Longinus seems conscious of some strangeness in his language,
making a quasi-apology in ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις.

3.
Partly with the help of Toup, we may emend this corrupt passage as
follows: λυμαίνεται γὰρ ταῦτα τὸ ὅλον, ὡσανεὶ ψήγματα ἢ ἀραιώματα, τὰ
ἐμποιοῦντα μέγεθος τῇ πρὸς ἄλληλα σχέσει συντετειχισμένα. τὸ ὅλον here =
“omnino.” To explain the process of corruption, τα would easily drop out
after the final -τα in ἀραιώματα; συνοικονομούμενα is simply a
corruption of συνοικοδομούμενα, which is itself a gloss on
συντετειχισμένα, having afterwards crept into the text; μέγεθος became
corrupted into μεγέθη through the error of some copyist, who wished to
make it agree with ἐμποιοῦντα. The whole maybe translated: “Such
[interpolations], like so many patches or rents, mar altogether the
effect of those details which, by being built up in an uninterrupted
series [τῇ πρὸς ἄλληλα σχ. συντετ.], produce sublimity in a work.”


XII. 4. 2.
αὐτῷ; the sense seems clearly to require ἐν αὑτῷ.


XIV. 3. 16.
μὴ ... ὑπερήμερον Most of the editors insert οὐ before φθέγξαιτο, thus
ruining the sense of this fine passage. Longinus has just said that a
writer should always work with an eye to posterity. If (he adds) he
thinks of nothing but the taste and judgment of his contemporaries, he
will have no chance of “leaving something so written that the world will
not willingly let it die.” A book, then, which is τοῦ ἰδίου βίου καὶ
χρόνου ὑπερήμερος, is a book which is in advance of its own times. Such
were the poems of Lucretius, of Milton, of Wordsworth.[3]

[Footnote 3: Compare the “Geflügelte Worte” in the Vorspiel to
Goethe’s _Faust_:
Was glänzt, ist für den Augenblick geboren,
Das Aechte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.]


XV. 5. 23.
ποκοειδεῖς καὶ ἀμαλάκτους, lit. “like raw, undressed wool.”


XVII. 1. 25.
I construct the infinit. with ὕποπτον, though the ordinary
interpretation joins τὸ διὰ σχημάτων πανουργεῖν: “proprium est _verborum
lenociniis_ suspicionem movere” (Weiske).

2. 8.
παραληφθεῖσα. This word has given much trouble; but is it not simply a
continuation of the metaphor implied in ἐπικουρία? παραλαμβάνειν τινα,
in the sense of calling in an ally, is a common enough use. This would
be clearer if we could read παραληφθεῖσι. I have omitted τοῦ πανουργεῖν
in translating, as it seems to me to have evidently crept in from above
(p. 33, l. 25). ἡ τοῦ πανουργεῖν τέχνη, “the art of playing the
villain,” is surely, in Longinus’s own words, δεινὸν καὶ ἔκφυλον, “a
startling novelty” of language.

12.
τῷ φωτὶ αὐτῷ. The words may remind us of Shelley’s “Like a poet _hidden
in the light of thought_.”


XVIII. 1. 24.
The distinction between πεῦσις or πύσμα and ἐρότησις or ἐρώτημα is said
to be that ἐρώτησις is a simple question, which can be answered yes or
no; πεῦσις a fuller inquiry, requiring a fuller answer. _Aquila Romanus
in libro de figuris sententiarum et elocutionis_, § 12 (Weiske).


XXXI. 1. 11.
ἀναγκοφαγῆσαι, properly of the fixed diet of athletes, which seems to
have been excessive in quantity, and sometimes nauseous in quality. I do
not know what will be thought of my rendering here; it is certainly not
elegant, but it was necessary to provide some sort of equivalent to the
Greek. “Swallow,” which the other translators give, is quite inadequate.
We require a threefold combination--(1) To swallow (2) something nasty
(3) for the sake of prospective advantage.


XXXII. 1. 3.
The text is in great confusion here. Following a hint in Vahlin’s
critical note, I have transposed the words thus: ὁ καιρὸς δὲ τῆς χρείας
ὁρός‧ ἔνθα τὰ πάθη χειμάρρου δίκην ἐλαύνεται, καὶ τὴν πολυπλήθειαν αὐτῶν
ὡς ἀναγκαίαν ἐνταῦθα συνεφέλκεται‧ ὁ γὰρ Δ., ὁρὸς καὶ τῶν τοιούτων,
ἄνθρωποι, φησίν, κ.τ.λ.

8. 16.
Some words have probably been lost here. The sense of πλήν, and the
absence of antithesis to οὗτος μέν, point in this direction. The
original reading may have been something of this sort: πλὴν οὗτος μὲν
ὑπὸ φιλονέικίας _παρήγετο_‧ ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ τὰ θέματα τίθησιν ὁμολογούμενα,
the sense being that, though we may allow something to the partiality of
Caecilius, yet this does not excuse him from arguing on premises which
are unsound.


