Abstract
ALTHOUGH NATURE is scarcely the proper place for a disquisition on a Latin quotation, perhaps you will admit of a further correction of “W. T.'s” correction (p. 461) of the lines quoted by “W. E. P.” Numen is, I believe, never used except in the sense of good luck, being derived from nuo, and signifying the nodding approval of the gods; hence “Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia,” would mean just the opposite to the obvious sense of the passage. The best editions give, in both the satires where the line occurs, “Nullum numen abest,” and this makes sense. Except for this word, “W. T.'s” version is correct.
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PICKERING, S. The Planet Fortuna. Nature 71, 486 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/071486d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/071486d0
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