I TO MAECENAS THE First Epistle, which serves as an introduction to the First Book, and is addressed to the poet's patron, Maecenas, professes to explain why Horace has given up the writing of lyric poetry. He is now too old for such folly, and his mind has turned to another field. "Why," he asks, "should you wish the gladiator, who has earned his discharge, to return to his former training-school? A warning voice within bids me loose the old steed before he stumble at the end of his course. And so I give up my verses with other toys, and turn all my thoughts to philosophy, following no special school but letting myself be borne along as the breeze may set, now behaving as a true Stoic, being all for action, and now relapsing into the passiveness of a Cyrenaic (1-19). 66 With impatience do I await the day when I may devote myself to the serious problems of life; meanwhile I must guide and comfort myself with what little knowledge I possess. A cure for all diseases of the soul may be found in the charms and spells of philosophy, if the patient will but submit to treatment (20-40). 66 The first step in virtue and wisdom is to eschew vice and folly. Men are anxious to avoid poverty and ought to be quite as eager to escape from evil lesires, especially as the prize offered is so much greater (41-51). 66 True, the world takes a different view, but the children who sing 'You'll be king, if you do right' should teach us how much better than riches is the power to stand erect and free and to fling defiance at Fortune (52-69). "If I were asked why I do not go along with the world and share its opinions, I should recall the fable of the fox declining the lion's invitation to enter his den, because the footprints point in only one direction. The man who once gives in to popular opinion becomes the victim of a hydra. Cutting off one head does no good. Men are capricious, and even the same man changes his views from hour to hour (70-93). "I am as bad as others, but though you are quick to notice some carelessness in my dress or appearance, you fail to observe my graver inconsistencies of life and thought (94-105). "In short, the Stoics are right only the sage can be perfect, and even he may suffer from a cold!" ÉPISTULARUM LIBER PRIMUS I. Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camena, spectatum satis et donatum iam rude quaeris, Maecenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo. non eadem est aetas, non mens. Veianius armis Herculis ad postem fixis latet abditus agro, ne populum extrema totiens exoret1 harena. est mihi purgatam crebro qui personet aurem : solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne peccet ad extremum ridendus et ilia ducat." 66 5 10 Nunc itaque et versus et cetera ludicra pono; quid verum atque decens curo et rogo et omnis in hoc sum; condo et compono quae mox depromere possim. ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter : 1 exornet $48. a The first Satire, the first Epode, and the first Ode are all addressed to Maecenas. Horace compares himself to an old gladiator, who has often won approval, and received the wooden foil which was a symbol of discharge from the school of gladiators. The defeated combatant would beg for his life. Veianius, after his discharge, yielded to no inducements to return to the arena. EPISTLES BOOK I EPISTLE I You, of whom my earliest Muse has told," of whom my last shall tell you Maecenas, seek to shut me up again in my old school, though well tested in the fray, and already presented with the foil. My years, my mind, are not the same. Veianius hangs up his arms at Hercules' door, then lies hidden in the country, that he may not have to plead with the crowd again and again from the arena's edge. Some one there is who is always dinning in my well-rinsed Be wise in time, and turn loose the ageing horse, lest at the last he stumble amid jeers and burst his wind." ear: 66 10 So now I lay aside my verses and all other toys. What is right and seemly is my study and pursuit, and to that am I wholly given. I am putting by and setting in order the stores on which I may some day draw. Do you ask, perchance, who is my chief, in what home I take shelter? I am not bound over d d Horace, still using terms applicable to a gladiator, who took an oath to the master of his training-school, is speaking of the acceptance of the formula of some school of philosophy. |