Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/47

 n] THE PASSING OF THE ANTIQUE MAN 29 the sum of its spiritual antecedents, and whose sons should greatly show the heart's growth of which they were the last result. Such an age could not come to Greece, irrevocably declining; but, through Greece, such an age was to come to Rome in the fulness of her spiritual strength. And it was a Latin that should voice the saddened grandeur of the pagan heart. Virgil had Roman forerunners. Catullus' nature quivered at near pain ; and perhaps no Greek had felt the roimd of human woe as deeply as Lucretius. The emotional capacities of these two were modulated and beautified as well as coordinated with life's aspirations, in Virgil. His nature held pity for life's pitiful ness, sympathy for its sadness, love for its loveliness, and proud hope for all the happiness and power that the imperial era had in store. During the later centuries of the Empire, further elements were to enter the antique personality. They may have been elements of weakness, due to the senescence of the Greek and Latin races. They were at all events to prove elements of disintegration, because of their inconsistency with the rational self-reliance and control which constituted the strength of the antique man whether Roman or Greek. Reading Horace, one is impressed with the sadness that Epicureanism was resulting in ; and the reader notices that Horace seeks to strengthen his latter years with the teachings of the Porch. Yet still this self- poised man looks to his own strength for peace; Jove may furnish opportunity; he possesses in him- self the strength of will to use it or to let it pass. When Horace was no more, the hesitating thought of