SECOND PERIOD. THE CLOSE OF THE REPUBLIC. CHAPTER X. TRANSITION FROM LUCILIUS TO LUCRETIUS. Dearth of poetical works during the next half century 269 Literary taste confined to the upper classes 271 Great advance in Latin prose writing 272 Influence of this on the style of Lucretius and Catullus 273 Closer contact with the mind and art of Greece 273 Effects of the political unsettlement on the contemplative life and thought 275 " on the life of pleasure, and the art founded on it 277 The two representatives of the thought and art of the time 278 CHAPTER XI. LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. Little known of him from external sources 280 Examination of Jerome's statement 284 Inferences as to his national and social position 287 Relation to Memmius 288 Impression of the author to be traced in his poem 290 Influence produced by the action of his age 290 Minute familiarity with Nature and country life 292 Spirit in which he wrote his work 294 His consciousness of power and delight in his task 295 His polemical spirit 298 Reverence for Epicurus 299 Affinity to Empedocles 300 Influence of other Greek writers 302 " of Ennius 303 His interests speculative, not national 304 His Roman temperament 305 CHAPTER XII. THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS.