a word, take MORITURO in I. Carm. XXVIII., where speaking to the dead philosopher, the sailor says:—— nec quidquam tibi prodest Aerias tentâsse domos, animoque rotundum Nor aught, to thee, avails it with thy mind, To have explored the realms of air and traversed In the original the thee occurs only once, and the form of morituro precludes all mistake, whilst its position adds greatly to the effect of the passage. In bringing to a close this attempt to show the difficulty of giving the charms of Horatian Poetry in a translation, we must again disclaim every title to artistic excellence of any sort, in the very inelegant renderings which our subject has compelled us to lay before the reader. We gladly turn from this dry and difficult subject to allude-for we can do no more at present-to other merits appreciable by readers not sufficiently versed in Latin, to enter into those last-mentioned merits, which we have not as yet referred to. We gladly acknowledge that there are passages -which burn with the fire of real genius, such, for instance, as the magnificent Ode, beginning, Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem or those lines where Horace describes the essentials of a poet. There are verses, and even whole Odes, which appeal to our better feelings; there are passages which exalt virtue and denounce vice -which acknowledge the authority of a superior power, and warn us of the shortness of life. We would willingly stop here, but the Christian Reviewer has other duties to perform beyond mere artistic criticism; and we are compelled, therefore, to bestow censures far outweighing any praise hitherto recorded by us to this writer. We believe the moral tendency of the works of Horace to be essentially evil; we believe, too, that the moral faults of his writings have greatly increased their popularity; and we believe him to be fully responsible for all the evil that he has written, and all the harm that he has done. It has been well said, that "Vice is never so dangerous as when she assumes the garb of Virtue." He who can combine an outward respect for what is pure, and true, and holy, with an inward disregard of every law human or divine-who can frame his tongue to the speech of Heaven whilst advocating the cause of Hell-and persuade his victim that he is acting according to the dictates of reason and conscience, when yielding to his own passions and accomplishing his own wishes that man well deserves the rebuke of the poet :— Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto. If hypocrisy be the homage which vice renders to virtue, it is the homage of a traitor, who seeks the opportunity to stab his sovereign to the heart. The heathen moralist and the Christian teacher have less to fear from the glaring crimes of the openly abandoned, than from the conventional decencies of the discreetly vicious. We shall not enter into any long defence of our opinion. Those who have been brought up in the belief that Horace is a great moralist, and who have not yet undeceived themselves on this point, are beyond the reach of any argument. To the unprejudiced reader we would observe, that not only do numberless passages prove the depravity of their author, but that throughout almost every virtuous passage, there runs an under-current of vice: -we do not allude to the lines addressed to disreputable women -lines whose exquisite grace would seem in many cases to have blinded good men's eyes as to their meaning, from the absence of any moral salvo whatever in their commentaries; but we speak of passages in which the poet wishes to appear a model man.-Even the celebrated Integer vitæ scelerisque purus, &c., is a case in point. What worse than audacity for a man of Horace's profligate character to call himself "upright and pure from crime;" and what was it that gave him in his own opinion a right to such a title? What was it that rendered him a fit object for the intervention of a special Providence?-That he was writing a copy of amorous verses to a female of bad character. There is, too, to us, frequently in those passages of a graver order, which do not admit of vicious allusions, a cold unreality which has at times suggested the question-Must not Horace have derived these maxims from some purer source, the mountain ballad of Italy, or fragments of the Sibylline verses? or are they not proverbs handed down from a nobler age by the mouth of the people, and moulded by him into the form which they now bear? Take for example, and it is only one amongst many, the famous Ode, beginning Justum et tenacem propositi virum; what absolute blasphemy, worthy of Shelley himself,-who evidently in his preface to the "Prometheus Unbound," imagined he was starting something perfectly new,-is the putting the righteous man in direct antagonism with the Omnipotent, and asserting that he would not quail before Him. Shelley was in this case anticipated by an elder son of Belial. His drama is only a development of Horace's idea. The remainder of the Ode, too, is not what a man, who realized the two first stanzas, would have written in continuation. To proceed, however. We are convinced that a great portion of Horace's universal popularity arises from his moral turpitude. There is nothing in his poems that can offend any class of culprits, the most vicious can sympathize with most of his writings; and the skin-deep morality which they teach, tends rather to raise their opinion of themselves by raising their opinion of him; they get up from the perusal of Horace with the persuasion that though, as they would say, he was no saint, he was a good sort of fellow-one of their own-and they feel a participation in his moral exaltation. