Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . genius and laygreat stress on the technical finish of his own day. From his own lifetime till now Horace has had a popularity unexampled inliterature. A hundred generations who have learned him as school-boys have re-membered and returned to him in mature age as to a personal friend. He isone of those rare examples, like Julius Caesar in politics, of genius which ripenslate and leaves the more enduring traces. Up to the age of thirty-five his wor
Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . genius and laygreat stress on the technical finish of his own day. From his own lifetime till now Horace has had a popularity unexampled inliterature. A hundred generations who have learned him as school-boys have re-membered and returned to him in mature age as to a personal friend. He isone of those rare examples, like Julius Caesar in politics, of genius which ripenslate and leaves the more enduring traces. Up to the age of thirty-five his workis still crude and tentative ; afterward it is characterized by a jewel finish, an ex-quisite sense of language which weighs every word accurately and makes everyword inevitable and perfect. He was not a profound thinker; his philosophyis rather that of the market-place than of the schools, he does not move amonghigh ideals or subtle emotions. The romantic note which makes Virgil so magi-cal and prophetic a figure at that turning-point of the worlds history has noplace in Horace ; to gain a universal audience he offers nothing more and noth-. CO <z o I*! O UJ0) o I UJ II- CO QZ< ill o <cco I C3 DANTE 19 ing less than what is universal to mankind. Of the common range of thoughtand feeling he is perfect and absolute master ; and in the graver passages of theepistles, as in the sad and noble cadence of his most famous odes, the melan-cholv temper which underlay his quick and bright humor touches the deepestsprings of human nature. Of his style the most perfect .criticism was given inthe next generation by a single phrase, Horatii curiosa felicitas; of no poetcan it be more truly said, in the phrase of the Greek dramatist Agathon, thatskill has an affection for luck and luck for skill. His poetry supplies morephrases which have become proverbial than the rest of Latin literature put to-gether. To suggest a parallel in English literature we must unite in thought theexcelle
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
