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Homer wrote in an age when mankind had not as 'et made any great progress in the exertions either of intelle stor imagination, and he was theres ore indebled for his rotasourCes to the vast capaci ty of his own mind. To this me nausi add, that he eXecuted both his poenas in a si tuation os life eκtrem ely unfavorabie to the Culci vation os po-Ctry. Virgil, on the contrary, lived in a period when literature had alta ined to a hi gli state os improvement. He had
likewise not only the advantage of finding a modet in theworks of Homer, but os perusing the laws of epic poeta y, which had bden digested by Aristolle, and the vario has Ob
Virgil, besides, composed his poem in a state remote Don1 indigence ; where he was roused to exertion by the eXImple of sevet at Contemporary poets ; and, What muct have animaled hi in beyond everu other consideration, he wroteboth at the destre, and under the patronage, of the Cmperor and his minister Mecarnas. In What time Homercomposed either of his poenas, we know not; but the Zneid, we a re informed, was the emplo Dent of Virgilduring eleven years. For sonae years, the repeated en-treati es of Augustus could not extori from hi in the smallest specimen of the work ; but at longili, when considerablyadvanced in it, he condescended to recite three books, thesecorid, the fourth, and the sigili, in the presence of the em- peror and his sister Octavia; to gratii y the lalter of whom in particular, the recitat of the last: book novi mentioned was intended. When the poet came to thiese Gol dS, Tu Mia coth s
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eellus eris, alluding to Octavia's son, a youth of greathopes, who had latet y died, the mollier fainted. Asterste had recovered froin this fit by the assiduity of the attendanis, me ordei ed ten sestertia to be given to Virgilsor every line relating to that subjeci; a gratui ty whichamounted to about two thous and pounds sterting. In the composition of the AEneid, Virgil scrupled notio introduce whole lines of Homer, and of the Latinpoet Ennius, many of whose sentences he admired. In a1ew instances he has borrowed from Lucretius. He issaid to have been at extraordinary pains in polis hing his numbers ; and when he was doubiful of any passage, hewould read it to me of his friends that he might havetheir opinion. On lacti occasions, it was usual with himio consuli in particular his freedman and librari an Erotes, an old domestic, who, it is related, supplied eXtempore a deficiency in two lines, and was desii ed by his master towrite them in the manuscirpi. When this immortat work was completed, Virgil resolv-ed on retiring into Greece and Asia sor three years, that
he might devote himself entirely to the polis hing of it, and
have tellare asterwards to pasi the remainder of his life in the cultivation os philosophy. But meeting at Athensmitti Augustus, Who was on his return frona the East, hedetermined on accompanying the emperor bach to Rome. Upon a visit to Megara, a town in the neighbourhood of Athens, he was seiged with a languor, which encreas edduring the ensiaing voyage ; and in a se days aster land-ing at Brundisium he eκpired, on the et ad of September,
in the fifty-second year of his age. He destred that hisbody might be carried to Naples, where he had passiam ny h ppy years; and that the lallowing distich, writ -
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Mantua me genatare Calabri rapuere ς tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, ducra.
He mas accordingly interred, by the order of Augustus,mith great funerat pomp, With in two miles of Naples,near the road to Puteoli, where his tomi, stili exis s. of his estate, which was very considerable by the liberali tyos his friends, he lest the greater part to Valerius Proculus and his brother, a fourth to Augustus, a twelfth to Mecaenas, besides legacies to L. Varius, and Plotius Tucca, who, in consequence of his own request, and the Command of Augustus, revised and corrected the A neid aster his death, Their instructions froin the emperor were, toeXpunge whatever they thought limproper, but upon noaCCOunt to mahe any addition. This restriction is sup-
posed to be the cause that many lines in the reneidare impersedi
Virgil was of large stature, had a dark complexion, and his statu res a re salil to have been lach as expressedno uncommon abilities. He was subject to complaints of the stomach and throat, as weli as a head-ach, and had frequent discliarges of blood up wards; but froin what Pari, we are not informed. He was very temperate both in sood and wine. His modesty was se great, that at Naples they commonly gave him the name of Parthenias, the modest man. ' In respeet of his modes hy, the sol-lowing anecdote is related. Having written a distich, in ich he compared Augustus to Jupiter, he placed it in the night-time over thepate of the emperor's palace. It was in these Words:
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22 OTHE LIFE OFI die 'luis tot si redeos spectacula maue et Di bifum imperium cum Jo Ue Caesar habet.
By the order of Augustus, an enquiry was made after the author ; and Virgil not declaring himself, the verses were claimed by Bathyllus, a contemptibi e poet, butwho was liberalty rewarded on this occasion. Virgil, provo ked ut the falsehood of the imposior, again Wrotethe verses on me conspicuous part of the palace, and under them the following line:
Hos ego versculos feci, Iulii alter honores ;
' repented four times. Augustus eXpressing a destro that the lines silould he finished, and Bathyllus proving un-equat to the lassi, Virgil at last filled up the blatilis iutius manner: Sic etos non vobis nidificiis, aves. Sic Sos non mobis vellera ferris, oves. Sic mos non Φobis mel scalis, apes. Sic vos non vobis fertis a ira, boves.
