HORACE. 207 HOK.ACE. Horace took up his residence at Athens, listened to the exposition of conilicting philosophical the- ories, and entered into the social life of his fel- low students. I'lirely sjieculative problems at- tracted him as little as they did the average Konian, nor hud he, in fact, much relish for the technicalities of any philosoi)hical system. The paradoxes and social eccentricities of the Stoic thinkers, for instance, long made it dillicult for him to do justice to the real elevation of their essential principles. But he had already become profoundly interested in the practical problem of liow to order one's life aright, and his stay at Athens confirmed this taste for ethical inquiry. At this time, too, he must have come to know more intimately the work of Alcu'us, Sappho, Archilochus, and the other Greek lyric poets who were to be his models in the Epodes and the Odes. But these peaceful and congenial pursuits were suddenly interrupted by the news of the assassi- nation of CVsar in Ivlarch, 44, and the subsequent arrival of Brutus in Athens to secure recruits for the republican cause. The liberator, himself a lover of letters and an eager student of philos- ophy, was received with enthusiasm, and was so much taken with Horace's promise that the lat- ter, despite his youth and lack both of family connection and of military experience, was made a staff oflicer, and ultimately served in the cam- paign of Philippi as tribunus militum. That decisive defeat and the suicide of his chief seem to have convinced him of the futility of further effort, and he made his way back to Rome, where, finding that his father's estate had been confiscated, he obtained employment as a clerk in the quaestor's ofiice. It was the darkest period of his life, and, as the earliest of the Epodes show, the bitterness of his feeling found unre- strained expression in the verses which, in his own words, poverty drove him to write. But he was so fortunate as to win the regard of Vergil and Varius, who, three years after his return to Italy, introduced him to Maecenas. That discern- ing but cautious statesman waited nine months after the first inter'iew before he again sent for the young writer. He then bestowed the friend- slii]) that saved Horace for poetry. But it was in metrical prose rather than imaginative poetry, as he himself viewed his work, that Horace first tried to gain an audi- ence. Early training and the mood of the moment combined to make the choice of satire almost inevitable. Lucilius, a member of the Scipicmic circle, had for (he first time in Latin literature used the old mHantfe form of Ennius as a vehicle for witty and often stinging criticism of the political and social life of his time. The range of topics was naturally exceedingly wide, the treatment often dramatic, and east in the dialogue form, the metres varied, though in the end the hexameter decidedly predominated. The new sdtura was marked by a feature quite as original and as noteworthy as itself. This was the establishment of a personal and intimate relation between Lucilius and his reader, so that the frankest revelation of (he poet's inmost feel- ings seemed yet free from egotism and consistent with self-respect. Tt was thus natural that Hor- ace should bo strongly attracted by Lucilius, though, with a mind already much occupied wi(h the niceties of phrase and cadence, he could not but feel that, despite all its vigor and charm. the work of the older poet was sadly lacking in artistic finish. To write in the manner of Lucilius, but with a more perfect art — this was the end proposed and achieved in the Satires [I'iermones, 'cuuseries,' as lie calls them ) , of which the first volume appeared about B.C. 35. The sec- ond, published about B.C. 29, is far superior in execution to the first, and shows Horace at his best in this kind. We are listening to an accom- plished man of the world, intimately acquainted with human nature, whose whims and weaknesses he probes with delightful humor. He is exceed- ingly fond of the weapon of irony, w'hich he uses against himself quite as often as against others, and every page rcllects his sunny nature, genuine- ly tolerant and charitable. These 'talks,' however light in their touch, have yet a definite and se- rious purpose. It is the art of living that is ever under discussion, and, as he studied others, so also Horace studied most minutely the nature best known to him, so that one of the special charms of the Satires is the presence of this constant self-analysis. One may say of Horace what Mr. Sidney Colvin says of Stevenson in his introduction to the Vailima Letters, that he "belonged to the race of Jlontaigne and the lit- erary egotists." The word .seems out of place, since of egotism in the .sense of vanity or selfish- ness he was of all men the most devoid : bit he was nevertheless a watchful and ever inter- ested observer of the motions of his o^ti mind. He saw himself as he saw everj'thing else (to borrow the words of Mr. Andrew Lang) with the lucidity of genius, and loved to put himselt on terms of confidence with his readers. One notices already in the Satires an attitude of mind that became characteristic and was later both to limit his range and to widen his appeal as a lyric poet. He takes counsel of his head rather than of his heart, and distrusts enthusi- asm, especially about ideas, as if warmth of feel- ing, not held carefully in check by the reason, rendered impossible that equipoise through which alone one may hope to see things as they really are. This is true of even his friendship*, where he is tenderness and loyalty itself. But this studied moderation of thought and utterance is the fruit of experience and self-discipline. His earliest attempts in lyric verse show all the ar- dent temper of youth, and are marked by an exuberance of phrase in striking contrast with the wonderful compression of his later work, in these iambi, as he called them, published about B.C. 30, Archilochus is his model, though not more than half of the seventeen poems that Horace decmc<l worthy of preservation show the personal animosity associated with the name of the Greek poet. With one exception, the sev- enteenth, they are written in couplets, the second verse of which forms a refrain {rpodtis, l:Ttf^6s] to the first, and thus they came in time to be known as Epodrs. Immature as they are as a whole, and interesting chiefly as the first essays of the Horace of the Odes, three certainly reveal poetical power of no mean order — the idyllic second, with its sudden turn to satire at the close, the fifth, with its extraordinary picture of the sorceress Canidia, and the passionate ap- peal to his countrymen in the sixteenth. Shortly after (he appearance of the first hook of (he Sntirrs. M;pccnas presented Horace with a small farm among the Sabine hills, in the valley through which the cool Digentia flows south to
