happy as when he was in the midst of natural scenery and rural life; he held communion with Nature in all "her visible forms," and in them all-in grove and forest, in hill and vale, in prattling fountain,' and in rushing river 2—she spoke to him "her various language." The fruits of these cherished communings are visible in the many faithful and delightful pictures of natural scenery, scattered throughout his works; and the second of his Epodes, for its beautiful delineation of the employments and delights of rural life, its charming snatches of landscape, and its glances at the cheerful interior of the peasant's home,-the care and fidelity of "the chaste wife," the dry fagots piled upon the hearth, "the shining Lares" and the unbought feast," is a production unrivalled in the whole range of literature.

A feature in the character of Horace, which shows itself prominently in his writings, is a love of his personal freedom, with a constant striving to maintain and enjoy it to the utmost possible extent under all circumstances. It was essential to his well-being, needful to the health and activity of his spirit, to be the master of his own actions and movements, to go or stay where and when he might choose, and devote himself unfettered by the will of others, to what he deemed best and most agreeable to himself. He preferred any situation, however humble and obscure, in which he could have the free disposi tion of his life, to any position in the world, which gave promise of honors, fame, emolument or other advantages, but threatened or seemed to threaten the sacrifice of his own independence. He carefully preserved this feature of character in all his relations to society, and in his most intimate friendships. He honored Augustus, and as a poet and a subject ever did him homage; but he was unwilling to sustain to him a near rela1-loquaces lymphae, O. 3, 13, 15. 20. 1, 7, 13. 3 e. g. O. 1, 21, 5-8; ib. 2, 3, 9-12; ib. 1, 9, 1-4; ib. 3, 25, 8-14; ib. 3, 29, 33-41; ib. 4, 3, 10-12; Epist. 1, 10, 6 & 7; ib. 1, 16, 5–14.

4. 16 'That life,-the flowery path which winds by stealth,
Which Horace needed for his spirit's health."

Wordsworth's Poem on "Liberty.”

tion as a man; he declined the tendered office which would attach him to his palace and his person, for he knew that such an office, though it might bring him worldly distinction, would involve him in a connection with the emperor and his court, that would be sure to bind, though in golden fetters, his personal freedom. The same independent bearing he always observed in his relations with Maecenas, and in an epistle addressed to him, which ranks among the most characteristic of his writings, it is most strikingly illustrated. He gratefully acknowledges the kindness of Maecenas, but with a manly frankness, insists upon consulting his own tastes and wishes; he is profoundly thankful for his bounty, but prizes his own liberty far more than even the wealth of Arabia, and rather than part with that inborn, priceless possession, he would cheerfully resign all the gifts of his generous patron.

Some of the earlier writings of Horace justify an unfavorable view of his moral character; they show that at least in earlier life, he was not free from vices, for which youth, the spirit and customs of the age, and the other considerations, so often pleaded for modern as well as ancient writers, are of course no sufficient apology. But we are entitled to infer from the high moral tone of by far the greater part of his works, that, in his manhood and in all his later years, he gave himself to an earnest study of moral and religious truth, and sought to make a practical use of the results he reached; his profound veneration for the memory of his father, and his warm acknowledgment of his virtuous precepts and example, are no slight proof of goodness of heart and life; and his exalted conceptions of a supreme Being, the all-powerful Creator and the all-wise and all-just Governor of the universe, his distinct and grateful recognitions of an overruling Providence,"

1 See above on page xx. and the note there.

2 The Seventh of Book First. 3 Sat. 1, 6, 65-99.

4 E. g., O. 1, 12, 13-18; ib. 1, 34, 12-14; ib. 2, 10, 15-17; ib. 8, 4, 42-48; ib. 3, 6, 5–8; ib. 3, 29, 29–32.

E. g., O. 1, 22, 9 seqq.; ib. 1, 31, 13-15; ib. 1, 34; ib. 3, 2, 29–32; ib. 3, 6, 1-8; ib. 3. 4, 20.

and the pure and elevated sentiments he every where teaches and enforces, impress us with the conviction, that he was one of the best and most enlightened characters of antiquity.

It is unnecessary to dwell at length upon the literary merits of a writer, whose fame has long been permanently established, and “whom all men admire in proportion to their capacity for appreciating him." The versatility of the genius of Horace is shown by the various departments of poetry, which he cultivated, in all of which he was eminent, in some original and unequalled. It was his own boast,' that he had reared, in his odes, the peculiar and enduring monument of his fame; and certainly his lyric compositions, though not the most valuable and popular of his works, yet best exhibit his distinctively poetic powers. If they do not indicate the presence of the highest attributes of genius, they display a rare assemblage of the gifts and attainments of a true poet; a lively and well-stored fancy, an exquisite sensibility, delicate perceptions, a faultless taste, with a mastery of the graces and powers of metre and of language, harmony of numbers, elegance and vigor of style, and a felicity of expression which was won and can be won only by the most assiduous culture.

