356 An Examination of Dr PARR'S Observations 



to solve the difficulty, even to the satisfaction of Mr STEWART ;" 

 and this he does by taking sub for super, or deriving it from the 

 Greek preposition vvig. I also am confident, that VIRGIL would 

 not have employed in this clause of the sentence superjaciunt as 

 synonymous with subjiciunt ; because the former would have sig- 

 nified, not that they threw themselves on horseback, but that they 

 threw themselves over the horses; and, besides, the preposition 

 in, which* with subjiciunt, signifies upon, could not have been em- 

 ployed with superjaciunt without a gross violation of the idiom 

 of the language * ; and no one knew this better than Dr PARR, if 

 he had not been blinded by his theory. The construction would 

 have been the same as the following : 



" pontus 



Nunc ruit ad tellus, scopulosque superjacit undam 

 Spumeus." VIKG. JEn. xi. 625. 



Ille astu subit, at tremebunda supervolat hasta. 



VIKG. Mn. x. 522. 



The quivering spear flies over him. The same relation is to be 

 observed in the expression, Corpora subjiciunt in equos, as in the 

 former example. The preposition sub denotes the lower situa- 

 tion of the men relative to the higher position of the horses' 

 backs when they were going to throw themselves upon them : 



Ter flamma ad summum tecti subjecta reluxit. 1 " 



VIKG. Georg. iv. v. 385. 



* I am quite aware that the preposition in was sometimes used in compound 

 verbs with super ; as, mperinjicere, superimpono, Sue. But when these two preposi- 

 tions are combined together, they imply a very different relation. Would VIKGIL, 

 or any other Latin author, have used the expression aut corpora saltu superinjiciunt 

 equos ? I believe neither he nor any other. When he says, Georg. iv. v. 46. " et ra- 

 ras superinjice frondes,"he shews that the relative situation of the person to the hives 

 is just the reverse of the men to the horses 1 backs, in the preceding example. Thus, 

 " and throw (from a higher situation) a few branches down upon them." 



