[230]. Literal.
[231]. Fond and foolish fancy as it may be, there seems to me something miraculous in the mere juxtaposition of πλησίον and ἁδὺ—the silent adoring lover, jealous, as it were, of the very air robbing him of a portion of the sweetness.
[232]. ἕτερα ἑτέροις ἐπεισκυκλούμενα μεγέθη συνεχῶς ἐπεισάγηται κατ’ ἐπίβασιν.
[233]. On the exception to be made for Philostratus, see above, p. 120.
[234]. ἐπίκηρον πρᾶγμα ... κουφολογίας ὄζον. ἐπίκηρος means literally “perishable,” “apt to go off,” to get stale or flat.
[235]. ἐγὼ δ' οἶδα μὲν ὡς αἱ ὑπερμεγέθεις φύσεις ἥκιστα καθαραί.
[236]. Simonides had used the word literally of the nightingale, and there are those who hold that Bacchylides merely meant to compliment the lady’s voice. But let us think more nobly of him.
[237]. σβέννυνται δε ἀλόγως πολλάκις, καὶ πίπτουσιν ἀτυχέστατα.
[238]. I must be allowed to say that it contains one of the most ambitious and successful passages of Longinus as an original writer—the vindication of Nature’s command to man to admire the magnificent—in cap. xxxv. It is a temptation to quote it.
[239]. οὐκ οἴδ’ ὅπως παιδὸς πρᾶγμα ἔπαθεν διὰ τὴν τοῦ πάντα αὐξητικῶς ἐθέλειν λὲγειν φιλοτιμίαν.