Lucretius On the nature of things
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| Lucretius On the nature of things |
The purpose of the poem is to convert the reader to the Epicurean system of philosophy. At some time in his life Lucretius had fallen in with this system and had embraced it as the final and complete solution of ‘ the riddle of this painful earth ’ ; and now he seeks to set before the world the precious knowledge which has brought peace of mind to his own heart. The adornment of poetry he regards merely as a device to make the philosophic teaching more palatable.
The poem begins with an invocation to Venus and a dedication to Memmius, who was prominent, in the political disturbances of the time, as an opponent of Caesar. It is remarkable that Catullus also was brought into close personal relations with the same Memmius.
The next paragraphs contain a magnifiicent panegyric on Epicurus, for whom Lucretius felt so deep a reverence that he is unwilling to mention him by name, a defence of the system against the charge of irreligion, and a statement, or rather two statements, of the contents of the poem
About The translator:
The author of this Translation of Lucretius was a famous scholar and in many ways a memorable man. Though he died more than twenty years ago, no bio graphy of him has ever been written ; and this reprint offers a natural opportunity to give a short account of his life and character, which may interest those who read this book of his in years to come.
Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro was born at Elgin, in October, 1819. Both his father and his mother were Scotch ; and he himself, though he habitually resided in England and retained no trace of the Scottish accent upon his tongue, remained to the last day of his life a fine representative of that perfervidum ingenium which has been supposed to be characteristic of Scotchmen.
He was educated at Shrewsbury School, under the famous Dr. B. H. Kennedy, for whose teaching he always felt and expressed a strong sense of gratitude, and thence he passed on to Cambridge in 1838, and became a member of Trinity College. At Cambridge he won a Craven Scholarship and took his degree in 1842 as second in the Classical Tripos. Two years later he was elected a Fellow of Trinity ; and from that date until his death, forty-one years later, he lived the life of a college Don at Cambridge.
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