Thomas Jefferson owned at least five Latin editions of the On the Nature of Things written by the Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus about 50 years before the birth of Jesus. Jefferson also owned translations of the poem in English, Italian and French. Jefferson, a founding father of the United States and writer of the Declaration of Independence, considered On the Nature of Things one of his favorite books. Jefferson's writings make it clear that he largely agreed with the way Lucretius had described the world over 2,000 years ago. Stephen Greenblatt in the Preface to his book The Swerve, described the world view of Lucretius: The stuff of the universe, Lucretius proposed, is an infinite number of atoms moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking together, forming complex structures, breaking apart again, in a ceaseless process of creation and destruction. There is no escape from this process. When you look up at the night sky and, ... Read More >