Page images
PDF
EPUB

§ 7. primum quicque: 1 77 n.

si id est primum-doces: 'if the first point is that, on which there is almost universal consent, and which I for my part can never cease to maintain, viz. the divine existence, still even as to this, of which I am fully persuaded on the authority of our ancestors, you allege nothing to show why it is so'. On the adversative asyndeton (mihi quidem after inter omnes) see Index. On esse deos explaining id see 1 2 nn. on quod trahimur, quod continet.

exuri: so MSS. The metaphor was thought too violent, and various emendations have been offered; (1) eximi mentioned by Dav., adopted by Ba. and Sch., who cites (Opusc. III p. 380) Tac. Ann. v1 22 plurimis mortalibus non eximitur quin primo cujusque ortu ventura destinentur, and by Cobet (V. L. p. 463), who compares Plat. Rep. III p. 412 E dóέav ék tηs diavolas ¿¿aipeîobai; (2) erui by Walker, who compares Att. XIII 36 fanum fieri volo neque id mihi erui potest (where however Wesenberg reads eripi), and Lact. II 6 § 10 omnes religiones radicitus eruisti, where the metaphor is helped by radicitus; (3) excuti by Mu. after Ernesti and Lamb. as in Tusc. 1 111 hanc excutere opinionem mihimet volui radicitus; (4) exui by Moser, Orelli, Klotz, &c., comparing Tac. Ann. VI 25 vitia exuere, to which Sch. objects that, though the word is naturally used of a man's putting off a bad habit for himself, it would not be Latin to say vitia ex mente exuuntur; (5) exire by Lamb. and Heind. who compares Sen. Benef. III 38 numquam e memoria hominum exire, but here we want to express something more than a mere passing out of the mind from forgetfulness; (6) Lamb. also suggested exseri comparing Colum. XII 58 radicem exserito, but there is no instance of the word used metaphorically in this sense. Of these emendations the first mentioned seems to me decidedly the best, but is the MS reading absolutely inadmissible? We have a similar expression in Dio Chrys. Iv p. 152 ovd' ἂν πυρί τις ἐκκαῦσαι βουλόμενος (could eradicate principles once securely fixed in the mind), ἀλλὰ κἂν ἐμπρήσῃ τις τὸν ἄνθρωπον, μένοι ἂν αὐτοῦ τὰ dóyμata év Tŷ Yux, and for the Latin we may compare Aen. vI 740 aliis sub gurgite vasto infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni; Dav. cites Seneca Ep. 69 § 3 amorem exurere conatur, where however Haase reads exuere ; August. Eccl. Cath. 30 tantus caritatis ardor innascitur ut exustis omnibus vitiis &c., Ambros. Spir. Sanct. prooem. p. 115 Caro Domini Spiritu repleta divino peccata omnia exureret. The converse inuro is more frequently found in the metaphorical sense, as in Planc. 29 signa probitatis inusta, Liv. Ix 3 § 13 vivet semper in pectoribus quidquid praesens necessitas

inusserit.

quid est cur: 'what reason is there for you to come to me for instruction?' Cf. 1 115, and below § 47, also 1 3 quid est quod n.

aggredior ad: 1 57.

rudem et integrum: 'untutored and unprejudiced', cf. Orat. I 218 fateor (oratorem) nulla in re tironem ac rudem...esse debere; Att. vII 25 admones ut me integrum servem.

§ 8. egone: cf. I 16.

in ista partitione: cf. II 4 and 23. The мs reading perspicuum in istam partem probably originated in the insertion of perspicuum from the following line, and the loss of the last syllable of the abbreviated partione before the following ne. Ba. omits the words, but it seems natural to allude to the partitio mentioned in § 6.

dixisses-esset: Subj. as subordinate to Indirect Question, and esset also because it implies 'in your view' (äpa). [I should rather take dixisses to be Subjunctive because following quod in the sense of 'though'. See Gr. 1714. R.]

argumentis onerare judicem : 'to overwhelm', cf. 2 Phil. 99 omnibus eum contumeliis onerasti, Hor. Sat. I 10. 10 verbis lassas onerantibus aures. eam facultatem = ejus rei facultatem; see n. on quam similitudinem II 27.

tu autem quod quaeris similiter facis: so all мss; edd. read qui id. I prefer the former: the point is not the person, but the inquiry; 'as to your inquiry you are acting just as if you were to ask'. So Forchhammer p. 25. [Cf. below § 41 quos dicis, Orat. 1 254 quod dicis, 246 quod accusas, 247 quod putas, and Roby §§ 1743, 1749. R.]

altero coniveam: the verb con. is most commonly used absolutely of the person closing his eyes in sleep, 'winking' in the old sense of the term; it is rare to find it with an abl. of the eye though Apuleius has ciliis alterna conivens Met. x 17. It is also used of the eye itself, as possibly in II 143.

