The Portland daily press., 1893-02-07
AGE OF AUGUSTUS.
Third Lecture of Mr.. Bellows on "Great
Periods in Literature"


In spite of the storm an audience of
quite encouraging size greeted Mr.. Bel
lows in his third talk in the series on
Great Periods in Literature which
was devoted yesterday to the "Augustan
Age'' of Rome. The lecturer frankly
admitted that he found far less of great
ness and beauty in the Roman than in
the Greek ideal, and, by way of illustra-
ton, made comparison between the Pan
Athenaic procession and the great games
at Olympia, with all their charm and
freshness, as of ''the wonder and bloom
of the world" and the Roman spirit as
witnessed in one of their majestic
triumphs on the way to the capitol, or
the horrible sights witnessed in a later
day in the Coliseum. Upon all the stated
lust and cruelty of the empire fell the
high vision of Christianity. which gave
the uplifting power Of a new ideal. A
passage from Mr.. Arnold's poem of
''Obermann" was read illustrating the
change which came to the WORKOUT
Pagan world. The character of Angus
tus and his career were briefly sketched
Ind the period itself was compared to
the so-called "Augustan Age" of Eng
land in the tine of Queen Anne. Pope
was q pseudo-classic. A few lines from
his translation of Homer very clearly
reveal the facts that he has not the large
ness and health of the classical spirit.
Prior had some of the qualities of
Horace, and a few verses were given to
show their lightness and grace. just
great personality of Lucretius, an honest
doubter, like George Eliot, like Arthur
Hugh Clough, like Tyndall, who, along
the lines of science finding no. God,
denied divinely the Divine. Horace is
the poet of society, the charming man of
the world, with the exquisite sense of
form that confers immortality on line
Two or three of his odes were read, in
which, under all their charm, there was
sometimes deep undertone of sadness.
The ode on Pyrrha, an old Roman
coquette, turned into graceful verse by
Miss Gertrude Smith, was also read.
Ovid is frankly coarse, and for his SEN
suality was banished by Augustus, in
spasm of morality. In his Punishment
he wrote some strong lines, describing
the arctc-lIke climate IN which he very
unwillingly found himself His Meta
morphoses have much graceful fancy,
and tell the old myths with certain
naivete-as the story o Baucis and
Philemon, which the speaker read.
In Virgil, we have not the simple
grandeur of the Homeric poems, but
there is charm and grace and rare felicity
of expression. The Georges, by many
critics are considered Virgil's best work,
and few passages from Miss Harriet
w. Preston's delightful version gave
some slight idea of their flavor of country
living. Pastoral life here is very diff
ferent matter from its presentation, say
in Sidneys Arcadia, in Crabbe's grim
realism, or in the idealized and philoso-
phized pastoral poetry of Wordsworth.
The Eneid, like Millions great epic, is to
be read for its fine episodes, and hardly
for it's interest as a whole, as for its
episode of Dido, of the descent into
hades, or for single battle pictures. The
lecturer closed with poem by Tenny-
son, which sums up in a few felieitous
lines the characteristic, qualities of the
great Epic poet,of the Augustan Age.
Mr.. Bellows next s'talk' will be next.
Monday afternoon upon Dante and his
circle.