The expedient immediately evinccd him to be the author of the distich, and Bathyllus hecame the theme of publicridicule. en at any time Virgil came to Rome, is the peo-ple, as WaS Commonly the Case, crowded to gaZe Uponhim, or potnted at hi in with the finger, in admiration, he blussaed, and si ole away froin them ; frequently taking refuge in sonae stop. When he Maent to the theatre, the audience universalty rose up at his entrance, as theydid to Augustus, and received him th the loudest plaudit. S
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lus; a compliment whicli, hori ever hight y honorabie, he would gladiy have decline l. When such was the justres pein whicli they pa id to the author of the Bucolicsand Georgics, how would they have expressed theirci cena, had they beheld him in the effulgence of epicrenown i In the beauti sui epi de of the Elyssian felds, in the AEneid, where he dextrousty introduced a glorious display of their country, he had tota ched the most elastic springs of Roman enthusiata. The passion would haverebounded upon himself, and they would, in the heat os admiration, have idoliged hi m.
ber, in the Consulsia ip of L. Cotta, and L. Torquatus. According to his achnowledgment, liis sa-ther was a freedman : by sonae it is sald, a
collector of the revenue, and by Others, thathe was a fissimon ger, or deali in saltod meat. Whateverhe was, he pald particular attention to the education Ofhis son, whom, after receiving instructiora froin the best masters in Rome, he sent to Athens to study philosophy. From this place, Horace followed Brutus, in the quali tyos a military Tribune, to the batile of Philippi, where, by his own consession, being seiged with timidity, huabandoned the profession os a soldier, and returning to Rome, applied himself to the culti vation os poeti v Ina mort time he procured the friendlmip of Virgil and Varius, whom he mentions in his Satires, in ternas of themost tender a Section.
Potera luae oritur musto grati Ana: namque Plotins V Vari s Sinuessae, Inrgiliusque,
Occurruus; ianima', quales neque candia ores
Terra rudit, neque queis me ii devinctior aster. O qui complazus, gaudia quama fuerint ita j ego contulerim jucundo sanus inui . SAT. I. s.
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TAE LIFE OPBy the two frientis abovementioned, he was recomuinended to the patronage not Only of Mecaenas, but Au gustus, With whom he, as weli as virgil, lived on a s ot-ing of the greate si intimacy. Satisfied with the luxurywhich he et oyed at the fit si tables in Rome, he was sotinambitious of any public employment, that when theem peror offered hi in the place of his secretary, he de clined it. But as he lived in an elegant manner, haVing, besides his house in town, a cottage on his Sabino strin, and a villa at Tibur, near the catara st of the Anio, he ei oved, beyonil ali do ubi, a handi me esta biistiment, frona the liberal ty of Augustus. He indulg-ed himself in indolence and sociat plealare, but was atthe fame time much devoted to reading. He enjoyed a tolerable good state of health, but was osten incommodedwith a fluxion of rheum upon the CyCS.
Horace, in the ardor of youth, and when his bo in heat high with the raptures of fancy, had, in the pursuis of Grecian literature, drunk largely, at me Murce, of the delictous springs of Castalia ; and it stems to have been ever aster his clites ambition, to transplant into theplains of Latium the palm of lyric poetry. Nor did hesail of succest :
Ezrga monumentum rere perennius. CARΜ. III. 3 o.
In Greece, and other countries, the Ode appears toliave been the mos ancient, as weli as the most popular species os literary production. Warm in eXpression, and shori in extent, it concentrates in narrow bouias the
fi re os poetical transpori on whieli account, it has been generalty employed to celebrate the fervors of piety, tho
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Musia dedii Mibus Dimos, puero que Deorum,
Et lugilem mictorem, M equum certamine primum, Elis venum curas, libera vina referre. HOR. DE ARTE POET. Misenum ἁFoliden, quo non triarsantior alter AEre ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu VIRGIL. AENEID. VLSed tum forte cava dum personat AEquora concha Demens, cantu vocat in certamina Divos. Ibid.
