to the veriest puerility. "There are certain elements of vices." Deep philosophy! How should we have fared had not a Juvenal arisen to enlighten us with this truth; one of no less moment than would be the publication of the physical fact-There are certain components of organized bodies'?

But had the commentators referred to a different

66

passage of Horace,—viz. . pueros elementa docentem,"-EPIS. I. xx. 17,-they might have, by the help of it, assigned a less futile sentiment to Juvenal. In this latter case, the term elementa' is applied to the first principles of instruction from without, as it was before employed to signify the first suggestions from within: just as at present we speak of Euclid's Elements, &c. And applying this notion to the immediate context, "his protinus imbuit illos,"-the reader will be led to the very feasible conclusion that the author really means to state such to have been the systematic depravity of the day, that there existed actual simple formularies' for the inculcation of vices, with which, from the outset,' the infant mind was habitually 'seasoned:' just as easy precepts are ordinarily employed for the inculcation of virtues on the tender perception of children.

But the numerical index of our page now strongly recalls the words of the Mantuan bard

Sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus æquor:
Et jam tempus equûm fumantia solvere colla.

This latter task we now proceed gradually to perform.

227

SECTION V.

ILLUSTRATION OF THE SUITABILITY OF THE ANCIENT EPIC AND LYRIC STYLES TO MODERN SUBJECTS OF NATIONAL AND GENERAL INTEREST.

THE purposes to which the two generic classes of metres employed by Horace are now generally applied are in themselves so very elementary, and are so poorly answered by the accruing results, that professors and lecturers, on the one hand, appear to think it incumbent on them to conform to a habit of dignified reserve in confining themselves altogether to the use of the inverted end of the stylus; while, on the other, students seem to conceive that the metres of a dead language may be well employed in pleading apologies for poverty of living thought.

Compositions fashioned in the more elaborate departments of metrical science, and even animated by a dignified poetic conception, occasionally, it is true, relieve the prosaic tones in which our Alma Matres usually speak themselves, and are addressed by their sons. But such seldom effectually embody living associations: and hence they generally savour more of artistic subtilty than of spontaneous suggestion; and are proportionately devoid of popular interest.

It has fared better with the elegant colloquialisms of polite comedy: and the Prologue and Epilogue of

228

SUITABILITY OF ANCIENT METRICAL STYLES

The Westminster Play' annually afford to the public a pleasing illustration of the capabilities which the Latin tongue possesses in this department for adaptation to the most modern conventional varieties proper to the topics of government, law, politics, commerce, &c., and in fact all the subjects' of the passing day.

The following poem is an attempt in the same way to accommodate the more grave and severe requirements of the Latin muse to the highest class of national theme. It is the Latin Prize Poem of the Dublin University, composed in celebration of the birth of the present Prince of Wales; and is so far at least connected with the subject of this book, that it embodies the only imitation of the Carmen Seculare that has had the good fortune to be honoured by a special mark of royal favour since Horace submitted his production to the Emperor Cæsar Augustus, about the sixteenth year before the Christian Era.

The prizes awarded for the cultivation of classical poetry in Trinity College, Dublin, are bestowed exclusively upon the Undergraduate classes. But on this important occasion, the field for competition was opened to the whole College, Graduates (under the Degree of M. A.) and Undergraduates: and it was understood to be desirable that enlarged general views, suited to a national subject, should supersede the fulsome compliments which often impart an air of pure fiction to poetic homage rendered to Royalty. It was expressly ordered that no poem should exceed

two hundred verses in length: to which precise standard the present composition is adjusted. And it is a fact no less creditable to the conscientious and critical rigour of the Board, than suggestive of a useful lesson to aspirants, that when the selection of the successful composition from among the vast amount furnished was announced, even some trivial errors were found carefully noted in the margin.

The author was subsequently induced to submit the Poem to the judgment of a Monarch whom it is no flattery to style the most intellectually endowed of all the continental Sovereigns; but who was not even remotely alluded to in the Work itself.

The letter copied on the next page, and bearing a signature familiar to European literature-that of the eminent Chevalier Bunsen-together with an engraving of its unique accompaniment, exhibits the result.

The Poem is here for the first time published: a previous circulation having been confined to a few very intimate friends, and some of the Fellows of the College. It is presented to the reader with such improvements in the text as a larger experience has now suggested, accompanied by a few cursory annotations; and with such adaptations as the author trusts will render the general sentiments permanently applicable to the most prominent characteristics of the British Empire and Constitution.

SIR,

LONDON, 4, CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE,

September 12, 1844.

I have the honour to inform you, that the Poem intrusted to my care has been submitted to His Majesty the KING OF PRUSSIA. His Majesty has commanded me to thank you in his name for the sentiments expressed in that production of your Muse, and to deliver to you the Medal for "SCIENCE AND ARTS," which is given by His Majesty as acknowledgment of distinguished merits in either.

The Medal will be delivered to you, or to a person authorized by you to receive it, at the Office of the Legation, any morning from 11 to 1 o'Clock, Sunday, of course, excepted.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., A. M., &c. &c. &c.

2, Trinity College, Dublin.

BUNSEN.