The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

LIFE OP HORACE. XVU
younger Quintus Cicero was at this time likewise a student at
Athens, but there is no clew to connect these two names.*
The advantages which Horace derived from his residence in
Athens may be traced in his familiarity with Attic literature, or,
rather, with the whole range of Greek poetry, Homeric, lyric, and
dramatic. In the region of his birth Greek was spoken almost as
commonly as Latin;' and Horace had already, at Rome, been in-
structed in the poetry of Homer. In Athens, he studied, particularly,
the comic writers ; the great models of that kind of poetry which
consists in shrewd and acute observation on actual human life, on
society, manners, and morals, expressed in terse, perspicuous, and
animated verse, which he was destined, in another form, to carry
to such unrivalled perfection in his own language. But he incurred
a great danger, that of sinking into a third or fourth rate Greek
poet, if, in a foreign language, he could have attained even to that
humble eminence. He represents the genius of his country under
the form of Romulus, remonstrating against this misdirection of his
talents. Romulus, or, rather, the strong sense of Horace himself,
gave good resison for this advice.' The mine of Grecian poetry was
exhausted ; every place of honor was occupied ; a new poet, particularly
a stranger, could only be lost in the inglorious crowds. But
this is not aU. It is a law of human genius, without exception, that
no man can be a great poet except in his native speech. Inspiration
seems impatient of the slower process of translating our thoughts
into a second language. The expression must be as free and spontaneous
as the conception ; and, however we may polish and refine
our native style, and substitute a more tardy and elaborate for an
instantaneous and inartificial mode of composition, there is a facility,
a mastery, a complete harmony between " the thoughts that breathe
and the words that burn," which can never be attained except in our
mother tongue.
The death of Caesar, and the arrival of Brutus at Athens, broke
up the peaceful studies of Horace. It had been surprising if the
whole Roman youth, at this ardent and generous period of life,
breathing the air of Pericles, Aristides, and Demosthenes, imbibing
the sentiments of republican liberty from all which was the object
of their study, had not thrown themselves at once into the ranks of
Brutus, and rallied round the rescued but still imperilled freedom of
Rome. Horace was at once advanced to the rank of mUiiiry tribune,
and the command of a legion. , Excepting at such critical
periods, when the ordinary course of military promotion was superseded
by the exigencies of the times, when it was no doubt difficult
for Brutus to find Roman officers for his newly-raised troops, the son
of a freedman, of no very robust frame, and altogether inexperienced
m war, would not have acquired that rank. His appointment, as he
acknowledges, on account of his ignoble birth excited jealousy.*
1. Weichen de L. Vario, Sm., p. 328.
''
2. Sat. i., 10, 30.
3. Sat i., 10, 31, ea??. 4. Safe i, 6, 46, scjjj.