Part 9 (2/2)

This consciousness of common frailty leads to moderation on the part of the preacher He manifests a kindly sense of human brotherhood for better or for worse, which for characteristics, and differentiates hireat predecessor as well as from those who followed in the field of satire It is true that Horace is sufficiently strenuous and severe in his poleainst the prevalent frailties of society as he saw the his hearers into his confidence at the end of his lecture, and reassuring them by some whimsical jest or the information that the sermon was meant associety from the outside as from a separate world; but he proceeded upon the principle that, as real reforress must be the result of reformed internal conditions, so the reformer himself must be a sympathetic part of his world

It was in a homely and wholesolowing tribute of filial affection for his father, he tells us how that worthy man, as himself only a freedman--a huer, away down in his provincial home in Apulia--decided that his son should have a better chance in life than had fallen to his own lot The local school in the boy's native village of Venusia, where the big-boned sons of retired centurions gained theirman He must to Rome and afterward to Athens, and have all the chances which were open to the sons of the noblest fa picture of the sensible old father, not sending but taking his boy to Ro student's constant co him in all his ways, both in school and out

Horace tells us how this practical old father taught him to avoid the vices of the day No fine-spun, theoretical philosophy for him; but practical illustration drove every lesson home The poet dwells with pleasure upon this element in his education

That Horace was a worthy son of a worthy father is proved in many ways, but in none more clearly than when, in after years, as a welcome member of the most exclusive social set in Ro, and tells his high-born friends that, if he had the chance to choose his ancestry, he would not change one circumstance of his birth

The practice of personal observations of the life around him, which he learned froh life, and is the explanation of the intensely practical and realistic character of his satire See hi the varied happenings of the day These are sohts, as he himself tells us, which come to him at such times, and find half-unconscious audible expression:

Now that's the better course--I should live better if I acted along that line--So-and-so didn't do the right thing that tih to do the like

It is after such meditations as these that he takes up his tablets and outlines his satires We are rereat Caesar, who is said to have recalled, as he rested in his tent at night, the stirring events of each day, and to have noted these for his history

This method of composition from practical observation explains many peculiarities of the style of Horace's satires They are absolutely unpretentious, prevailingly conversational in tone, abounding in homely similes and colloquialisms, pithy anecdotes, familiar proverbs, and references to current people and events which ossip of the day He also has an e his ”thou-art-the- his castigation of our neighbors He e his assortment of satiric weapons He is, above all, personal, rarely allowing the discourse to stray from the personality of hi outline of one of his ”serood illustration of his style anda discourse Its subject is the sin and folly of discontent and greed for gain, a sin which he frequently denounces, not alone in his satires, but in his odes as well This satire is addressed by way of coinning of his two books of satires

How strange it is that no one lives content with his lot, but hbor! The soldier would be a merchant, the merchant a soldier; the laould be a farmer, the farmer a lawyer But these e; should sorant their petition, they would one and all refuse to accept the boon

The excuse of those who toil early and late is, that when they have ”made their pile” and have a e, they will retire They say that they seek gold only as a means to an end, and cite the example of the thrifty ant But herein they show their insincerity; for, while the ant lives upon its hoarded wealth in winter, and stops its active life, the gain-getter never stops so long as there is htful to have a whole river to drink from” Why so? You can't possibly drink it all, and besides, the river water is apt to bemyself And then, too, you are liable to be drowned in your attempt to drink from the river

”But one _ depends upon his bank account” It's useless to argue with such a hty dollar If he did but know it, he is simply another Tantalus, surrounded by riches which he cannot, or, in his case, will not enjoy And besides he does not really care for popular opinion as he professes to do Poor wretch! he has all the care and none of the pleasures of his wealth Heaven keep me poor in such possessions!

You say that reed has alienated all ould naturally love and care for you; and you must not be surprised if you do not keep the love which you are doing nothing to preserve

No, no! aith your greed; cease to think that lack of money is necessarily an evil; and beware lest your fate at last be miserably to lose your all by a violent death No, I a you to be a spendthrift Only seek a proper et back to the original proposition, no one is content with his lot, but is constantly trying to surpass his fellows And so the jostling struggle for existence goes on, and rare indeed is it to find a man who leaves this life satisfied that he has had his share of its blessings

With this conclusion another man would have been content But Horace somehow feels that he has been a little hard upon his kind, and by way of softening down the seriousness of the lecture, and at the sa himself from the fault of verbosity, which he detests, he ends with a characteristic jibe at the wordy Stoic philosophers:

But enough of this Lest you think that I have stolen the notes of the blear-eyed Crispinus, I'll say no more

In another satire, Horace rebukes the fault of censoriousness His text practically is: ”Judge not that ye be not judged” With characteristic indirect approach to his subject, he begins with a tirade against one Tigellius, until we begin to be indignant with this censorious preacher; when suddenly he whips around to the other side, assumes the role of one of his hearers, and puts the question to himself: ”Have you no faults of your own?” And then we see that he has only been playing a part, and giving us an objective illustration of how it sounds when the otherto themselves those who, habitually blind to their own faults, are quick to discover those of other men

The dramatic eleinning, is one of the most noticeable characteristics of style in the satires of Horace Indeed, his favorite ue, carried on either between hiinary, or between two characters of his creation, whom he introduces as best fitted to conduct the discussion of a theme

The most dramatic of his satires is that in which he introduces the bore In this, the poeue and descriptions of action which ht change to give it perfect draet rid of the bore and at the saentleiven below in full

THE BORE: A DRAMATIC SATIRE IN ONE ACT

The persons of the drama: Horace; the Bore; Aristius Fuscus, a friend of Horace; an adversary of the Bore; Horace's slave-boy; a streetthe action into the Foru the street in deep thought To hireat show of affection and slaps him familiarly on the shoulder_]

_Bore_ How are you, my dear old fellow? _Horace_ [_stiffly_]