e at
Athens, under the stress of experience in the field, and from long
contemplation of life in the large in the capital of an empire, it
crystallized into a philosophy of life. The term "philosophy" is
misleading in Horace's case. It suggests books and formulae and
externals. What Horace read in books did not all remain for him the dead
philosophy of ink and paper; what was in tune with his nature he
assimilated, to become philosophy in action, philosophy which really was
the guide of life. His faith in it is unfeigned:

Thus does the time move slowly and ungraciously which hinders me from
the active realization of what, neglected, is a harm to young and old
alike.... The envious man, the ill-tempered, the indolent, the
wine-bibber, the too free lover,--no mortal, in short, is so crude that
his nature cannot be made more gentle if only he will lend a willing ear
to cultivation.

The occasional phraseology of the Schools which Horace employs should
not mislead. It is for the most part the convenient dress for truth
discovered for himself through experience; or it may be literary
ornament. The humorous and not unsatiric lines to his poet-friend Albius
Tibullus,--"when you want a good laugh, come and see me; you will find
me fat and sleek and my skin well cared for, a pig from the sty of
Epicurus,"--are as easily the jest of a Stoic as the confession of an
Epicurean. Horace's philosophy is individual and natural, and
representative of Roman common sense rather than any School.

HORACE AND HELLENISM

A word should be said here regarding the frequent use of the word
"Hellenic" in connection with Horace's genius. Among the results of his
higher education, it is natural that none should be more prominent to
the eye than the influence of Greek letters upon his work; but to call
Horace Greek is to be blinded to the essential by the presence in his
poems of Greek form and Greek allusion. It would be as little reasonable
to call a Roman triumphal arch Greek because it displays column,
architrave, or a facing of marble from Greece. What makes Roman
architecture stand is not ornament, but Roman concrete and the Roman
vault. Horace is Greek as Milton is Hebraic or Roman, or as Shakespeare
is Italian.

4. HORACE THE PHILOSOPHER OF LIFE

HORACE THE SPECTATOR AND ESSAYIST

A great source of the richness of personality which constitutes Horace's
principal charm is to be found in his contemplative disposition. His
attitu