On the Nature of Things (Leonard translation): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

On the Nature of Things (Leonard translation), credited to Titus Lucretius Carus, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus (c.99 BC - 55 BC). Translated by William Ellery Leonard (1876 - 1944). Read in English by Daniel Vimont. 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". (Summary by Daniel Vimont)

Recording facts

• Recording title: On the Nature of Things (Leonard translation)
• Author credits: Titus Lucretius Carus
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 32
• Listed recording duration: 10:32:16

Catalogue topics

• classics
• ethics
• metaphysics
• antiquity
• epicureanism
• epicurean

Opening tracks: first 24 of 32

1. 01 - Book I, Part 1: Proem — 10:27
2. 02 - Book I, Part 2: Substance is Eternal — 13:35
3. 03 - Book I, Part 3: The Void — 7:06
4. 04 - Book I, Part 4: Nothing Exists per se Except Atoms and the Void — 5:03
5. 05 - Book I, Part 5: Character of the Atoms — 10:21
6. 06 - Book I, Part 6: Confutation of Other Philosophers — 18:54
7. 07 - Book I, Part 7: The Infinity of the Universe — 14:31
8. 08 - Book II, Part 1: Proem — 5:45
9. 09 - Book II, Part 2: Atomic Motions — 22:40
10. 10 - Book II, Part 3: Atomic Forms and Their Combinations — 31:47
11. 11 - Book II, Part 4: Absence of Secondary Qualities — 20:40
12. 12 - Book II, Part 5: Infinite Worlds — 17:18
13. 13 - Book III, Part 1: Proem — 8:37
14. 14 - Book III, Part 2: Nature and Composition of the Mind — 25:02
15. 15 - Book III, Part 3: The Soul is Mortal — 34:29
16. 16 - Book III, Part 4: Folly of the Fear of Death — 24:22
17. 17 - Book IV, Part 1: Proem — 3:00
18. 18 - Book IV, Part 2: Existence and Character of the Images — 16:11
19. 19 - Book IV, Part 3: The Senses and Mental Pictures — 51:52
20. 20 - Book IV, Part 4: Some Vital Functions — 20:07
21. 21 - Book IV, Part 5: The Passion of Love — 21:37
22. 22 - Book V, Part 1: Proem — 5:19
23. 23 - Book V, Part 2: Argument of the Book and New Proem Against a Teleological Concept — 16:16
24. 24 - Book V, Part 3: The World is Not Eternal — 16:30

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.