Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/384

 37-4 Journal of Ph ilology. Quorum nil fieri manifestttm est, omnia quando Paulatim crescunt, ut par est, semine certo Res quoxiam crkscuxt omxes bt TEMPORE certo, Crescentesque genus servant ; for I would thus complete the imperfect sentence, the similar ending of two consecutive > Mould easily account for the loss of one of them. I will proceed to emend on this principle another corrupt passage I, 1114 Hcec sic pernosccs parva perductus opella. Laehmann reads scio for sic, perdoctus for perductus; Bcrnays 676- jwnoscas and perdoctus; neither rightly in my opinion. It is in complete contradiction to all that precedes to say, 'These doctrines, I am sure, you will thoroughly master with very slight pains;' for there is no point on which Lucretius more insists, than the extreme obscurity and abstrusene^s of his subject, and the difficulty he expects to find in getting Memmius to under- stand his doctrines. But he does say, especially in i, 400 H7, a passage which should be compared with this, that when once the principles of his philosophy are mastered, the rest will be an easy task. Compare for instance 402 Verum animo satis hcec vestigia parva sagaci Sunt per quce possis cognoscere cetera tute : Namque canes ut. . . . Sic alid ex alio per te tute ipse videre Talibus in, rebus poteris #c. I would read therefore in our present pas- sage Ho3c sei pernosces, parva perductus opella CETERA jam poteris per te tute ipse videre ; Namque alid ex alio clarescet, fyc. 'if you will thoroughly master what I have already said, then carried on to the end with very little labour you will be able by yourself to understand all the rest.'* Sei has been changed into sic from that frequent source of corruption in the older writers, viz. the copyists' ignorance of the more ancient spelling. Many passages of Lucretius have thus been corrupted ; one of which I think I can emend. In vi, 1195 MSS. have inoretiacet or inhore- tiacet rictum, for which Laehmann reads inhorrescens rictum with Rutgersius; but I feel sure that the older editors are right in retaining in ore, as the other parts of the face are all particu- larised; what then is tiacet? I believe that the -et is a corruption of -ei, the old ablative termination of an epithet agreeing with ore, (see instances of this spelling in Lachmann's notes to iv, G02 and vi, 1143) and that we should read Compressce nares, nasi primoria acumen Tenue, cavati oculi, cava t cm porn, frigida pcllis Duraque, in ore thucei rictum, frons tenta tumtbat. 4 On the grim mouth a grin ' is a fine image of liorrour, with which may be