There a rose in this deparment, amongst the Greehs, nine eminent poets, viZ. Alcaeus, Alcman, Ana Creon, BaC-chylides, Ibicus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Simonides, and Ρindar. The greater part of this distinguis hed clasi arenow. known only by name. They seem ali to have dif-sered from one another, no tesse in the kind of measure whicli they chiefly or solely employed, than in the strengili or so finess, the beauty or grandeur, the animaled rapidi ty or the graces ut ease of their various compositions. of the amorous effusions of the lyre, we yethave examples in the odes of Anacreon, and the incomparabie ode of Sappho : the lyric strains whicli animaledio batile, have sun k into oblivion ; but the victors in the public games of Greece have their fame perpetuated in the admirabie productions os Pindar. Horace, by adopting, in the multiplici ty of his subjedis, almost ali the various mea lares of the different Greeli poets, and frequently combining different meas ures in the fame composition, has compensated the dialects of that tongue, happily sui ted to poetry, and given to a' The last members of these two lines, Dom the Commasto the enit, are what are said to have been supplied by Erotes, Virgii's librarian. langu aget
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ter and delicate modulations of the Easteria song. Whilohe moves in the meas tires of the Greel f with an ease and grace uinesse that rivals their Own aCknowledged excet
I nce, he has eiariched the fund of lyric harmony witha stanga peculiar to himself. In the artificiat constructation of the Ode, he may justly be regat ded as the sirs: of lyric poets. In beautis ut imagery, he is inserior to non e rin variety of sentinae ni and selici ty of expression, superior ito everu eYisting Competitor in Greeli or Roman poetry. He is elegant without affectation ; and, what is more than ali remarhabie, in the in idi of gaiety hc is morat. e sellioni meet in his Odes V it1 the abruptapostrophes of passionale excursion ; but his transsitions arct conducted mitii ea , and every subject introduced illi propriety. The Carmen Seculiare was written at the express destre of Augustus, for the celebration of the Secular Games, performed once in a hundred years, and whicli continued during three days and three nights, whilli ali Rome re- ωunded with the mingled estusioris of chorat addi essesto Gods and Goddesses, and of festive joy. An occasionwhich so much interes ed the ambition of the poet, calledinto eXertion the most vigorous efforis of his genius. More concise in mythological attributes than the hymias ascribe t to Homer, this beauti fui production, in varietyand grande ur os invocation, and in pom p of numbers, stirpames ali that Greece, melodisias but simple in theservice of the altar, ever potared fortit Dona her vocat igroves in solemn adoration. BV the force of native genius, the ancients elevatest their heloes to a pitch os sub limi ty that excites admiration, but to soar hevotad Michthey could derive no a id IIo ci mythology ; and it Was r
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served Ar a bard, inspired with nobter sentiments than the Muses could supply, to sing the prat ses of that Beingwhose ineffabie persections transcend ali human imagination. of the prais es of Gods and Heroes, there is not now extant a more beauti ut composition, than thoiath Ode of the first book of Horace :
em virum aut heroa krd et et acri. Tibia sumes celebrare, Gio r.em Deum 7 cujus recinet jocosa men imago, MI in umbrosas Heliconis oris,
The Satires of Horace are far from being remarhableser poeticat harmony, as he himself acknowledges. In-deed, according to the plan upon whicli severat of themare written, it could scarcely be other ise. They aro frequently colloquial, semetimes interrogatory, the transitions quick, and the apostrophes abrupi. It was nothis object in those compositioris, to sooth the ear Withthe melody of poli med numbers, but to ratly the fraillies of the heari, to convince the undes standisag by argument, and thence to put to sitam e both the vices and follies of mankind. Satire is a species of compossition, of whichthe Greelis furnislied no modet, and the preceding Roman writers of this class, though they had much improved it Dom iis original rudenesse and licentious ness, had stili not brought it to that degree of persection whichmight ans Ner the purposse of morat reform in a poli med state of society. It received the most essentiat improve ment froni Horace, who has dextro usiy combined witand argument, raillery and sarcasm, on the fide os morali ty and viriue, of happinesse and truth. The Epis les of this author may be rechoned amongst the most valvabie productions os antiquity. Except
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those of the seconii hook, and one or two in the fi si, thevare in generat of the familiar Lind ; abo unding in mora Isentim enis, and judiciolas observations on lisse and manners. The poem De Arte Poestica comprises a system os criticism, in just nesse of principie and eXtent of application, correspondent to the various CXertions os genius on subjects of invention and taste. That in composing this excellent production, he availed himself of the most approved vorks of Grecian original, we may conclude froin the advice which he there recommendS
--,-- Vos eXemplaria Graeca Noe turnd versale manu, versale diurnia.
In the writings of Horace there appears a fund of good sense, enlivened with pleas antry, and refined by philosophical re eLion. He had cultiva ted his judgment with great application, and his taste was guided by an intui-tive perception of morat beatity, aptitude, and propriety. The seis instances of indelicacy whicli occur in his compositions, we may ascribe rather to the manners of the times, than to any blameable propensity in the author. Horace dieit in the fifty-s eventii year of his age, sui vivingliis helouod Me caenas only three weelis ; a Circumstance whicli, added to the declaration in an ode to that personage, supposed to have been writicia in Mecsenas's lastiliness, has given rise to a conjecture, that Horace en led his da ys by a violent death, to accompany his si iend. But it is more natural to conclude that he dieit os excesὰvogries, as, had he literalty adhered to the affirmation contained in the ode, he would have followed his patron more closely. This seems to be confirmed by a sach iiD- inedia telu preceding his dea th: sor though he declared