The Anatomy of the Mind and the Spirit of the Soul

The ruling part of the soul is the mind or animus, and is seated in the chest. But your life literally depends on the continued presence of the mind. Lucretius illustrates its powers mostly through examples of emotion. He draws our attention to a fundamental difference between creatures that can exercise free volition and other things like inanimate objects. With his flare for vivid examples, he describes what happens at the start of a horse race when all the horses are allowed to charge ahead.