Ch. IV § 9. quam simile-tu videris: see n. on Cotta viderit 1 17; and cf. below 15, 70, 90, Div. II 108 vide quaeso quam sint ista similia, nam mihi non videntur. [So in Greek ὄψῃ, ὄψεσθε, σὺ (or αὐτὸς) ἂν εἰδείης, cf. S. Matt. XXVII 4, 24, Acts XVIII 15, Epictet. II 5 § 30, Iv 6 § 11, Antonin. v 25, XI 13. J. E. B. M.]

evidens de quo conveniat: 'palpable, self-evident, so that all are agreed about it'. The word ev. is still somewhat technical, and is not found in the speeches of Cicero.

perspicuitas: Cic. gives this and evidentia as alternative renderings οἱ ἐνάργεια Acad. II 17, 46.

hac subtilitate sermonis: 'in a philosophical argument of this kind', see 'Abstract' in Index.

cur coniveres...causa non esset: there was a reason for not confusing what was self-evident by the addition of arguments, for ratiocination and intuition are diverse: there would have been no reason for refusing to look with both eyes, since they both tell the same tale.

obtutus esset: tense suited to context as in 1 45 cum aeterna esset, see n. on II 2. For obtutus see Div. II 120 quodam obtutu oculorum duo lucernae lumina pro uno videri; Orat. III 17.

sapientem esse vis: see II 30, 36, &c.

