_Emendation of a Passage in Virgil._--Allow me to send you an emendation of
the usual readings of the 513th line of the first Georgic, which occurred
to me many years ago, and which still appears to me more satisfactory than
any which have hitherto been suggested.
"Ut, cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigæ,
_Ac sunt in spatio_,--_en_ frustra retinacula tendens,
Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas."
"When the chariots have passed the barriers,
_And are now in the open course_,--
_Lo_, the charioteer vainly pulling the
Reins, is carried along by the steeds."
The usual readings are "addunt in spatio," or "addunt in spatia," which are
difficult to be {238} explained or understood. The emendation which I
suggest is, I think, simple, easy, and intelligible; and I can imagine how
the word "addunt" arose from the mistake of a transcriber, by supposing
that the MS. was written thus:--ac[s]vnt, with a long [s] closely following
the c, so as to resemble a d.