96 On the UflLItfr of defining 



feems to have originally exprefTed an effort to come at objects 

 not within reach, and to have been transferred from material 

 objects to intellectual conceptions. Its primitive power appears 

 in fuch inftances as the two following : " Sciebam Catilinam 

 " non latus aut ventrem, fed caput et collum petere folere*." 

 — " Malo me Galatea petit, lafciva puellaf." 



The power of petere, thus limited, appears to have been after- 

 wards extended, fo as to exprefs a defire, accompanied with an 

 effort to obtain any object whatever ; and thus the original idea 

 of bodily exertion was loft in that of the eagernefs of any pur- 

 fuit. Candidates for offices at Rome were faid petere magijlra- 

 tusj and from a fenfe of the value, as well as of the difficulty 

 of obtaining the object, they were keen in the purfuit of it. 



From a paffage in Horace, it fhould feem, that any means 

 for the acquisition of an object that are lefs than coercive, may- 

 be expreffed by the verb petere,. 



C^isar, qui cogere poffet, 



Si peter et per amicitiam patris atque fuain, non 

 Quidquam proficeret %* 



Nothing more is fuggefted here by petere, than Cesar's keen- 

 nefs to hear this mufician perform. It were abfurd to fuppofe, 

 that the Emperor, who poffeffed the power of compulfion, 

 would ever ftoop to beg the favour, according to Servius, 

 " humiliter et cum precibus.' r 



Postulare differs from petere, in as far as it fuggefls nei- 

 ther keennefs nor difficulty in the acqurfition of the object. Be- 

 fides the fentiment of defire, which is common to all the five 

 verbs compared, the idea of claim, which is manifefUy not in- 

 herent in either of the two former, is effential to pqflidare. Upon 

 a proper limitation of this claim, however, a due apprehenfion 



of the power of the verb depends. 



The 



* Cic. pro Mureen. 136. b, f Virg. Ec. 3 64, % Hor, S. i. 3, 4. 