lumina-perforata: 'lights (windows) pierced from the mind to the

M. C. III.

5

eyes'. Lumina is technical in this sense, see Vitr. Iv 6, Pro Domo 115 se luminibus ejus esse obstructurum [and regularly in the Digest, as in VIII 2. R.]. Hence often used for eyes, e. g. Tusc. v 114. Compare for the figure Tusc. 1 46 nos enim ne nunc quidem oculis cernimus ea quae videmus; neque est enim ullus sensus in corpore, sed, ut non physici solum docent sed etiam medici, qui ista aperta et patefacta viderunt, viae (Aristotle's πόροι) quasi quaedam sunt ad oculos, ad aures, ad nares a sede animi perforatae, ut facile intellegi possit animum et videre et audire, non eas partes quae quasi fenestrae sint animi...nunc quidem, quamquam foramina illa quae patent ad animum a corpore callidissimo artificio natura fabricata est, 'still in the mortal body they are liable to be blocked'. This is attacked by Lucretius III 359 dicere porro oculos nullam rem cernere posse, sed per eos animum ut foribus spectare reclusis, desipere est, where Munro quotes Sext. Emp. Math. VII 130 on Heraclitus ἐν δὲ ἐγρηγορόσι πάλιν διὰ τῶν αἰσθητικών πόρων ὥσπερ διά τινων θυρίδων προκύψας (ὁ ἐν ἡμῖν νοῦς) καὶ τῷ περιέχοντι συμβαλὼν λογικὴν ἐνδύεται δύναμιν, and ib. 350 οἱ δὲ αὐτὴν τὴν διάνοιαν) εἶναι τὰς αἰσθήσεις καθάπερ διά τινων ὀπῶν τῶν αἰσθητηρίων προκύπτουσαν, ἧς στάσεως ήρξεν Στράτων τε καὶ Αἰνησίδημος, and agrees with Lassalle in thinking that the illustration originally came from Heraclitus. The earliest statement of the doctrine which makes the mind the active agent in sensation, is the famous line attributed to Epicharmus (Mullach Fr. Phil. I p. 144) νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς ἀκούει· τἄλλα κωφὰ καὶ τυφλά, quoted by Arist. Prob. xΙ 33 χωρισθεῖσα αἴσθησις διανοίας καθάπερ ἀναίσθητον πόνον ἔχει, ὥσπερ εἴρηται τὸ νοῦς ὁρᾷ κ.τ.λ. We find the same doctrine in Plato Theaet. 184 Β ‘if anyone should ask, how we see and hear ̓ εἴποις ἄν, οἶμαι, ὄμμασί τε καὶ ὠσί, but we want something more exact, σκοπεῖ γάρ, ἀπόκρισις ποτέρα ὀρθοτέρα, ᾧ ὁρῶμεν τοῦτο εἶναι ὀφθαλμοὺς ἢ δι ̓ οὗ ὁρῶμεν, καὶ ᾧ ἀκούομεν ὦτα ἢ δι ̓ οὗ ἀκούομεν ; it would be strange if we had a number of independent senses, and if these were not all referred to some one form, whether we call it soul or not, whereby we perceive through the others as instruments (ἀλλὰ μὴ εἰς μίαν τινὰ ἰδέαν πάντα ταῦτα ξυντείνει ᾗ διὰ τούτων οἷον ὀργάνων αἰσθανόμεθα ὅσα αἰσθητά). Similarly Aristotle Mot. Anim. 6 ταῦτα δὲ πάντα (i. e. all motives) ανάγεται εἰς νοῦν καὶ ὄρεξιν· καὶ γὰρ ἡ φαντασία καὶ ἡ αἴσθησις τὴν αὐτὴν τῷ νῷ χώραν ἔχουσι· κριτικὰ γὰρ πάντα. Strato, the disciple of Theophrastus, called attention to the fact that impressions of sense are unheeded, if the mind is occupied, but are sometimes capable of being recalled afterwards by a mental effort, cf. Plut. Sol. Anim. p. 961, where we have Strato's proof that οὐδ ̓ αἰσθάνεσθαι τὸ παράπαν ἄνευ τοῦ νοεῖν ὑπάρχει. Epicurus opposed this because he feared to allow any independent action to the mind; yet, as we have seen in 1 49, he held that there were 'deiform' images which were perceptible by the mind alone. The Stoic view is given by Chrysippus ap. Gal. Hipp. Plat. 622 foll. ἡ ψυχὴ πνεῦμά ἐστι σύμφυτον ἡμῖν συνεχὲς παντὶ τῷ σώματι διῆκον... ταύτης οὖν τῶν μερῶν ἑκάστῳ διατεταγμένων μορίῳ τὸ διῆκον αὐτῆς εἰς τὴν τραχείαν ἀρτηρίαν φωνὴν φαμὲν εἶναι, τὸ δὲ εἰς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὄψιν. The five

senses were included in the eight faculties into which the Stoics divided the soul, cf. Diog. L. VII 110, Sext. Emp. Math. Ix 102 Tâgai ai ẻmì và kép tôi ὅλου ἐξαποστελλόμεναι δυνάμεις ὡς ἀπό τινος πηγῆς τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ ἐξαποστέλAovral. These were compared to the arms of a cuttle-fish (Plac. Phil. IV 21). The UXIKOV Veûμa residing in the brain travelled along the nerves to the organ of sense and thus caused sensation; Plin. N.H. x1 54 in oculis animus habitat...animo videmus, animo cernimus: oculi ceu vasa quaedam visibilem ejus partem (the visual faculty) accipiunt atque transmittunt (according to the Stoic theory of the exẞoλǹ radiorum, on which see II 83 nobiscum videt n.); Theophil. Corp. Hum. IV 8 foll. Tηv åρxýv ảñò τοῦ καθήκοντος νεύρου τοῦ ἐξ ἐγκεφάλου τοῦ μαλακοῦ ποιησάμενοι, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ταῦτα τὰ νεῦμα...ἐκπεφύκασι χορηγεῖν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τὴν ὅρασιν. On the general subject compare Plato Alcib. 1 p. 129, Galen Hipp. Plat. 622 foll., Lact. Opif. 5, Salvian Prov. 3, Butler Analogy 1 1 "So far as it can be traced by experimental observations, so far it appears that our organs of sense prepare and convey on objects in order to their being perceived, in like manner as foreign matter does, without affording any shadow of appearance that they themselves perceive"; Reid's Philosophy p. 246 with Hamilton's n. D*, Huxley Elem. Phys. p. 17 'the brain is the seat of all sensation and mental action'.

sat erat: see 1 45 and 1 19 longum est n.

auctoritates contemnis: as Cotta himself also, in his Academic capacity, professed to do, cf. I 10 non tam auctores &c. Cf. Plin. Ep. 1 20 ille mecum auctoritatibus agit.

