728 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY, 



1, 400 Multaque praeterea tibi possum commemorando 

 argumenta fidem dictis corradere nostris. 

 verum animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci 

 sunt per quae possis cognoscere cetera tute. 

 namque canes ut montivagae persaepe ferarum 

 405 naribus inveniunt intectas fronde quietes, 

 cum semel institerunt vestigia certa viai, 

 sic alid ex alio per te tute ipse videre 

 talibus in rebus poteris caecasque latebras 

 insinuare omnis et verum protrahere inde. 



1, 1114 Haec sei pernosces parva perductus opella 



namque alid ex alio clarescet nee tibi caeca 

 nox iter eripiet quin ultima natural 

 pervideas: ita res accendent lumina rebus. 



After 1, 1114, with Munro, I assume a lacuna; for it appears obvious 

 that the sentence is incomplete. But in the absence of more certain 

 indications I refrain from speculating as to what and how much may 

 have perished in the breach. Yet •perductus, which is clearly' right 

 and ought not to be changed to perdodus, and iter, like the words of 

 Empedocles, suggest guidance on the way of truth : it is possible that 

 Lucretius may have taken a hint, as 2, 75 sq., from ancient relay 

 torch races, in which one runner handed over his torch or ignited that 

 of his team-mate, to illustrate the way in which a truth once known 

 flashes light far along paths hitherto shrouded in night. In 1, 400 sq. 

 Lucretius cleverly adapts a conception to his own uses. As he did 

 not accept the doctrine of the ubiquity of intelligence in nature, 

 which underlies the thought of Empedocles, he was obliged to intro- 

 duce a simile in lieu of the bold personification of facts and truths 

 which renders memorable the passage of his predecessor. We natur- 

 ally ask whether there was anything in his model to suggest the 

 particular simile which he chose. Now, it must be confessed that 

 there is a possible point of contact, if Empedocles wrote rjdos rather 

 than Wuos; for in that case rjdos would certainly not mean "charac- 

 ter" or "heart," as has been supposed, but "haunts" or "lair," 

 according to a usage familiar in Greek. In that event we should 

 have to think of facts or truths as having, like mountain-ranging 

 beasts, their lairs where they hide their young and to Avhich they 

 themselves return and guide the man who follows them. If Empedo- 

 cles used the word rjdos, one might see in v. 4, aXXare ttoXX' aTrdTcoi>8' 



