Download or read book The Way Things Are written by Lucretius and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: De rerum natura (The Way Things Are) is a 1st century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. Lucretius presents the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by fortuna, "chance," and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities.