Introduction to classical Latin literature . presided over the changing year. Terminus over theboundary-stone, Volutina is the fair goddess of , like Picus and Faunus, may fitly be worshippedat the family hearth as Lares, but few picturesque legendsgrow up about the names. Each mans genius follows orguides him through the sober phases of a monotonous life. This absence of myth, of fancy, is the most striking traitin the Roman nature. Their one poet who feels adequatelythe reverent sympathy of a Wordsworth, or a Bryant, withNature, in her wilder and lonelier aspec
Introduction to classical Latin literature . presided over the changing year. Terminus over theboundary-stone, Volutina is the fair goddess of , like Picus and Faunus, may fitly be worshippedat the family hearth as Lares, but few picturesque legendsgrow up about the names. Each mans genius follows orguides him through the sober phases of a monotonous life. This absence of myth, of fancy, is the most striking traitin the Roman nature. Their one poet who feels adequatelythe reverent sympathy of a Wordsworth, or a Bryant, withNature, in her wilder and lonelier aspects, is a materialistand an atheist. The one chronicler who has much ofHerodotoss grace as a story-teller has but a single typeof tale to tell. Heroic and stoical self-sacrifice for theFatherland is his constant theme. Such a people will have to be taught not merely thealphabet but the whole art of poetry: and they will hardlysurpass tlieir teachers. The concession that Virgil makesfor the plastic arts, for science, and even, too INTRODUCTION 5 for forensic oratory, might well have included his owncraft as well. He is thinking of Greeks, only, when hecries : Virgils /Eneid, Others will mould more deftly the breathing VI., 847-53. bronze, I concede it, Or from the marble block lead forth the face of the living :Others excel in the pleading of causes : delineate betterMotions of heavenly bodies, and tell of the stars and , oh Roman, remember to curb with thy empire thine arts shall be, and of peace to impose the con-ditions,Sparing those who submit, but crushing in battle thehaughty. This closing boast, also, is fully justified. While theyhave much resemblance to the Spartans, the Romans differradically from them in this : When happy chance, andtheir own unflagging discijjline, made them lords of La-tinm, of Italy, of the Mediterranean world, they promptlydeveloped also the power and daring to hold firmly whatthey had boldly won. We m
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