Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/383

 -. On some passages in Lucretius. 373 rated from himself. Thus an emendation which I gave in p. 40 of the very corrupt passage v, 312, though it may appear violent, receives I think very great confirmation from other passages, ir, 447 In quo jam genere in primis adamantina saxa Prima acie con- stant ictus contemnere sueta Et validi silices ac duri robora ferri jEraque quce claustris restantia vociferantur ; also I, 571, n, 103. He also sometimes receives illustration from his imitators ; thus an emendation of iv, 79, which I proposed in p. 41, is I think confirmed by a passage of the iEneid v, 340, perhaps suggested by this passage of Lucretius, Hie totum cave^e consessdm ingentis et ora Prima patrum magnis Salius clamoribus implet : the sena- tors probably being very conspicuous from their dress and promi- nent position in the orchestra. One might compare also Tacitus Ann. xiii, 54 Intravere Pompeii theatrum, quo magnitudinem populi viserent. illic per otium. . . dum consessum caveje, discrimina ordinum, quis eques, ubi senatus percunctantur, advertere quosdam cultu externo in sedibus senatorum,. . . degrediunturque et inter patres considunt. As is generally the case when a text is derived ultimately from a single manuscript, verses have dropped out in many parts of Lucretius through the carelessness of the original transcriber. Of this I will give one or two instances, not yet noticed by any editor. In i, 190 the word crescentes, which has nothing to agree with, has occasioned much difficulty. Some have read crescendo instead of it, but Lachmann has shewn that that does not give the sense required. I do not like his emendation crescere resque, for the words crescentesque genus servant seem to me truly Lucre- tian. I am convinced that a line has been lost between 189 and 190, and unless I much deceive myself, I think I can restore almost the very words of Lucretius. In the preceding verses he has been proving the dogma that nothing can be produced out of nothing. For otherwise any one thing might be produced out of any other, men might rise from the sea, fish from the earth, any tree might bear any fruit, &c. But this is not so, for all things are produced seminibus certis, from certain fixed seeds. This is shewn in 159 173; then 174 begins a new argument. If things could come from nothing, no fixed season nor space of time would be required for the growth of things ; but this is not the case, for all things are produced tempore certo, at a fixed time, as well as from a fixed seed. Then 188 he thus concludes