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 interes