The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

646 EXPLANATORY NOTES.
EPISTLE TO THE PISOS.
I
ant to produce a completa and flnishod whole, it becomes equally import
ant for us to be well acquainted with tbe nature and extent of our talents,
and to select such a subject as may be proportioned to tbem.—40. Potejiter.
"In accordance with his abilities." Equivalent to the Greek Kari
Siva/iiv. 41- i^M facundia deseret hunc, nee lucidus ordo. The poet
here enumerates the advantages which result from our selecting a subject
proportioned to our powers, namely, " eloquence of expression" (facun-
dia),i.e., a proper command of language, and "lucid arrangement" {lu-
ciditis ordo).—i2. Ordinis hae mrtus erit et Venus, &c. "This will con-
stitute the chief excellence and the beauty of method (or I am much deceived],
that the writer say at the very moment those things which oaght
at the very moment to he said, that he put off most things and omit them
for the present," i. e., that he state merely those things at present which
are requisite for the due understanding of his intent and meaning, and reserve
the other ideas and images which may now be crowding into his
mind for another and more fitting opportunity.—45. In verbis etiam tenuis
cavtusque serendis. "Nice and cautious, too, in the employment of
words." Tenms here has reference to nice and delicate taste, and is
equivalent to the Greek Tienroc.—46. Hoe amet, hoe spernat promissi emminis
cmctor. According to the arrangement in the common editions,
this verse and the one immediately preceding are transposed. The pro-
priety, however, of Bentley's position of these lines, which we have followed
in our text, all must allow. Gesner observes in its favor that it
was customary with the copyists, when a line was misplaced by them, to
denote such displaoing by very minute marks, which might easily become
obliterated in the lapse of time. To the same effect are the words of
Baste (Comment. Paleogr., p. 858). The expressions in the text, Jwc
amet, hoc spernat, are equivalent to aliud verbwrn OTnplectatur, aliud rejiciat.—47.
Callidajunctura. " Some skillful arrangement." Junctura,
observes Hurd, as here employed by the poet, is a word of large and gen-
eral import, and the same in expression as order or disposition in a subject.
The poet would say, " Instead of framing new words, I recommend
to you any kind of artful management by which you may be able to give a
new air and cast to old ones."
49-52. 49. Indiciis monstrare recentihus ahdita rerum. " To explain
abstruse subjects by newly-iiivented terms." The allusion in abdita reram
is to things hitherto lying concealed, and now for the first time brought
to light, i. e., inventions and discoveries, which need, of course, newly-invented
terms to enable others to comprehend them.—50. Fingere cinctutis
non exaudita Cethegis eontinget, "It wiU be allowed to coin words nn
heard of by the ancient Cethegi," i. «., entirely new, not known from the
earliest periods of the language. The Cethegi are here put for the an
cient Homans generally, and Horace, in full accordance with his subject
and the better to mark their antiquity, makes tise of an old term cineiutis
This epithet cinetutis properly means " girt," *. e., cinctu indutus, and
marks the habits of the early Romans. It has a special reference to tbe
G-abine cincture, which was so called When the lappet of the gown, tliat
used to be thrown over the left shoulder, was passed around the back ir
such a manner as to come short to the. breast and there fasten in a knot
Jhis knot or cincture tucked up the gown, and made it shorter and straiter,
and consequently better adapted for active employment.—51. Sumtu
,