The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-15

though he had been at work upon it
eleven years, he judged that three years
more were necessary TO perfect il. This
wish was not carried out only because
of the express command Of Augustus.
The publication Of the poem was ef-
fected Immediately, and so much ap-
proved was it by the Roman people that
scarcely a century had elapsed before
VirgiPs tomb became, as it were, the
I..c-:ce of a god.
Virgil vas a poet for all time Hor-
ace (B. c., $3.50 also was a poet for all
time, and yet he was distinctively and
emphatieally a poet of the age he be-
lOnged to. The "Odes'' Of Horace de-
rived their origin, their being, their
very soul and essence from the life of
the times they depicted. Horace is the
singular example of.a poet who is really
not a great poet, becoming, by his art,
the infinite felicity of his art, greater
that is 10 say, more widely read, more
enduringly renOwned-than the very
greatest of poets. Tor without doubt
Horace has been more widely and more
continuously read, more widely and
more frequently quoted, than any other
poet who ever lived. He owes this mar
velous popularity-a popularity ex-
tending through every age and
throughout every civilized cOuntry-nOt
to power of thought or Of suggestion or
Of inspiration, but to an inimitable apt
ness of expression which gives to even
mediocre ideas such lOdgment in the
memory that once they are there they
are never displaced.
There was a time not so very long
ago when TO know ones Horace was
the shibb0leth OF culture. Readers of
BulWer's novels viii remember how
continually Horace is quoted by him
and by his characters. If men of pO-
tie society met anywhere their dis
course with one another, their ieSts,
their repartees were sure to be favored
by Horatian illusions and ofteatimes,
indeed, by direct Horatian quotations.
That time is past. The great expan-
don of knowledge in these later days
has made the leisurely study Of classic
! literature. once the rule, once, indeed,
imperative on all who aSpired TO Gull
ture. quite impossible. Today even the
professed classical scholar scarcely
knows his Horace as well as forty
( years ago the well trained school boy
knew il.
Some idea Of most classical authors
/ can be obtained from Iranslations. HO
mer, especially the Odyssey" has beer
/ well rendered into English. So, too,
| has Virgil. but with less success. Nir-
| gils art is too personal, too character
| istic Of his own individuality TO be ad-
. equately transferred by another mind
| into another language. But Of ali
classic authors none is so impossible
/ to translate as Horace. His aptness
/ Of phrase. his cTystal-cut deftness Q.
metTical construction, in a translatOI
/ nanos vanish entirely. The result
! pToEe-bare, commonplace prose. Eve
Bulwer-Lytton. with all his aboundin
/ love of Horace, with all his wealth {
classical scholarship and skill in En-
/ glish verSification, made nothing OF h
attempt. To enjoy Horace at all on
must do so in the origIaal.
Besides Virgil and Horace there WEI
/ other ornaments % literature in tn
! Augustan age. but none, Of course. Wh
/ approached these two. Ovid q. c. *
A d. g.. a younger member CT tn
Augustan group, was a more tvpies
representative OF the ideas and ma
ners OF the Augustan age than eve
sorace. But Ovid. though a poet Q
exquisite felicity of expression and q
| most unequaled narrative power, doe.
not rank and never has ranked witt
his older contemporaries
Another great name Of the Augustar