Tertullian

“ Virginity is swelling in its bloom,
75 Already ripe for harvest—a desire
Worthy of men—which let your pleasure reap!
Myself their sire, I yield them; and will pay
For my guests’ sake, the forfeit of my grief!”
Answered the mob insane: “And who art thou?
80 And what? and whence? to lord it over us,
And to expound us laws? Shall foreigner
Rule Sodom, and hurl threats? Now, then, thyself
For daughters and for guests shalt sate our greed! ”

“ It is at least (I hope) intelligible sense. But that the reader may judge for himself whether he can offer any better, I subjoin the lines, which form a sentence alone, and therefore can be judged of without their context:— “Tempore sed certo Deus omnia prospectulatus, Judicat injustos, patiens ubi criminis ætas Cessandi spatium vis nulla coëgerit iræ.”↑ Comp. Heb. i. 14. It may be as well here to inform the reader once for all that prosody as well as syntax is repeatedly set at defiance in these metrical fragments ”

“ For the common reading, which gives two lines, “Occidit illa prior feritas, quam prospiciens Loth Nullus arat frustra piceas fuligine glebas,” which are evidently entirely unconnected with one another, it is proposed to read, “Occidit illa prior feritas, quam prospiciens Loth, Deseruisse pii fertur commercia fratris. Nullas arat,” etc. This use of “fratris” in a wide sense may be justified from Gen. xiii. 8 (to which passage, with its immediate context, there seems to be a reference, whether we adopt the proposed correction or no) , and similar passages in Holy Writ. ”