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

618 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK II., EPISTLE I.
this way taught the mode of pronouncing with exactness and propriety.—
127. Torquet ab ohscmnis jam nunc sermonibus aurem. "He turns away
bis ear, even at this early period, from impure converse." Observe the
force oijam nunc. In a moral point of view, argues Horace, the services
of poetry are not less considerable. It serves to turn the ear of youth from
. that early coiTupter of its innocence, the sedacemeut of loose and impure
communication.—128. Mox etiam pectus praceptis format amicis. Poetry
next serves to form our riper age, which it does with all the address and
tenderness of friendship {amicis priBceptis)^ by the sanctify and wisdom
of the lessons which it inculcates, and by correcting rudeness of manners,
and envy, and anger.—129. Asperitaiis. " Of rudeness."—130. Recte facta
rcfert. " He records virtuous and noble actions." Orientia iempora notit
instruit exemplis. " He instructs the rising generation by well-known
examples," i.e.^ he places before the eyes of the young, as models of imi-
tation in after life, well-known examples' of illustrious men. Literally,
"the rising times."—131. Inopem soUatur et agrum. The poet can relieve
even the languor gf ill health, and sustain poverty berself under the scorn
and insult of contumelious opulence.
132-137. 132. Castis cumpueris ignarapudla mariti, &c. An elegant
expression for chorus castorum. puerorum et castarum virginum. We
now enter upon an enumeration of the services which the poet renders to
religion. He composes hynms by which the favor of the gods is concilia-
ted and their anger averted. These hymns were sung by a cboros of
youths and virgins whose fathers and mothers were both alive.—134. Et
preBsentia numina sentit. " And finds the gods propitious."—135. Cades-
tes implorat aquas. In times of great drought, to avert the wrath of
heaven and obtain rain, solemn sacrifices were offered to Jupiter, called
Aquilicia. The people walked barefoot iu procession, and h3rmnB were
sung by a chorus of boys and girls. Docta prece blandus. "Sweetly
soothing in instructed prayer," i. e., in the accents of prayer as taught
them by the bard.—136. Avertit morhos. Phoebus, whose aid the choros
invokes, is a deus averruncuSf airorpdiraLog,— 137. Pacem* "National
tranquillity."
—
139-144. 139. AgricoliB prisci, fortes, parvoque beati, &c. The train of
ideas is as follows : But religion,' which was its noblest eud, was, besides,
the first object of poetry. The dramatic muse, in particular, had her birth,
and derived her very character from it. This circumstance then leads the
poet to give an historical deduction of the rise and progress of Latin po-
etry, from its first rude workings in the days of barbarous superstition,
through every successive period of its improvement^ down to his own
times. {Hurd, ad loc.)—141. Spefmis, " Through the hope of their end
ing."—143. Tellurem pm-co, Silvanum lacte piabant. The poet here selects
two from the large number of rural divinities, Tellus, or Ceres, and
Bilvanus.—144. Genium memorem brevis