On the Nature of Things (Leonard translation) by Titus Lucretius CARUS (c. 99 BCE - 55 BCE), translated by William Ellery LEONARD (1876 - 1944)
Genre(s): Classics (Greek & Latin Antiquity), Poetry, Ancient

Read by: Daniel Vimont in English

Parts:
Part 2 [ Ссылка ]

Chapters:
00:00:00 - 01 - Book I, Part 1: Proem
00:10:27 - 02 - Book I, Part 2: Substance is Eternal
00:24:02 - 03 - Book I, Part 3: The Void
00:31:08 - 04 - Book I, Part 4: Nothing Exists per se Except Atoms and the Void
00:36:11 - 05 - Book I, Part 5: Character of the Atoms
00:46:32 - 06 - Book I, Part 6: Confutation of Other Philosophers
01:05:26 - 07 - Book I, Part 7: The Infinity of the Universe
01:19:57 - 08 - Book II, Part 1: Proem
01:25:42 - 09 - Book II, Part 2: Atomic Motions
01:48:22 - 10 - Book II, Part 3: Atomic Forms and Their Combinations
02:20:08 - 11 - Book II, Part 4: Absence of Secondary Qualities
02:40:48 - 12 - Book II, Part 5: Infinite Worlds
02:58:06 - 13 - Book III, Part 1: Proem
03:06:43 - 14 - Book III, Part 2: Nature and Composition of the Mind
03:31:45 - 15 - Book III, Part 3: The Soul is Mortal
04:06:15 - 16 - Book III, Part 4: Folly of the Fear of Death
04:30:37 - 17 - Book IV, Part 1: Proem
04:33:37 - 18 - Book IV, Part 2: Existence and Character of the Images
04:49:48 - 19 - Book IV, Part 3: The Senses and Mental Pictures
05:41:40 - 20 - Book IV, Part 4: Some Vital Functions
06:01:46 - 21 - Book IV, Part 5: The Passion of Love
06:23:23 - 22 - Book V, Part 1: Proem
06:28:42 - 23 - Book V, Part 2: Argument of the Book and New Proem Against a Teleological Concept
06:44:58 - 24 - Book V, Part 3: The World is Not Eternal

On the Nature of Things, written in the first century BCE by Titus Lucretius Carus, is one of the principle expositions on Epicurean philosophy and science to have survived from antiquity. Far from being a dry treatise on the many topics it covers, the original Latin version (entitled De Rerum Natura) was written in the form of an extended poem in hexameter, with a beauty of style that was admired and emulated by his successors, including Ovid and Cicero. The version read here is an English verse translation written by William Ellery Leonard. Although Leonard penned his version in the early twentieth century, he chose to adhere to both the vocabulary and meter (alternating between pentameter and hexameter) of Elizabethan-era poetry.While the six untitled books that comprise On the Nature of Things delve into a broad range of subjects, including the physical nature of the universe, the workings of the human mind and body, and the natural history of the Earth, Lucretius repeatedly asserts throughout the work that his chief purpose is to provide the reader with a means to escape the 'darkness of the mind' imposed by superstition and ignorance. To this end he offers us his enlightening verses, that through them might be revealed to us 'nature's aspect, and her laws'. (Summary by Daniel Vimont)

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