frequent
use of new compounds is a noticeable peculiarity of the diction.
Jerome states that the wife of Lucretius gave him a love-philtre which
took away his reason so that, after composing in his lucid intervals
several books, which were afterward corrected by Cicero, he died by his
own hand.
Sellar is inclined to accept this story as a 'meagre and distorted
record of tragical events in the poet's life.' On the basis of this
legend and an appreciative study of the _De Rerum Natura_, Tennyson
composed his _Lucretius_.
For Reference: Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, chapters 11-14;
Munro, _Text of Lucretius, with Notes and Introduction_ (4th. edition,
Cambridge, 1886); Mackail, _Latin Literature_ (New York, 1898), pp. 44-
46 (Lucretius as anticipating theories of modern science).
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.
_1._ 2. animi: a locative form, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 3. thyrso: see
_Lex_. II. A and B. 5-10. Often imitated, as by Vergil, _Georgics_, 3.
291-293. 5, 6. mente...loca: I traverse in blooming thought the pathless
haunts of the Pierides.--Munro. 7. iuvat: I love.--Munro. 11,12. artis
religionum nodis: Lucretius teaches that, since the gods do not govern
the world, all rites of worship are needless, and, since the soul is
mortal, punishment after death is not to be feared. Cf. Tennyson,
_Lucretius_:
My golden (cf. aurea, _Selection_ 2. 12) work in which I told a truth
That stays the rolling Ixionian wheel,
And numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake and plucks
The mortal soul from out immortal hell.
Religio is probably derived from the root lig, meaning to bind. The
Roman felt his religion to be a fetter upon him. 14. contingens:
o'erlaying, a compound of tango.--Munro.
_2._ 2. commoda: the true interests.--Munro. 3. o...decus: Epicurus, who
is praised in many passages. (See Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_,
p. 298 ff.) His bold and, comprehensive thinking is characterized as
follows (1. 72-74):
Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra
processit longe flammantia moenia mundi
atque omne inmensum peragravit mente animoque.
6, 7. quid...cycnis: for in what respect could the swallow vie with
swans? 8. consimile...et: that could compare with. 16. terrores: of
superstition. To remove these by demonstrating the uncontested supremacy
in the universe of natural law is Lucretius' main purpose. moenia ff.:
Lucretius thinks of the earth as at rest in the centre of our system,--
or mundus,--surrounded by the air in which move the moon and the sun.
The air is encompassed by the fiery aether,--or flammantia moenia mundi,
'the flaming walls of the world,'--which, as it rotates, carries the
stars with it. Beyond is the 'illimitable inane' (inmensum inane) in
which are set an infinite number of other worlds, and in the midst of
these the dwellings where the gods 'live the great life...center'd in
eternal calm' (deos securum agere aevom, 6. 58). To the poet's
instructed vision aether opens and earth becomes transparent. 18-24.
Inspired by _Odyssey_, 6. 42-45. Cf. Tennyson, _Lucretius_:
The Gods, who haunt
The lucid interspace of world and world,
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar
Their sacred everlasting calm!
and his description of the
island-valley of Avilion,
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly
in the _Passing of Arthur_. Observe the melody of the Latin due to the
skilful alliteration, and cf. Munro's translation of it for a like
effect.
25. nusquam apparent: Lucretius has proved that they do not exist. 26.
nec...dispiciantur: though earth is no bar to all things being
descried.--Munro. 28, 29. voluptas adque horror:
delight mixed with shuddering awe.--Munro.
_3._ 1-4. Zephyr and Flora precede Spring and Venus. viai: genitive of
archaic form dependent on cuncta, translate as all the way. 5. loci:
partitive genitive after inde; translate the two words by then. 8.
aliae...ventique: other stormy winds, i.e. Volturnus and Auster. 10.
bruma: midwinter.
_4._ 1. Ergo: because of visions of the night and day and because of
their observation of natural phenomena men at large came to the
incorrect belief that the gods govern the world. (Lucretius denies the
providence of the gods, not their existence.) 2. tradere, facere:
infinitives used substantively in apposition to perfugium. 3. templa:
realms. 5. severa: stern, austere. Properly the epithet of noctis, but
poetically transferred to signa. 6. faces, flammae: meteors. 7. The
heaping up of substantives without a copula is not uncommon in
Lucretius. 8. fremitus: distant, rumbling thunder. murmura magna
minarum: the near loud, threatful thunderclaps.--Munro. minarum is
equivalent to a limiting adjective. 13. velatum: the Romans prayed with
covered head. 14. vertier: middle. The reference is to a Roman custom by
which the suppliant approached with the statue on his right; after
praying, he turned to the right so as to face it and then prostrated
himself. 17. vota: votive tablets. 18 ff. It is true piety, not to
perform these rites, but to possess a tranquil mind, and this is
difficult, for the grandeur and terror of nature are almost
overwhelming. 20. super fixum: fast above.--Munro. 21. et...viarum: and
direct our thoughts to the courses of the sun and moon.--Munro. viarum:
B. 206, 3. 26. rationis egestas: lack of power to solve the question.--
Munro. 27. genitalis origo: birthtime.--Munro. 28. quoad: how long. 34.
contrahitur: shrink into itself.--Munro. 38. corripiunt: like
contrahitur, but stronger. 40. poenarum: genitive depending on solvendi.
45. viris quae ff.: powers sufficient to, etc.
LUCRETIUS AS OBSERVER AND WORD-PAINTER.--The following groups of phrases
and sentences are given as illustrative of the accuracy, variety, and
splendor of Lucretius' descriptions: