Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/175

163 HORACE beyond the bounds of a sincere and temperate admiration, a comparison of the Odes in which this occurs with the first Epistle of the second book shows that lie certainly recog nized in the emperor a great and successful administrator on whom depended the peace, order, and prosperity of the world, and that the language which at first sight offends our modern sensibilities is to be regarded rather as the artistic expression of the prevailing national sentiment than as the tribute of an insincere adulation. The aim of Horace s philosophy was to &quot; be master of oneself &quot; &quot; Die potens sui Lretusque deget,&quot; &c. ; to retain the &quot; mens aequa&quot; in all circumstances &quot; Quod petis hie est, Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit u?quus ;&quot; to use the gifts of fortune while they remained, and to be prepared to part with them with equanimity ; to make the most of life, and to contemplate its inevitable end without anxiety. Self-reliance and resignation are the lessons which he constantly inculcates. His philosophy is thus a mode of practical Epicureanism combined with other elements which have more affinity with Stoicism. In his early life he professed his adherence to the former system, and several expressions in his first published work show the influences of the study of Lucretius. At the time when the first book of the Epistles was published he professes to assume the position of an eclectic rather than that of an adherent of either school (Epist. i. 1, 13-19). We note in the passage here referred to, as in other passages, that he mentions Aristippus, the chief of the Cyrenaic school which antici pated the doctrines of Epicurus, rather than Epicurus him self, as the master under whose influence he from time to time insensibly lapsed. Yet the dominant tone of his teaching is that of a refined Epicureanism, not so elevated or purely contemplative as that preached by Lucretius, but yet more within the reach of a society which, though luxurious and pleasure-loving, had not yet become thoroughly frivo lous and enervated. His advice is to make the most of the present which alone is within our power &quot; Quod adest memento Componere teijuus ; &quot; to enjoy the pleasures of youth in their season, but to choose some more serious object as life goes on &quot; Nee lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum ;&quot; to subdue all violent emotion of fear or desire ; to estimate all things calmly &quot; nil admirari ; &quot; to choose the mean between a high and low estate; and to find one s happiness in plain living rather than in luxurious indulgence. His social and friendly qualities, his enjoyment of refined and simple pleasures, the attitude which he assumed of a critical spectator rather than of an active participator in the various modes of human activity, were all in harmony with the practice and the teaching of Epicurus. Still there was in ilorace a robuster fibre, inherited from the old Italian race, which moved him to value the dignity and nobleness of life more highly than its ease and enjoyment. This is perhaps the secret c uise of that weariness and dissatisfaction with the comfortable routine of existence which occasionally betrays itself in some of his later writings. But in some of the stronger utterances of his Odes, where he expresses sympathy with the manlier qualities of character, whether manifested in the persons of the ancient national heroes or in the civic dress of his own day, we recognize the resistent attitude of Stoicism rather than the passive acquiescence of Epicureanism. The concluding stanzas of the address to Lollius (Ode iv. 9) exhibit the Epicurean and Stoical view of life so combined as to be more worthy of human dignity than the genial worldly wisdom of the former school, more in harmony with human experience than the formal precepts of the latter : &quot; Non possidenteni multa vocaveris llecte beatum ; rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui deorum Muneribus sapienter uti Duramque callet paupeririu pati, Pejusque leto llagitium timet ; Non ille pro oaris amids Aut patria timidus perm-.&quot; _ It is interesting to trace the growth of Horace in eleva tion of sentiment and serious conviction from his first ridi cule of the paradoxes of Stoicism in the two books of the Satires to the appeal which he makes in some of the Odes of the third book to the strongest Roman instincts of forti tude and self-sacrifice. A similar modification of his re ligious and political attitude may be noticed between his early declaration of Epicurean unbelief &quot; Namque deos didici securum age re serum&quot; and the sympathy which he shows with the religious reac tion fostered by Augustus ; and again between the Epicurean indifference to national affairs expressed in the words &quot; Quid Tiridutein terreat unice Securus&quot; and the strong support which he gives to the national policy of the emperor in the first six Odes of the third book, and in the fifth and fifteenth of the fourth book. In his whole religious attitude he seems to stand midway between the consistent denial of Lucretius and Virgil s pious endeavour to reconcile anciint faith with the conclusions of philosophy. His introduction into some of his Odes of the gods of mythology must be regarded as merely artistic or symboli cal. Yet in such lines as &quot; I)i me tnentnr, dis pietas mea Et musa eordi est,&quot; &quot; Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas,&quot; &quot; I m munis aram si tetigit man us, 1 &c., we recognize the expression of a natural piety, thankful for the blessing bestowed on purity and simplicity of life, and acknowledging a higher and more majestic law, governing nations through their voluntary obedience. On the other hand, his allusions to a future life, as in the &quot; domus exilis Plutonia/ and the &quot; furvse regna Proserpinae,&quot; are shadowy and artificial. The image of death is constantly obtruded in his poems to enhance the sense of present enjoyment. In the true spirit of paganism he associates all thoughts of love and wine, of the meeting of friends, or of the changes of the seasons with the recollection of the transitoriness of our pleasures &quot; Nos, ubi decidimus Quo pius ^Eneas, quo dives Tullus et Ancus, 1 ul vis et umbra sumus.&quot; Horace is so much of a moralist in all his writings that, in order to enter into the spirit both of his familiar and of his lyrical poetry, it is essential that we should realize to ourselves what were his views of life and the influences under which they were formed. He is, though in a different sense from Lucretius, eminently a philosophical and reflec tive poet. He is also, like all the other poets of the Augustan age, a poet in whose composition culture and criticism were as conspicuous elements as spontaneous inspiration. In the judgment he passes on the older poetry of Rome and on that of his contemporaries, he seems to attach more importance to the critical and artistic than to the creative and inventive functions of genius. It is on the labour and judgment with which he has cultivated his gift &quot; Spiritum Graiae tenuem Camense &quot;- that he rests his hopes of fame. The whole poetry of the Augustan nge was based on the works of older poets, Roman