Matheson Collection > De rerum natura liber quintus

NOTES. 55
125. quid sii = qitale sit illud quod est.
126. quippe etenim recurs 11. 240, 449, 1062, 1169; the expression
ispleonastic, as both quippe and etenim niean ' fw'.
;i non est ut putetur= nott potest putari. esse, 'to exist '.
T*.^i27 .^co nsili um!^ ' ju dgm ent ' ; animi goes with consil. as well as
with natura ; for animi natiira see n. to 1. 59. j^
131. quicguid=quid/ue, as often in Lucr. : see 11. 264, 284, 304.
133. lonpter: so uniter l. ^,^7 , duriter l. 1402. 'fjOLr*
134. qttod sj, 'but if': quod is the conjunction, not the relative,
and is thus used also before «w/, contra, quoniam (1. 138).
L''- «^ po^set enim multo pruis,' ' a mu ch more likelv supposition '.
1.^7. •y/a«^;^"*'after all'; a rare meaning; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 1053
w«»Hj z/jVw/ tandem, ' after all it is very cheap '. 'f atque, ' that is '.
«jjjl^ 138. quod: see n. to 1. 134. constat — est; again, 1. 144. quoque,
' even '.
139. videtur, ' is seen ' ; videri often requires, and usually can bear,
this meaning in Lucr. -i-^ . ^
140. sebrsufn : two syllables by synizesis. A^2^~fCXk*u \
^j^ anima atque animus: see n. to 1. 59. I *^( ' '
141. animalem: fem. adj. agreeing ynihfonnam. '^* Jt^AJH-»*^ r^ _
142. «^fMz: see n. to orbi, 1. 74. t^*^^^p4>4^_
143. As subject to a^Mrar^, sc. animam atque animum; Lucr. denies
both these to the material elements of the world, differing from the Stoics
who maintained that the world had a soul.
aetheris oris: see n. to 1. 85. IP^ " Ni,S t't^ *■ ^- ^ ■*' -' '•
144. As subject to constant { = sunt), sc. the things enumerated in
1. 115. divino sensu is equivalent to divino corpore of 1. n6.
145. They have not even life ; much less are they divine.
146 — 194. The gods do not dwell in abodes which wecaiisee: thdrahodes
are, like themselves, too subtle to be perceived by our senses. Nor did
the gods create the world for our sakes. They could have no motive
for doing so, as theirlife never admiited of any iucrease of happiness:
nor would they have known how to do so, before nature showed them
the way ; atoms, of themselves, after countless experiments, fell at
last into the positions necessary to make the world as we see it.
146. non est_ut_possis = nonpotes; comp. 1. 126.
147. Epicurus taught that the gods dwelt in 7'"''"f'^M"'i 'spaces
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