w the learned World to have fallen into Two
mistakes: one, that Augustus was a Patron of Poets in general; whereas he
not only prohibited all but the Best Writers to name him, but recommended
that Care even to the Civil Magistrate: Admonebat Praetores, ne
paterentur Nomen suum obsolefieri, etc. The other, that this Piece was
only a general Discourse of Poetry; whereas it was an Apology for the
Poets, in order to render Augustus more their Patron. Horace here pleads
the Cause of his Contemporaries, first against the Taste of the Town,
whose humour it was to magnify the Authors of the preceding Age; secondly
against the Court and Nobility, who encouraged only the Writers for the
Theatre; and lastly against the Emperor himself, who had conceived them
of little Use to the Government. He shows (by a View of the Progress of
Learning, and the Change of Taste among the Romans) that the Introduction
of the Polite Arts of Greece had given the Writers of his Time great
advantages over their Predecessors; that their Morals were much improved,
and the Licence of those ancient Poets restrained: that Satire and Comedy
were become more just and useful; that, whatever extravagances were left
on the Stage, were owing to the Ill Taste of the Nobility; that Poets,
under due Regulations, were in many respects useful to the State, and
concludes, that it was upon them the Emperor himself must depend for his
Fame with Posterity.

We may farther learn from this Epistle, that Horace made his Court to
this great Prince by writing with a decent Freedom toward him, with a
just Contempt of his low Flatterers, and with a manly Regard to his own
Character. P.

EPISTLE I. TO AUGUSTUS.

While you, great patron of mankind! sustain
The balanced world, and open all the main;
Your country, chief, in arms abroad defend,
At home, with morals, arts, and laws amend;
How shall the muse from such a monarch, steal
An hour, and not defraud the public weal?
Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame,
And virtuous Alfred, a more sacred name,
After a life of generous toils endured,
The Gaul subdued, or property secured,
Ambition humbled, mighty cities stormed,
Our laws established, and the world reformed;
Closed their long glories with a sigh, to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
All human virtue, to its latest breath,
Finds envy never conquered but by death.
The great Alcides, every labour past,
Had still this monster to subdue at last.