XXXIV. 4. 10.
ὁ δὲ ἔνθεν ἑλών, κ.τ.λ. Probably the darkest place in the whole
treatise. Toup cites a remarkable passage from Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, from which we may perhaps conclude that Longinus is
referring here to Thucydides, the traditional master of Demosthenes. _De
Thucyd._ § 53, Ῥητόρων δὲ Δημοσθενὴς μόνος Θουκυδίδου ζηλωτὸς ἐγένετο
κατὰ πολλά, καὶ προσέθηκε τοῖς πολιτικοῖς λόγοις, παρ᾽ ἐκείνου λαβών, ἃς
οὔτε Ἀντιφῶν, οὔτε Λυσίας, οὔτε Ἰσοκράτης, οἱ πρωτεύσαντες τῶν τότε
ῥητόρων, ἔσχον ἀρετάς, τὰ τάχη λέγω, καὶ τὰς συστροφάς, καὶ τοὺς τόνους,
καὶ τὸ στρυφνόν, καὶ τὴν ἐξεγείρουσαν τὰ πάθη δεινότητα. So close a
parallel can hardly be accidental.


XXXV. 4. 5.
Longinus probably had his eye on the splendid lines in Pindar’s _First
Pythian_:

τᾶς [Αἴτνας] ἐρεύγονται μὲν ἀπλάτου πυρὸς ἁγνόταται
ἐκ μυχῶν παγαὶ, ποταμοὶ δ᾽
ἁμέραισιν μὲν προχέοντι ῥόον καπνοῦ--
αἴθων᾽‧ ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ὄρφναισιν πέτρας
φοίνισσα κυλινδομένα φλὸξ ἐς βαθεῖ-
αν φέρει πόντου πλάκα σὺν πατάγῳ ἁγνόταται αὐτοῦ μόνου,

which I find has also been pointed out by Toup, who remarks that
ἁγνόταται confirms the reading αὐτοῦ μόνου here, which has been
suspected without reason.


XXXVIII. 2. 7.
Comp. Plato, _Phaedrus_, 267, A: Τισίαν δὲ Γοργίαν τε ἐάσομεν εὕδειν,
οἵ πρὸ τῶν ἀληθῶν τὰ εἰκότα εἶδον ὡς τιμητέα μᾶλλον, τὰ τε αὖ σμικρὰ
μέγαλα καὶ τὰ μέγαλα σμικρὰ ποιοῦσι φαίνεσθαι διὰ ῥώμην λόγου, καινά τε
ἀρχαίως τά τ᾽ ἐναντία καινῶς, συντομίαν τε λόγων καὶ ἄπειρα μήκη περὶ
πάντων ἀνεῦρον.




APPENDIX

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LESS KNOWN WRITERS
MENTIONED IN THE TREATISE ON THE SUBLIME


AMMONIUS.--Alexandrian grammarian, carried on the school of Aristarchus
previously to the reign of Augustus. The allusion here is to a work on
the passages in which Plato has imitated Homer. (Suidas, _s.v._; Schol.
on Hom. Il. ix. 540, quoted by Jahn.)

AMPHIKRATES.--Author of a book _On Famous Men_, referred to by
Athenaeus, xiii. 576, G, and Diog. Laert. ii. 101. C. Muller, _Hist. Gr.
Fragm._ iv. p. 300, considers him to be the Athenian rhetorician who,
according to Plutarch (_Lucullus_, c. 22), retired to Seleucia, and
closed his life at the Court of Kleopatra, daughter of Mithridates
and wife of Tigranes (Pauly, _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
Alterthumswissenschaft_). Plutarch tells a story illustrative of his
arrogance. Being asked by the Seleucians to open a school of rhetoric,
he replied, “A dish is not large enough for a dolphin” (ὡς οὐδὲ λεκάνη
δελφῖνα χωροίη), v. _Luculli_, c. 22, quoted by Pearce.

ARISTEAS.--A name involved in a mist of fable. According to Suidas he
was a contemporary of Kroesus, though Herodotus assigns to him a much
remoter antiquity. The latter authority describes him as visiting the
northern peoples of Europe and recording his travels in an epic poem,
a fragment of which is given here by Longinus. The passage before us
appears to be intended as the words of some Arimaspian, who, as
belonging to a remote inland race, expresses his astonishment that any
men could be found bold enough to commit themselves to the mercy of the
sea, and tries to describe the terror of human beings placed in such a
situation (Pearce ad. l.; Abicht on Hdt. iv. 12; Suidas, _s.v._)

BAKCHYLIDES, nephew and pupil of the great Simonides, flourished about
460 B.C. He followed his uncle to the Court of Hiero at Syracuse, and
enjoyed the patronage of that despot. After Hiero’s death he returned to
his home in Keos; but finding himself discontented with the mode of life
pursued in a free Greek community, for which his experiences at Hiero’s
Court may well have disqualified him, he retired to Peloponnesus, where
he died. His works comprise specimens of almost every kind of lyric
composition, as practised by the Greeks of his time. Horace is said to
have imitated him in his _Prophecy of Nereus_, c. I. xv. (Pauly, as
above). So far as we can judge from what remains of his works, he was
distinguished rather by elegance than by force. A considerable fragment
on the Blessings of Peace has been translated by Mr. J.