On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus audiobook.

Genre: poetry

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'

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:10:37) Chapter 02

(00:24:22) Chapter 03

(00:36:41) Chapter 04

(00:49:44) Chapter 05

(01:05:56) Chapter 06

(01:19:58) Chapter 07

(01:33:06) Chapter 08

(01:47:41) Chapter 09

(02:01:14) Chapter 10

(02:14:55) Chapter 11

(02:28:44) Chapter 12

(02:46:15) Chapter 13

(02:58:16) Chapter 14

(03:10:25) Chapter 15

(03:16:25) Chapter 16

(03:26:40) Chapter 17

(03:32:04) Chapter 18

(03:38:46) Chapter 19

(03:52:22) Chapter 20

(04:08:31) Chapter 21

(04:25:43) Chapter 22

(04:35:10) Chapter 23

(04:48:28) Chapter 24

(05:05:53) Chapter 25

(05:23:21) Chapter 26

(05:40:31) Chapter 27

(05:58:34) Chapter 28

(06:16:44) Chapter 29

(06:33:25) Chapter 30

(06:48:37) Chapter 31

(07:06:27) Chapter 32

(07:22:10) Chapter 33

(07:37:02) Chapter 34

(07:52:32) Chapter 35

(08:07:45) Chapter 36

(08:22:56) Chapter 37

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