Repository: UIHistories Project: Sophograph - 1890 [PAGE 34]

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TNI

'I'H.H

IMAPH,

HORATIANA.

O become acquainted with a nation, we must know what its people thought and felt. Literature is a record of thought and sentiment. Therefore, to study the Literature oi' a people is. to study its historv. This is not merely the record of wars, conquests and discoveries, hut is rather the itory of the rise of the people, the development of thought and sentiment. Latin literature is thus a revealerof Roman historv. a revealer of the thought, the morals, and life of thep pie of the Great Republic and the Greater Empire. No port, more than Horace, has illustrated this. He displays a wonderful intellect, a keen insight into nature and the ways

of men about him. Me was a good satirist, who loved

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the literature, thoughts, morals and w A UM w khetin I Augustus. Whether morals v. the -t wn.t.- with the uraj of appi * " ' upright and free i m guilt needs no deft ' 18.) So the ninety-fl I P dm io« the Again be show- a clear und< and ? n ,..lh sl character when he say*, "Ai »t • lllli ] How true th < l" ' ( Ep. I: l. 40.) deeds perpetrated in anger. \ n, in i th< r and inconvenience of being too mnd ibj< o tl influence of external circumstances, he bids at "1 men preserve an even temper in prosperity or II: HI, I.) The wisdom of Solomon finds i illel in these v. g of the poet, "Silver has l«v dm-than Id; « 1 less

than virtue." ( Ep. I: 1. 51. | And a g a i n , tfa f

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laughter better than the lash.

Nor did he forget that he,

as well as others, had faults sufficientI v g l a r i n g to he sat iri/.ed.

the hook of Proverbs recui • us as i n in M "Force void of wisdom comes to naught. 0 » III: H For no matter how great power we I perform r duties, it' we do not wisely use our oppori I will he in vain. Not brute force, hut a wise miu land a so

has made h u m a n life what it is. T h e wise man s h u n vil, for " I t w a virtu*- I

Time has silenced the busy lives o\' the ancient world.

hut thai it has n changed human c h a r a c t e r , is evident

from the writings of this Latin p ei who sets Forth profita< ble I in his clear and well expressed thought. His Ode 3atires, and Epistles show how close a atudeni he was of human nature. Nature ah was. and always will be the same, therefi . his poetry depicts for us different natures of today, showing how little man's character has changed after a long lapse of time. His thoughts are so <•! ilJied to our affairs, whether we be in the busy cit 01 »me quiet country p! . whether we be rich or poor, his win ire ommentaries upon our modern life. A few 8] imen utteran I a this poet are here given, only U how his thought and ientiment, Lut to Bhow

and the first steps in wisdom t«> be free \Yh i character has 1 n perver 1, it is then much difficult to live uprightly, for "When tl as !*•» n soaked it will k p its i Ep. 1: [I, OS.) The bui of a rest less consciem can not to K rcumstances. The change mi be wrought with! i as "They who cross t he i\ chansi tie s. m Ep. I: IV > Mow many think, if : w changed, they would be happier; how in) <*\ If I were only rich, if I were onlj endowed with w t I were only as Portuuate m\ n chbor, how happ> 1 L The poet Bhows tl d til arises fn I . !)•

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