The claims of Horace to originality as a lyric poet have been much discussed, and his odes have been characterized, sometimes in an ambiguous and very often in a directly disparaging tone, as imitations of the lyric poets of Greece. It is an obvious fact, that the metres of his odes are Greek, and the fullest admission of the fact is of course no disparagement to his originality; he boasted himself that he had been the first to transfer to the Roman lyre the Aeolian measures,3 and well he might be proud that he had so skilfully adapted those graceful and flowing measures to his inflexible native tongue. In other respects, in all that is essential to the character of the odes, it is difficult to determine, in the absence of direct evidence, how far and in what sense he was an imitator.

10. 3, 30; 4, 3.

2 Horatii curiosa felicitus, Petronius, Sat. c. 118.

3 O. 3, 30, 13.

But the close resemblance of some passages to existing frag ments of Greek poetry is no sufficient ground for the opinion often expressed, that the Roman lyrist was a mere copyist of Greek originals; and it was a singularly gratuitous observation of an early critic, "that if the Lyrics of the Greeks were extant, very many of his thefts might be detected." On the contrary, those pieces and parts of pieces which, by the presence of the originals, we know were borrowed from Greek writers, so far from diminishing the reputation of the Roman poet, are such as none but a master could produce; his translations of single words and phrases are executed with such a rare felicity, that the language seems to be born, as it were, with the thought," and those passages, which are reproductions from the Greek, are written with such a boldness and genial freedom, that they admirably illustrate that power of adaptation, which fixes the stamp of originality upon an acknowledged imitation. And we may use for Horace, as Warton has done for Pope, the words with which Virgil is said to have replied to those who accused him of borrowing from Homer: "Cur non illi quoque eadem furta tentarent ? Verum intellecturos, facilius esse Herculi clavum, quam Homero versum surripere." 114

But very many of the best odes of Horace are so thoroughly Roman in their whole character, in their occasion, subjects, sentiments, imagery, and allusions, that they could by no possibility have been formed upon Greek models, but are peculiarly and exclusively his own. This class includes those which celebrate the glories of Augustus in peace and in war, and the two which describe the victories of his step-sons

'The elder Scaliger, in Poet. Lib. 5, c. 7: De Horatio quidem ita sentimus; si Graecorum Lyrica exstarent, futurum, ut illius furta quampluurima deprehenderentur.

a See some illustrations of this point in Encyc. Metropol., vol. 9, p. 400; also in Tate's Horatius Restitutus, Append. vi.

Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. 1., p. 96.
Donat. in Vit. Virgil.

Tiberius and Drusus,' those which lament the degeneracy of the age, and aim to bring back the virtues and discipline of earlier days, and in short, all which owed their origin to the inspiring events of the times, to peculiar influences, national, local and personal. All these belonged to a purely Roman vein of lyric song, and could have been wrought out only by the genius of a Roman poet. Whence, for instance, but from the soul of a Roman poet, could have emanated the sublime martial ode to Antonius ? or the peaceful lay called forth from the lyre by the closing of the temple of Janus? Who but a Roman poet could have drawn the fine picture of the disinterested patriotism of Regulus ?5 or produced the noble ode, in which Juno, in the council of the gods, admits Romulus to divine honors, and pronounces the lofty destinies of his people? or those spirited stanzas," in which Hannibal, impressed into the service of the Latian Muse, is made to own and honor the inherent energy and invincible might of the Roman nation? While such living monuments as these attest the originality of the Roman poet, we need not give heed to any hypothetical charges against his literary honesty. The truth seems to be, that Horace was an imitator in the true and noble sense of the word; his resemblance to the Greek poets is such as is common to all the illustrious kindred of genius; he owed to them what the eminent artists and writers of all times have owed to the genial study of the best models; he read them, studied them, communed with them, and catching the spirit that glowed in their poetry, he breathed it into his own.

But it is the Satires and the Epistles of Horace, and especially the Epistles, which show his greatest powers, and establish his claim to the respect and admiration of the world. It is there that we find his sterling good sense, his vigorous understanding, his deep insight into the human heart, his

O. 3, 3.

$ 0.4, 2. O. 4, 4, 49-76.

1 O. 4, 4 & 14. 2 E. g., The first six in Book Third. ♦ O. 4, 15. • See the introductory remarks on pages 439, 440, and on pages

O. 3, 5, 14-57.

493, 494.