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

UPE OF HORACE. Xlill
eral, in its first sti-uggle fox* emancipation, brealts out into extrava
ganoe ; the unfettered imagination runs riot, and altogether scorns
the alliance of truth and nature, to -which it falsely attributes its long
and ignoble thraldom, till some happy spirit weds again those which
should never have been dissevered, and poetry bpcomes once more,
in the language of one of its most enchanting votaries,
" Truth severe in faery fiction dress'd."
Hence may, perhaps, be formed a just estimate of the poetical character
of Horace. Of him it may be said, vrith regard to the most
perfect form of his poetry, the epistles, that there is a period in the
literary taste of every accomplished individual, as well a.s of every
country, not certainly in ardent youth, yet far from the decrepitude
of old age, in which we become sensible of the extraordinary and
undefinable charm of these wonderful compositions. It seems to require
a certain maturity of mind; but that maturity by no means
precludes the utmost enjoyment of the more imaginative poetry. It
is, in fact, the knowledge of the world which alone completely qualifies
us for judging the writings of a man of the world ; our own
practical wisdom enables us to appreciate that wisdom in its inest
delightful form.
CHAPTER V.
POSITION OF HOEACE DURING THE DECLINE OF LIFE FEIENDSHIP
WITH AUGUSTDS EELIGION OF HOIIACE PHILOSOPHY CLOSE OF
HIS LIFE POETICAL CEITICISM ^EPISTLES TO AUGUSTUS AND AUT
OF POETEY ^DEATH HIS PEESON.
Nevee was position more favorable than that of Horace for the
development of this poetic character. The later years of his life
were passed in an enviable state of literary leisure. He has gradually
risen from the favorite of the emperor's friend to the poet in whose
compositions the shrewd and sagacious emperor is said himself to
have desired to be enshrined for the admiration of posterity. The
first advances to intimacy with, the poet came from the emperor himself.
Augustus had at first been his own secretary ; he had written
his ovTO letters to his friends ;" he ofiered that honorable and confiden
tial post to the poet. He requested Maecenas to transfer our Horace,
as he condescended to call him, into his service. When the poet de
clines the offer, Augustus is not in the least offended, and does no',
grow cool in his friendship. He almost tempts him to ask favors ; he
assures him of his undiminished regard : " If you," lie says, " are sr
proud as to disdain my friendship, I shall not beoonie haughty in my
turn." He writes of him in terms of familiar, and, it may almost be
said, coarse admiration.' The fourth book of odes and the secular
1. "Ante ipse suflSciebam scribendis epistolis Amicorum; nunc occupatissimnia
et infirmus, Horatiura nostrum te cnpio addicere. 'Veniat igitur ab ista parasitica
Bjensa ad banc regiani, et nos in epistalis scribendis adjuvet." See the fragments