Chapter VI
Reading edition
§1. vacui nec otium patitur. The reading in the text, which is quite satisfactory, occurs in Harl. 4995, 4950, and Dorv. Bn and Bg give vacuum otium pat., and are followed by N Ioan. Harl. 2662 and 11671. For otium patitur b (followed by HFT) gives the remarkable reading experientium (experientiam Burn. 243, Bodl.), which reminds one of the confusion at the opening of ch. v: may the true reading perhaps be nec ἕξιν parantibus otium patitur? Jeep suggested expetit otium: nec perire otium patitur has also been suggested.
§2. desit. After this word there is a considerable space left blank in Bn and Bg, as well as in some later MSS., e.g. Harl. 2662 and 11671. In Harl. 4995 there is no blank, but in the margin the words ‘hic deficit antiquus codex.’
inhaeret ... quod laxatur: a later hand in Vall., Meister, and Krüger. BMN give inhaeret ... quae laxatur, which appears in ed. Camp. (and Halm) as inhaerent ... quae laxantur.
§4. tandem Madvig, Emend. Liv. p. 61, tamen libri.
§5. redire. I find this reading in Bg Ioan. C Harl. 2662, 4995, 4829, and restore it to the text, in place of regredi (Halm and Meister), which seems to have arisen out of redi HF, and occurs in Harl. 4950, Burn. 243, 244, and Dorv.
§6. domo Harl. 4995: domū B Ioan. MN Sal.
§7. utrimque Bonnell and Meister. The codd. give utrumque. Gesner (followed by Halm: cp. i. §131) proposed utcumque: Spalding utique: Jeep si tutius utcumque quaerendum est (cp. iv. 1. 21), founding on the reading of b strict * * * (margine adcisa), which reappears in HFT (strictius—strutius).