De Rerum Natura: Libri Sex, Volume 1Bell, 1903 - 183 pages |
Common terms and phrases
able abroad Acheron admit beget begotten birth blows bodies of matter born bright burning CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ carried cause clouds cold colour CRUZ The University darkness death directions round discharged disease earth Ennius etesian ether everlasting exist eyes fall fear feel fire first-beginnings of things fixed flame force formed frame give gods grass jewelled hand haply heat infinite kind lands light limbs living creatures living things LUCRETIUS Memmius mind mixed moisture Moreover mortal motions move nature of things Orcus pass perceive produced race rains rivers round SANTA CRUZ scythed chariots seeds seen sense shapes shew shewn sleep smell soul space spot stirred stone stream stroke sum of things suppose sure thou throughout thunderbolt tumble University Library UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA Venus verses voice void Wherefore whole body wild beasts winds withdraw wont
Popular passages
Page 28 - It may be sweet when on the great sea the winds " trouble its waters to behold from land another's deep "distress; not that it is a pleasure and delight that " any should be afflicted, but because it is sweet to see " from what evils you are yourself exempt.
Page 58 - ... to hold the lofty and serene positions well fortified by the learning of the wise, from which you may look down upon others, and see them wandering all abroad and going astray in their search for the path of life,— see the contest among them of intellect, the rivalry of birth, the striving night and day with surpassing effort to struggle up to the summit of power and be masters of the world.
Page 19 - For whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, at once this change of state is the death of that which was before.
Page 79 - This do men say; but add not thereto 'and now no longer does any craving for these things beset thee withal'. For if they could rightly perceive this in thought and follow up the thought in words, they would release themselves from great distress and apprehension of mind. 'Thou, even as now thou art, sunk in the sleep of death, shalt continue so to be all time to come, freed from all distressful pains; but we with a sorrow that would not be sated wept for thee, when close by thou didst turn to an...
Page 39 - ... freely on, they may at the same time hurt the senses. And that you may more readily believe that with smooth are mixed rough first-beginnings from which Neptune's body is made bitter, there is a way of separating these, and of seeing how the fresh water, when it is often filtered through the...
Page 24 - For verily not by design did the first-beginnings of things station themselves each in its right place by keen intelligence, nor did they bargain sooth to say what motions each should assume, but because the first-beginnings of things many in number in many ways impelled by blows for infinite ages back and kept in motion by their own weights have been wont to be carried along and to unite in all manner...
Page 152 - ... gathered from abroad, however salutary were spoilt within it ; partly because he saw it to be leaky and full of holes so that it could never by any means be filled full ; partly because he perceived that it befouled so to say with a nauseous flavour everything within it, which it had taken in. He therefore cleansed men's breasts with truth-telling precepts and fixed a limit to lust and fear and explained what was the chief good which we all strive to reach, and pointed out the road along which...
Page 10 - I fear slow age will steal over our limbs and break open in us the fastnesses of life, ere the whole store of reasons on any one question has by my verses been dropped into your ears. But now to resume the thread of the design which I am weaving in verse : all nature then, as it exists by itself, is founded on two things : there are bodies and there is void in which these bodies are placed and through which they move about.
Page 136 - I say the earth with good title has gotten and keeps the name of mother, since she of herself gave birth to mankind and at a time nearly fixed shed forth every beast that ranges wildly over the great mountains, and at the same time the fowls of the air with all their varied shapes. But because she must have some limit set to her bearing, she ceased like a woman worn out by length of days. For time changes the nature of the whole world and all things must pass on from one condition to another, and...
Page 147 - Arms of old were hands nails and teeth and stones and boughs broken off from the forests, and flame and fire, as soon as they had become known.