You can get it for free from Project Gutenberg (and in Latin and English at the Perseus Project), but it's written in Old English, which I find challenging. So I never finished it. It was astounding but I had other books I had to read for my book club.
Then, speaking of my book club, a couple members suggested a book called The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt which is about the poem, Lucretius, and also the man who rediscovered it in 1417, Poggio Bracciolini. Poggio worked for the pope at the time and all the intrigue of the church is also talked about, which is fascinating.
I am less than halfway through the book, but so far I highly recommend it. It's interesting and inspiring.
On page 185, Greenblatt lists 20 elements that constituted the Lucretian challenge which he claims changed the world (once it was rediscovered by Poggio). To fully appreciate Lucretius I highly recommend reading the book, which is both fascinating and inspiring.
Briefly, here are the 20 elements. Remember, this was written before Christianity, over 2000 years ago.
- Everything is made of particles. These particles are immutable, indivisible, invisible, infinite in number, and constantly in motion.
- These elementary particles are eternal, indestructible and immortal. But all objects in the universe are transitory, and there is a ceaseless process of formation, dissolution, and redistribution. Time is infinite.
- While the particles are infinite in number, they are limited in size and shape. They fit together like the letters of an alphabet, according to a code. Some letters combine easily and others resist each other. But they form sentences in infinite variety. While Lucretius didn't claim to know the code, he said it could be investigated and understood by human science.