§ 10. rationem me meam : I have ventured to insert me, as it gives a more natural force to contendere (allow me to put my argument side by side with yours'), like Rosc. Am. 93 quidquid tu contra dixeris, id cum defensione nostra contendito: ita facillime causa Sex. Roscii cum tua conferetur ; and is perhaps better suited to patere. Otherwise we should have to give it a metaphorical meaning, as in Rosc. Am. 136 quis erat qui non videret humilitatem cum dignitate de amplitudine contendere, where however the abstract stands for the person contending.

argumentando dubiam facis: Sch. cites Proclus on Plat. Tim. p. 416 Schn. ὁ πάντα ἀποδεικτικὰ νενομικὼς αὐτὴν μάλιστα τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ἀναιρεῖ.

Ab. The sight of the heavens does not, as a fact, produce a belief in the Stoic God of nature. $ 10, 11.

haec all we see around us'.

regantur: the Imperfect would have been more in accordance with usage, especially as suspexissemus has already been attracted to the tense of the principal verb, cf. n. on obtutus esset § 9, and II 1.

aspice-Jovem : see on II 4. I am glad to see that L. Müller rejects Ritschl's sublimen.

§ 11. quasi vero-appellet: 'as though any of us gave the name of Jove to him whom you describe as sublime candens, rather than to the God of the Capitol'. Traditional mythology supplied the conscious belief of the mass so far Cotta is right; but the Stoics were right in regarding that mythology as itself bearing witness to an older belief out of which it had sprung. One chief source of that earlier belief in a superhuman Ruler was the sight of the heaven, its immensity, its splendour, its order, its terror; and so far as mythology was associated with the religious instinct, that old belief still survived under the forms of mythology: see passages quoted on II 4 cum caelum suspeximus, Seneca N.Q. II 45 ne hoc quidem crediderunt (imperiti) Jovem, qualem in Capitolio et in ceteris aedibus colimus, mittere manu fulmina, sed eundem quem nos Jovem intellegunt, rectorem custodemque universi, animum ac spiritum mundi, operis hujus dominum et artificem; and the grand words of Tertullian Test. Anim. 1 commencing consiste in medio, anima...te simplicem et rudem et impolitam et idioticam compello, qualem habent qui te solam habent, illam ipsam de compito, de trivio, de textrino totam foll. But 'men became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened'; the ignorant Roman deified the image of Jupiter or Minerva, as his ignorant descendant in the present day deifies the image of a Saint or a Madonna. Thus it was thought that one image would be jealous of the honour done to another image of the same God, cf. Suet. Oct. 91 cum dedicatam in Capitolio aedem Tonanti Jovi assidue frequentaret, somniavit queri Capitolinum Jovem cultores sibi abduci foll., and Scott's description of Louis XI in Quentin Durward.

A c. General opinion is a strange ground to allege for a philosophical conviction, especially on the part of those who hold the vox populi' to be the 'vox stultorum'. § 11.

[ocr errors]

omnium esset: for the argument from general consent see II 5 nn. opinione stultorum: cf. 1 23, III 79, Div. 11 81 quasi vero quidquam sit tam valde quam nihil sapere vulgare, aut quasi tibi ipsi in judicando placeat multitudo; Philodemus de Mus. in Zeller IV 253 'the Stoic cannot rely on the Consensus Gentium, as he holds the mass in contempt'. The argument is met in a different way I 62. We have the Stoic rejoinder in Sext. Emp. IX 63 foll. 'not only the mass, but the wise, the poets and philosophers, admit the Divine existence; and as, in debating matters of sense, we should trust the evidence of those who possessed the keenest sight and quickest ear, so in matters of reason we should trust the wisest’. insanos: cf. Parad. Iv ὅτι πᾶς ἄφρων μαίνεται.

[ocr errors]

A d. The epiphanies', to which the Stoics appeal, are mere rumour unconfirmed by evidence. $$ 11-13 (cf. nn, on 11 6).

Ch. v. in Salaria: in 11 6 it is said that Vat. was coming from Reate to Rome. This agrees with Varr. R. R. 111 2 § 14 certe nosti materterae

« PreviousContinue »