must be attentively studied by any scholar who wishes to comprehend the character of Horace's mind in that its early moment of fire and effervescence. The next stage, that of the Epodes, is thus described by himself at a later period of life. 1 C. xvi. 22-25. Me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci juventâ Fervor, et in celeres iambos It is important also to show by what influence of his father's instruction, at a yet earlier day, young Horace, from being warned to avoid such or such an example of profligacy and extravagance, was afterwards led to make it the object (illudens chartis) of his keen and playful satire also. 1 S. Iv. 103-109. liberius si Dixero quid, si forte jocosius; hoc mihi juris Cum me hortaretur, parce, frugaliter, atque Nonne vides, Albî ut male vivat filius? &c. &c. In this career of unexampled advantages, (what son of a Roman Senator could enjoy more?) it becomes a nice question to fix how long he retained the enjoyment of such a father's guidance and love. The latest allusion to that parent's precepts may rather seem to indicate, that he did not live till his son became invested with the Toga Virilis and with the discretion attached to it. 1 S. Iv. 116-121. mî satis est, si Traditum ab antiquis morem servare, tuamque, Dum custodis eges, vitam famamque tueri Incolumem possum : simul ac duraverit ætas Membra animumque tuum, nabis sine cortice. Sic me From this very last mention (no later hint of time any where occurs) of Horace's being under his father's eye, one may safely conclude, that the good old man must have died before the son entered on his seventeenth year. Let that in the absence of all certainty be conceded as a probable calculation. In B. c. 48. then, the young Horace assumed the Toga Virilis, and became his own master with succession to his father's estate. This year too may well be remembered, from its giving date to the battle of Pharsalia. A long interval now occurs from B. c. 48. to the battle of Philippi in 42. for which the materials extant are exceedingly scanty; from the 17th to the 23d year of Horace's age. In the passage already quoted 2 E. 11. 41, 2. Romæ nutriri mihi contigit, atque doceri Iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles : he gives no intimation whatever of the time which elapsed, but says at once, v. 43, Adjecere bonæ paullo plus artis Athenæ : Of these lines it may not be impertinent to suggest, that while the study of moral truth was included in the third, the science of Geometry was meant to be described in the second. That science was then pursued as a fit exercise and discipline for the intellectual faculties, independently of any benefit from the knowledge which it yields; and the admirable Quintilian in his day refers with great respect to that as an established opinion, before he delivers a professional judgment of his own on its usefulness otherwise. In Geometriâ partem fatentur esse utilem teneris ætatibus; agitari namque animos, et acui ingenia, ac celeritatem percipiendi venire inde concedunt: sed prodesse eam, non ut cæteras artes, cum perceptæ sint, sed cum discatur, existimant. Lib. I. Cap. IX. Here I must candidly confess, that though, chiefly for the valuable remark from Quintilian, the preceding paragraph is now [1837] retained, my opinion is decisively changed as to the mathematical meaning attached to.. curvo... rectum... in the second of the verses last quoted. For the acceptation however of curvum metaphorically in a moral sense, (for which pravum is the proper term as opposed to rectum,) no authority is to be found but in Persius alone, sometimes the best incidental commentator on Horace and unless therefore the following passages could be produced, which must remove all doubt on the subject, the question might still be mooted, which of the two interpretations is the true one. SAT. III. V. 52. Haud tibi inexpertum curros deprendere mores. IV. vv. 9-11. Scis etenim justum geminâ suspendere lance If Horace tells us little of himself while a resident in Athens, he gives a yet shorter account of the cause which removed him from a spot apparently so much entitled to his veneration: but he wrote this at a late period of his life; when it was not likely that he should enter into any particulars of his engagement in the civil war. v. 46. Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato. Whenever he began to reside at Athens, probably B. C. 47. his attainments there in Grecian literature must have been very considerable, from the early allusions made in the Satires alone. 1 S. Iv. 1. 2 S. 11. 11, 12: where, besides Archilochus, we have Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes, mentioned, as well as Plato and Menander. His familiarity indeed with the language, and his command of it for elegant composition we find also intimated in the following passage, where he records his attempts in Greek verse, and the judicious reproof, (for better effect assigned to Romulus,) by which he was deterred from pursuing that design. 1 S. x. 31-35. Atque ego cum Græcos facerem, natus mare citra, Versiculos; vetuit me tali voce Quirinus, Post mediam noctem visus, cum somnia vera : In silvam non ligna feras insanius, ac si Magnas Græcorum malis implere catervas, During his stay in Athens that city would doubtless gratify his natural taste for retirement, as the Vacuum Tibur (1 E. vII. 45.) afterwards did in more settled indulgence. 2 E. 11. 81, 2. Ingenium, sibi quod vacuas desumsit Athenas, Et studiis annos septem dedit, &c., &c. Horace might in B. c. 45. have formed acquaintance with the son of Cicero, somewhat his senior, who was sent to Athens in the April of that year: but not a vestige exists of any such fact. The Messala and Bibulus, so splendidly grouped in the list of his friends, 1 S. x. 81-6, &c., (a Locus Classicus in the biography of Horace,) we may fairly presume to have been there and well known to him; for Tully tells us, that two young men of those very names, very soon after his son went, were going to that celebrated seat of learning2. Of all the Sodales of Horace, however, not one seems to have been more dearly beloved by him, and in all probability on an early friendship, commenced (as we say) when at College together, than Pompeius Varus; who must on no account be confounded with Pompeius Grosphus, a very worthy man, who at that time (2 C. xvI. 33.) and several years after (1 E. x11. 22.) resided in Sicily. This Pompeius, distinguished also on good authority by the cognomen Varus, (vid. Torrentius,) was just then happily restored a * Middleton's Life of Cicero. Vol. 11. p. 364. ed. 1742. "Diis patriis Italoque cœlo," to the great delight of his friend Horace. That Ode, O sæpe mecum, which after so many years of long separation records the joyful hour of their meeting again, is imbued with all the spirit of the kind-hearted man and the convivial bard. As an authentic record also (in part) of Horace's own history, it is invaluable; ranking indeed with those principal sources of authentic intelligence, Nunc ad me redeo...1 S. vi. 45–131. and Romæ nutriri...2 E. 11. 41–52. With a verse in that Epistle it may be worth the while to compare two lines of the Ode, as no bad example of Horace tracked in his own snow. v. 47. Unda fretis tulit æstuosis. Civilisque rudem belli tulit æstus in arma, &c. The bad conscience or the diseased mind, the Atra Cura, of our Poet may be similarly traced, and not without interest, through the different stages of its progress. 2 S. VII. 114, 5.-2 C. xvI. 21, 2.-3 C. 1. 39, 40.-4 C. XI. 35, 6. That splendid imagination reached its acme in the third of those passages. vv. 37-40. Sed Timor et Minæ Decedit æratâ triremi, et Post equitem sedet atra Cura. Though in less interesting parallels, the Scholar with Horace's writings in true succession placed before him, may derive some amusement from tracing in different stages the remarkable similitude of sentiment: the following instances. may deserve attention. (1) Ep. XVII. 65. Optat quietem Pelopis infidus pater, &c. |