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," is the constant law of the world; and its children love to see that represented as a duty which they might otherwise look on as merely a pleasure. In short, "The World loveth its own,” and therefore it loveth Horace. It will be, however, urged, that Horace is not to be held responsible either for the tendency or the influence of his writings. The ground taken must be either that he taught the highest morality which he knew, or that he acquired the highest standard which lay within his reach. We shall attack both defences at once. There is external evidence to prove that a far higher standard of morality did exist at the time of Horace, than that adopted by his writings; that, in fact, he was far below the level of many others. And there is internal evidence that he did not act up to the light which he possessed, and that he did not endeavour to attain to that height which he was capable of reaching. To compare Horace with Virgil would be an insult to the latter somewhat too great; but placed side by side with Ovid, the moral teacher, the eloquent advocate of unutterable crimes, must bow before the comparative innocence of the author of the "Ars Amoris." Take the Philosophers of the day,-was it, as Mr. Milman overcharitably supposes, the force of political circumstances which made Horace choose from the Greek schools that of Epicurus? Go back to his boyhood, were all his early teachers as depraved in theory as well as practice, as he became ? Proceed further down the stream of time growing every year more foul, and fetid, from the accumulated corruptions of all the vices social, political, civil, and religious-pause at that fearful moment, when unbridled licentiousness and utter degradation characterized the Roman world, as yet uninfluenced by the rising power of Christianity-is there none to stand forward and boldly battle with the overwhelming flood? Yes, there is one-one who, because he did so,-because he called things by their right names, and sternly denounced the vice which he fearfully described -has become unpopular. Yes!-Juvenal has met with much the same treatment, which is at times accorded to the plain-spoken preacher. The world in general, like fashionable congregations in particular, does not wish to hear any thing which makes it feel uncomfortable. Now it is very plain that if Juvenal could, in a more depraved age, hold forth a higher standard, and exhibit a depth and truth and intensity of zeal in the cause of truth and virtue,—the awful truth of a ruling Providence, an avenging conscience,—and a judgment according to works, Horace, with, in many respects, superior advantages, might have found and taught a higher moral law than that which he adopted. But if any doubt remained on the question, it might be solved by a perusal of Horace's own works. There we find a higher law frequently laid down than that generally enforced; there we find disjointed statements,-few, very few, but sufficient for our purpose, of sublime truths, which show that the writer did know what he neither taught nor acted up to; and had sufficient knowledge to have acquired more. Unless his praises of virtue are merely nursery rhymes, heard in his childhood, despised ere he reached man's estate, and inserted solely for effect, he had the knowledge of a stricter, holier rule than that which was his standard of thought and life and feeling, his practical measure of right and wrong. His recognitions of Providence show that, unless a mere wanton blasphemer, he knew— when he chose to think-the existence of a ruling, governing, and retributive power; and he mentions at least two cases in which, even in his own opinion, Heaven had vouchsafed to give him special warnings. And, without referring to his recognition -direct or indirect-of other divine truths, we shall conclude by citing a passage which undoubtedly proves, that, however he might disregard it, he was in possession of the important doctrine of the unity of the Godhead. Quid prius dicam solitis Parentis Laudibus? qui res hominum ac deorum, Unde nil majus generatur ipso, Nec viget quidquam simile aut secundum. I. CARM. XII. 13-18. On the extent of Horace's criminality we shall say no more at present. The effects of his writings have been both good and evil: good, inasmuch as the contemplation of the highest artistic excellence has a tendency to refine the mind, whilst the shrewd sense, the manly thought, and the deep knowledge of the world displayed in these writings, tend to strengthen the character; good, in as far as the descriptions of nature and the recognition of higher principles, and higher agencies, and a Higher Power, naturally exalt the soul; good, inasmuch as friendship is developed, brutality discouraged, patriotism applauded, and literature recommended. But the evils which, on the other hand, have accrued from the study of this author, and from the way in which he has been studied, have been of the most serious nature and extensive influence. The mind has been tainted, the boundary between right and wrong destroyed, the horror against vice softened down, the standard of virtue lowered, self-love substituted for duty, discretion for excellence, pleasure enthroned as a sovereign, and the world worshipped as a God,-through the influence of this poet's writings on the youth of each succeeding generation, aided by the blind and criminal adulation of his infatuated devotees. They who, having been taught the truth, have held up the writings of this impure teacher, as the model which the old should reverence and the young emulate, have incurred a debt of guilt which it is painful to contemplate. Would we then discourage the study of Horace? Far from it; but whilst teaching the young to seek in this rich mine the precious ore really to be found there, we would not assert the presence of that which is absent; whilst pointing out the gems, we would indicate the counterfeits; whilst culling the bright flowers and salutary herbs, we would warn the inexperienced of the poisonous plants and deadly fruits, which abound in the fair garden through which he is wandering. In short, we would carefully distinguish Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. We must however bring this article to a close, lest the impatient shade of his patron' should be tempted to revisit earth, and address us in behalf of his client with the well-known adjuration, Surge tandem carnufex. 1 "One day, when Octavius was sitting in judgment as Triumvir, and condemning a multitude of persons to death, Mecenas handed up to him a tablet, inscribed with those significant words." |
