Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/50

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40 Journal of Philology. these elements of a nature accustomed to derive sensation from other elements in their turn (porro) ;" see here 981, &c, '* and at the same time make them soft, &c. ;" then in 905 cuique would be a less violent alteration than cuncta. From what has been just said I have no doubt that Lambinus is right in. 84 in reading /undo for suadet; it makes far better sense and is as near the " ductus literarum" as either Lachmann's or Bernays' reading : /, n, o being displaced by s, a, et respectively. No two letters more frequently interchange in our MSS. than 6 and d ; ad and ab, arbor and ardor, &c, are again and again confused; this suggests to me what I look upon as the right emendation of a corrupt word in the beautiful description of the cow searching for her lost calf in the second book ; 359, for adsittens read absistens ; the mother looks all round for her lost calf, then fills the leafy grove with her complainings as she desists from the search, and then returns to her stall, &c. No one can help feeling how natural a picture this is of the cow standing still and lowing after her search, before she goes back. At the end of words s and m are frequently confused, as I have observed above ; this suggests what I think the best correction of another corrupt word in this same passage; 363, for subitamqve read subolisque, "divert her care for her offspring." Lachmann's solitam cannot be right ; for her care is rather insolita. On the principle just mentioned Bernays is right in reading ii. 932 sensum for sensus ; but in the next verse proditus extet must be read for proditum extra, for surely proditur is a soloecism. This confusion of m and s first suggested to me what may seem a violent emendation of v. 312, but the verse is so corrupt, that it must be summarily dealt with. MSS. read Quwrere proporro sihirumque senescere credos, the words in Italics being clearly corrupt, the others apparently sound. The poet is talking of the power of time ; in the preceding verses he says, we see it wear out stones, towers, temples, statues of the gods, monuments of men ; then comes this corrupt verse in which proporro doubt- less introduces some new substances which time destroys; and in the next verse he speaks of the rending of flint rocks, pro- verbial for hardness. What then can we place between, as harder than the first-mentioned things, and only yielding to the last ; for Qucerere I read ceraque, which consists of almost the same letters differently arranged, and complete the verse thus :