Sweetening the medicine …

… Lucretius, part 9: the calculating poet | Emma Woolerton | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

…we may find Epicureanism difficult to swallow at first, so Lucretius lures us in with some honeyed poetry, and before we know it, we've taken the philosophical medicine as well. It's a picture that isn't particularly flattering either to Epicureanism or to his readers, but it's the rationale Lucretius states for his choice of verse.