360 An Examination of Dr PARR'S Observations 



sub was changed into other letters, and sometimes omitted in 

 compound words, euphonize causa. Suscipio is sub and capio, 

 and so written as being more agreeable to the ear than subcipio, 

 or succipio, which SCALIGER says it originally was. Sustineo is 

 for sub and teneo. In this verb the preposition sub expresses 

 more nearly the force of the Greek preposition 0,1/0. than wro, 

 as sustineo is equivalent to a,t/i%u, " I hold up." Yet, in every 

 example where it occurs, the idea of supporting under may be 

 traced, sometimes very plainly, at other times more obscurely. 

 Hence it is often synonymous with tolero, patior. Thus OVID. 

 Metamorph. viu. v. 500. " Et quos sustinui bis mensium quin- 

 que labores." CICERO, Verr. 8. " Non tibi venit in mentem 

 quid negotii sit, causam publicam sustinere," which FACCIOLATI 

 explains by portar il peso. Suspicio is from sub and specio, the 

 6 being dropped as in the Greek verb ffv-<rvu.u. Its literal mean- 

 ing is, I \ookfrom under. Taken in a literal sense, it implies an 

 higher object. Thus CICERO, de Nat. Deor. n. c. 2. " Cum cce- 

 lum suspeanmus coelestiaque contemplati sumus." Metaphori- 

 cally, the sense of inferiority. " Translate est admirare," says 

 FACCIOLATI, " ammirare, quasi supra nos aspiciamus ilium esse 

 collocatum, quern admiramur." CICERO, Off. n. c. 10. " Itaque 

 eos viros suspiciunt, maximisque eiferunt laudibus." 



From these, and many other examples which could be pro- 

 duced, it may be observed, that the genuine power of the pre- 

 position sub in composition, is always to mark the relation of in- 

 feriority to a higher object, and that it never can, consistently with 

 the usage of the language, be derived from v*\g. Had gramma- 

 rians and philologists been sufficiently attentive to observe the 

 relations which prepositions in particular denote, they would 

 not have committed such glaring mistakes as are frequently ob- 

 servable in their account of them. So far as my observation ex- 

 tends, I do not know a single work in which the Greek and La- 



