Note 1240 — PERSIUS.

Junctura. A metaphor from statuaries or furniture-makers, who passed the nail over the marble or polished wood, to detect any flaw or unevenness. So Lucilius compares the artificial arrangement of words to the putting together a tesselated pavement. Frag. incert. 4, "Quam lepide lexeis compostæ? ut tesserulæ omnes Arte pavimento atque emblemate vermiculato." Cf. Hor., A. P., 292, "Carmen reprehendite quod non multa dies et multa litura coercuit atque perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem." i., Sat. v., 32," Ad unguem factus homo." ii., Sat. vii., 87. Appul., Fl., 23, "Lapis ad unguem coæquatus." Sidon. Apoll., ix., Ep. 7, "Veluti cum crystallinas crustas aut onychitinas non impacto digitus ungue perlabitur: quippe si nihil eum rimosis obicibus exceptum tenax fractura remoretur." This operation the Greeks expressed by ἐξονυχίζειν. Polycletus used to say, χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τὸ ἔργον ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γίγνηται. "The most difficult part of the work is when the nail comes to be applied to the clay."