"HORACE" REVIEWED. 19 



to himself over and over again when lying awake at 

 night. And he never lost an opportunity of advising 

 others to read them, or of descanting with enthusiasm 

 upon their manifold beauties. 



Here is an old letter of his upon the subject written 

 to one of my sisters. It was written from Boston, 

 U.S.A., and is dated Christmas Day, 1883: 



As to the Horace, I have picked out some of the gems. They 

 are tolerably easy, and it will be better for you to work at them 

 instead of taking up the entire book. 



Book I. Odes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 20, 21, 22, 30, 37, 38. 



Book II. Odes 13, 14, 16. 



Book III. Odes 3, 9, 13, 26, 30. 



They are songs with words the delight of scholars, and the 

 despair of imitators, the sublimest audacity concealed under a mask 

 which is " childlike and bland." Now, I particularly want you to love 

 Horace, as you have begun to love Shakespeare, and I hope you will 

 love Chaucer and Spenser. As a rule, women get along well enough 

 with Virgil, who was the Latin Tennyson ; but Horace is too much for 

 them. He took his measures chiefly from Alcseus and Sappho, and his 

 Latin survives their Greek. Boil together Chaucer's " Romaunt of 

 the Rose," Spenser's " Faery Queen," Shakespeare's Sonnets (with a 

 few fiery flashes from " King John," " Henry V.," and the " Midsum- 

 mer Night's Dream "), Keats' " Eve of St. Agnes," bits of Shelley's 

 " Mab," Swinburne's classic odes, and Morris' " Earthly Paradise," 

 and you may get a faint idea of the infinite variety, the unerring 

 selections of unexpected epithets (not a "nice derangement of 

 epitaphs "), the dainty choice of words, the burning patriotism, the 

 gracious dignity of the scholarly gentleman, too proud to conceal his 

 lowly origin ; the self-respect of the poor man who could rebuke as 

 well as praise Caesar and Maecenas, knowing that his life depended 

 on the one and his living on the other who, like " Hamlet," has no 

 fault but that of being "made up of quotations." 



My father's respect for the classical proprieties also 

 showed itself occasionally in the strong protests which 

 c 2 



