h. Sellar describes the passage as 'this strong and scornful
triumph over natural sorrow.'

Prose translation in Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, p. 113.

1. ei re sustuli: to that end (i.e. with full knowledge of the fact) I
bred them. re: dative, B. 52, 3; A. & G. 98, d, NOTE.

_7._ From the _Telamo_. This is Epicurean doctrine. Cf. Tennyson, _The
Lotos-Eaters, Choric Song_ at end:

like Gods together, careless of mankind.
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world:
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery
sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying
hands.
But they smile, _etc_.

Prose translation in Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, p. 78.

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