Lucretius, Book 4, Lines 779-780
Lucretius is explaining his theory on how visual images are produced, how people have visual images in dreams, and even at will. He say there is much to be cleared up about this.
Quaeretur in primis quare, quod cuique libido,
venerit, extemplo mens cogitet eius id ipsum.
It will be asked in the first place why, when a fancy comes to it
immediately the mind thinks the thing itself, of itself (the mind).
What I can't parse is "eius id ipsum". My guesses follow.
id: "the thing", the antecedent is what is fancied
ipsum: intensive complement of "id"
eius: genitive, singular, complement of "mens"
mens cogitet eius id ipsum
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mens cogitet eius id ipsum
Hugh Lawson
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Re: mens cogitet eius id ipsum
Forsit (verbatim) hoc:
It will first be asked why, as often as the desire for whatever thing comes, the mind would immediately picture that very one of it = precisely the very thing
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.
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Re: mens cogitet eius id ipsum
Thank you adrianus.adrianus wrote:Forsit (verbatim) hoc:It will first be asked why, as often as the desire for whatever thing comes, the mind would immediately picture that very one of it = precisely the very thing
Hugh Lawson