Horace and His Influence | Page 3

the sources of
literature and the arts, of morals, politics, and religion, of commerce
and mechanics, is on the whole no difficult adventure.
Finally, civilization is not only a matter of local habitation, but a matter
of individual men. The great city is both determined by, and determines,
its environment; the great man is the product, and in turn the producer,
of the culture of his nation. The human race is gregarious and
sequacious, rather than individual and adventurous. Progress depends
upon the initiative of spirited and gifted men, rather than upon the tardy
movement of the mass, upon idea rather than force, upon spirit rather
than matter.
I preface my essay with these reflections because there may be readers
at first thought skeptical of even modest statements regarding Horace
as a force in the history of our culture and a contributor to our life today.
It is only when the continuity of history and the essential simplicity and
constancy of civilization are understood that the direct and vital
connection between past and present is seen, and the mind is no longer
startled and incredulous when the historian records that the Acropolis
has had more to do with the career of architecture than any other group
of buildings in the world, or that the most potent influence in the
history of prose is the Latin of Cicero, or that poetic expression is more
choice and many men appreciably saner and happier because of a
Roman poet dead now one thousand nine hundred and thirty years.

HORACE AND HIS INFLUENCE

I. HORACE INTERPRETED
THE APPEAL OF HORACE

In estimating the effect of Horace upon his own and later times, we
must take into account two aspects of his work. These are, the forms in
which he expressed himself, and the substance of which they are the
garment. We shall find him distinguished in both; but in the substance
of his message we shall find him distinguished by a quality which sets
him apart from other poets ancient and modern.
This distinctive quality lies neither in the originality nor in the novelty
of the Horatian message, which, as a matter of fact, is surprisingly
familiar, and perhaps even commonplace. It lies rather in the appealing
manner and mood of its communication. It is a message living and
vibrant.
The reason for this is that in Horace we have, above all, a person. No
poet speaks from the page with greater directness, no poet establishes
so easily and so completely the personal relation with the reader, no
poet is remembered so much as if he were a friend in the flesh. In this
respect, Horace among poets is a parallel to Thackeray in the field of
the novel. What the letters of Cicero are to the intrigue and turmoil of
politics, war, and the minor joys and sorrows of private and social life
in the last days of the Republic, the lyrics and "Conversations" of
Horace are to the mood of the philosophic mind of the early Empire.
Both are lights which afford us a clear view of interiors otherwise but
faintly illuminated. They are priceless interpreters of their times. In
modern times, we make environment interpret the poet. We understand
a Tennyson, a Milton, or even a Shakespeare, from our knowledge of
the world in which he lived. In the case of antiquity, the process is
reversed. We reconstruct the times of Caesar and Augustus from
fortunate acquaintance with two of the most representative men who
ever possessed the gift of literary genius.
It is because Horace's appeal depends so largely upon his qualities as a
person that our interpretation of him must center about his personal
traits. We shall re-present to the imagination his personal appearance.
We shall account for the personal qualities which contributed to the
poetic gift that set him apart as the interpreter of the age to his own and
succeeding generations. We shall observe the natural sympathy with

men and things by reason of which he reflects with peculiar faithfulness
the life of city and country. We shall become acquainted with the
thoughts and the moods of a mind and heart that were nicely sensitive
to sight and sound and personal contact. We shall hear what the poet
has to say of himself not only as a member of the human family, but as
the user of the pen.
This interpretation of Horace as person and poet will be best attempted
from his own work, and best expressed in his own phrase. The pages
which follow are a manner of Horatian mosaic. They contain little not
said or suggested by the poet himself.

1. HORACE THE PERSON
Horace was of slight stature among even a slight-statured race. At the
period when we like him best, when