NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1. Imbecilla. Agreeing with natura. 2. Forte potius, &c. "It is influenced more by chance than by the exertion of intellect." 3. Quam vim aut tempus, "than ability or duration ;" i. e. than additional power or an enlarged period of existence. 4. Pollens potensque, "powerful and vigorous." Pollens refers here to innate strength; potens to its exercise. 5. Quippe probitatem, &c., "since it (i. e. fortune) can neither give nor take away integrity, industry, other praiseworthy qualities." Industria, in this passage, properly implies the active exercise of our abilities. "the 6. Sin, captus pravis cupidinibus, &c. "But if, ensnared by vicious desires, it has been consigned to the destructive bondage of sloth and corporeal gratifications," &c. Cortius makes pessum a supine from the old verb petior, (petio) "I am forced downwards," "I am trampled upon." Scheller regards it as a noun, equivalent in meaning to fundum, bottom" thus pessum ire," to go to the bottom," "to be destroyed" or ruined. So in Plautus, (Rud. 2. 3. 64.) Nunc eam cum navi scilicet abivisse pessum in altum; i. e. "to have gone to the deep bottom," "to have sunk to the bottom :" and in Tacitus, (Ann. 1.79.) pessum ituros campos, "that the fields would be ruined." We have endeavoured, in our translation of the passage of Sallust to which this note refers, to unite Page. 47 Page. 47 these two explanations; which in fact differ very little from one another, since every supine is a verbal noun. 48 66 "The authors of these evils 7. Ferniciosa lubidine, &c. The nominative absolute, instead of `Ubi, postquam perniciosa lubidine paullisper usus est, per secordiam vires, &c. When, after it has enjoyed for a season this destructive indulgence," &c. 8. Suam quisque culpam, &c. transfer each to affairs the blame which is their own;" i. e. they allege, in extenuation of their mental inactivity, that the affairs to which they had directed their attention, proved too difficult to be accomplished by them. 9. Quod si hominibus, &c. "But if mankind were inspired with as great a regard for things conducive to their welfare, as is the zeal with which they seek after," &c. 10. Ubi. Equivalent to in quo collocati, or to our phrase, "in which."- -pro mortalibus, "instead of mortals," or, "from mortals." 1. Praeclara facies, "personal beauty." 2. Ingenii egregia facinora, "the splendid exertions of in tellect." 3. Postremo, corporis, &c. "In fine, as there is a beginning, so is there an end, of the advantages of person and fortune." 4. Aeternus. A slight sketch of the Platonic doctrine res pecting the soul, may not prove uninteresting. The human soul, according to them, is derived from the supramundane soul, or first principle of life, and is, in this respect, sister to the soul which animates the world. Souls are not in the body as their place, nor as their receptacle, nor as their subject, nor as a part of a whole, nor as a form united to matter, but simply as the animating principle; for it is in this respect only that we know the soul to be present with the body. The power of the soul is diffused through every part of the body; and though it be said to reside in its chief instrument, the brain, it is incorporeal, and exists entirely every where within the sphere of its energy, Partaking of the nature of real being, it is immutable. It is the principle of motion, moving itself, and communicating motion to bodies. The vices and infelicities of the soul are wholly derived from its union with the bo |