This work hypothesizes that in the past, "many species must have died out altogether," and that "creatures with a double nature" such as centaurs never existed, and its section on matter and space contains the famous assertion that the universe consists of indivisible atoms.
The last section of this work examines various diseases and ends with a description of how bodies would be thrown onto pyres intended for others, causing civil strife. This work alleges that the mind and body are interconnected via a single substance, although the mind is composed of at least three substances, plus one more "which is quite nameless." In a section on sensations, this work imagines that vision must operate via "films" that are ejected from objects into the eye, and proposes that embryonic material to make up children comes from both parents. This work hypothesizes that in the past, "many species must have died out altogether," and that "creatures with a double nature" such as centaurs never existed, and its section on matter and space contains the famous assertion that the universe consists of indivisible atoms. Constructed as a letter to Gaius Memmius, for 10 points, identify this explication of Epicureanism, a long philosophical poem by Lucretius.
The last section of this work examines various diseases and ends with a description of how bodies would be thrown onto pyres intended for others, causing civil strife.
On the Nature of Things [or On The Nature of the Universe; or De rerum natura]