HORACE ON INSANITY 273 



" Mutato nomine, de te, fabula narratur" 



was his own remark, though with little foresight of the future ex- 

 tent of its application. To prove our position, let us take our old 

 school Horace, imprinted in ^Edibus Valpianis, or the Delphine edi- 

 tion, if preferred, and read the conversation which took place be- 

 tween Damasippus and the poet.* What says the heading ? " Da- 

 masippus, Stertini, Stoici verbis, omnes insanire docet.*' " Stertini- 

 us," says Lempriere, " was a Stoic philosopher ridiculed by Horace." 

 This seems more than doubtful : Horace has put his sentiments in 

 the mouth of the Stoic, but by no means does he place him in a ri- 

 diculous light ; on the contrary, he makes him utter many very 

 philosophical and profound remarks. And, first, he proceeds to tell 

 us the grounds on which he makes the assertion that " all men are 

 mad." '' Nunc accipe," says he, — m^ 



** Nunc accipe quare 

 Desipiant omnes, aeque ac tu, qui tibi nomen 

 Insane posuere. Velut sylvis, ubi passim 

 Palantes error certo de tramite pellit, 

 Ille sinisirorsum, hie dextrorsum abit ; unus utrique 

 Error, sed variis illudit partibus. Hoc te 

 Crede modo insanum ; nihilo ut sapientior ille 

 Qui te deridet, caudam trahat." 



And who is there that keeps in " certo tramite" — in the right path 

 of reason ? Who can say that he is not led away from it like the 

 rest of his fellow cosmopolites ? Who is there that has not some 

 favourite pursuit, some prevailing fancy, which leads him to the 

 right or to the left, and causes him to wander in the tangled paths 

 of error — some hobby, whose prancing disposition carries him into 

 the thickets, and too often deposits the unwary rider amid the 

 briars } Again, how true the poet's remark, " Qui te deridet, cau- 

 dam trahet !" How few are aware of their own follies ! how few 

 can discover their own eccentricities or weaknesses ! " y va*^/ <r«a«Tov" 

 was an excellent moral precept, but its accomplishment is hardly 

 within the power of man ; and the old fable carries with it much 

 sound sense, which relates that Jupiter placed the wallet contain- 

 ing the faults of men at their backs ; so that each man can discern 

 those of his neighbour, while he remains ignorant of his own. 



• Satirarumy lib. ii., iii. 

 VOL. VI. NO. XX. MM 



