genius and spiritual life—if he shows neither the deep piety of Virgil, nor the superiority of Lucretius to all human weakness, nor the impulsive warmth of heart of Catullus, nor the wide human sympathy of Cicero-yet we feel that there is hardly any writer of any age of whom we seem to be able to make so familiar a friend, from whom we can learn so much in knowledge of the world, in manners, in culture, in good sense, in consideration for others, without feeling him too far removed from the sphere of our ordinary life and associations.

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CHAPTER II.

THE SATIRES.

I.

HORACE is an instance of a kind of writer more common in modern than in ancient times, who was equally eminent as a satirist, moralist and critic, and as an idealising and creative poet. He combines, in a measure greater than any of his countrymen, the Italian practical understanding with the Italian receptivity of Greek art and culture. Had he lived in recent times he would probably have been as accomplished a writer of prose as of verse. The subjects of his Satires are essentially prosaic. They deal with the material of daily life in a style as nearly as possible approaching to the language of familiar conversation or correspondence.

The question might be asked whether the Odes or the familiar writings were the truer expression of the man. Was his habitual mood that of the shrewd and amused spectator, the moralist and critic of human life, or that of the lyrical artist and enthusiast? The review of his life shows that though the 'ingeni benigna vena was never altogether dried up within him, yet it was not to him as it was to Virgil, the source which through all his life fed the main current of his thoughts. It was only in the meridian of his career that the pure poetical gift asserted itself as his master faculty. The work accomplished by him then demanded a laborious and sustained effort, and a frequent withdrawal from his ordinary interests and associations. The Satires on the other hand were the principal work of the

first, the Epistles of the last ten years of his literary activity. They express his familiar moods, and the aspects of life habitually present to him, while living in the world, or while maintaining his relations with the world through the medium of correspondence. If we want to know how Horace regarded the actual world of business, of pleasure, of society, of literature, we turn to his Satires and Epistles. If we want to see what there was in his own life and in the life of those around him which he could invest with a more ideal grace, we turn to the Odes. In tracing the development of his character and opinions, we naturally read his various writings in the order in which they were written. In estimating his quality as a literary artist, we naturally consider together those which are of the same kind in form and manner; on the one side, the Satires and Epistles, the product of his critical faculty, on the other his lyrical art.

The object of Horace in his first literary adventure was to adapt the satire of Lucilius to the manners and taste of the Augustan age. Though one or two attempts had been made to revive it, this national form of literature, the one important literary invention of Rome, had fallen into abeyance. The lampoons of Catullus, Calvus and Bibaculus, in the previous generation, were as aggressively personal as anything in Lucilius; but in form, substance and spirit, they belonged to a different kind of literature. The Satires of Lucilius and of Horace belong to didactic, not to any kind of lyric or epigrammatic poetry, to which the iambics of Catullus and the Epodes of Horace belong. They had a practical purpose, that of reforming and regulating life, as well as the literary purpose of affording amusement. Personal criticism was made subsidiary to moral teaching and reflexion on life. Satire in the hands of Horace became associated with the new interest felt in moral philosophy. Among the literary influences affecting the substance of his satire, we should rank the more strictly ethical passages in Lucretius, and the ethical writings of Cicero, especially the Stoical Paradoxa. The more systematic reflexion on life introduced by Horace into his satire was certainly an advance on

Lucilius. As a form of literary art, satire, as treated by Horace, is still in process of development. It has not yet assumed the definite purpose of a systematic treatment of special vices, as it has in the hands of Juvenal. It still retains much of the character of the old 'medley.' It serves, as it did to Ennius and Lucilius, as a medium of personal communication between the poet and the outside world, and as a weapon of offence and of defence. By examining the Satires of Horace in the order of their composition, so far as that can be ascertained, we can follow the process of development from the more personal and desultory treatment of Lucilius to the more general didactic type which this form of writing ultimately assumes.

There is a considerable advance in literary form between the Satires of the first and those of the second book of Horace. The latter, though not formally didactic, are with the exception of the first, in which the use of satire is vindicated, intended to convey some lesson in manners or conduct, as well as to paint and comment on character. The aim of most of those in the first book is less definite. In some the object is merely to give amusement. One is apologetic, another polemical. One is almost purely autobiographical. Only two can be described as being of a general or reflective character. An advance may be noticed from the merely personal and polemical attitude which Horace at first assumes, to the more disinterested attitude of a spectator and critic of life. There is a marked advance also in urbanity of tone. There is a further advance from imitation and reproduction of Lucilius to greater independence of

treatment.

II.

The Satires.

Book I.

earliest in date of the This is a page out of

There is a general agreement that the

Satires of the first book is the seventh.

Horace's earlier experience, while he served with Brutus in Asia. It probably was written at the time of the occurrence, and

included in the collection as his earliest attempt in the manner of Lucilius. It represents a contest in wit between a scurrilous Italian, who is said to have offended Horace by sneering at his parentage, and a half-bred Greek, engaged in business transactions at the scene of the occurrence. The actors are real persons, introduced under their own names; and if the piece has any merit, it consists in the reproduction of their personal peculiarities. Similar encounters and similar presentation of character are found in the fragments of Lucilius. The scene witnessed by Horace probably recalled those passages of arms in the older satirist, and stimulated him to make his first essay after his manner. The Satire serves no other purpose than that of giving vent to the high spirits of young men, engaged in military or official duties, and finding amusement in the peculiarities of the civilians among whom they were quartered. In the mock heroics from line 11 to 17, there is a note of youth, not long emancipated from the schools; but there is also (as is pointed out by Mr. Palmer) in one line one of the few poetical touches in the Satires

Flumen ut hibernum fertur quo rara securis

one of those graphic touches, oftener found in the Odes or Epistles, by which the poetical features of some natural scene are condensed in a phrase.

Among the Satires written after his return to Rome the second was the earliest in date. In it the direct influence of Lucilius is still more marked. It is more aggressive in tone, and coarser in substance and expression, than any later Satire. In it he uses words only found in Lucilius. It has nothing of the kindly spirit or the delicate irony characteristic of the other familiar writings of Horace. The occasion which gives rise to it is the death of the Sardinian Tigellius, one of several personages who figure both in the Epistles of Cicero and the Satires of Horace. He is introduced as a special favourite with the 'Bohemians' of both sexes on account of his lavish prodigality. This trait suggests the contrast between the rake and the miser. The