86 tTbe (Barren 



favored, honored, and courted by them all, from 

 Sylla to Augustus. 



Maecenas was the wisest counsellor, the 

 truest friend both of his prince and his coun- 

 try, the best governor of Rome, the happiest 

 and ablest negotiator, the best judge of learning 

 and virtue, the choicest in his friends, and thereby 

 the happiest in his conversation, that has been 

 known in story ; and I think, to his conduct in 

 civil, and Agrippa's in military affairs, may be 

 truly ascribed all the fortunes and greatness of 

 Augustus, so much celebrated in the world. 



For I^ucretius, Virgil, and Horace, they de- 

 serve, in my opinion, the honor of the greatest 

 philosophers, as well as the best poets of their 

 nation or age. The two first, besides what 

 looks like something more than human in their 

 poetry, were very great naturalists, and admira- 

 ble in their morals : and Horace, besides the 

 sweetness and elegancy of his lyrics, appears, in 

 the rest of his writings, so great a master of 

 life, and of true sense in the conduct of it, that 

 I know none beyond him. It was no mean 

 strain of his philosophy, to refuse being secre- 

 tary to Augustus, when so great an emperor so 

 much desired it. But all the different sects of 

 philosophers seem to have agreed in the opinion 

 of a wise man's abstaining from public affairs, 

 which is thought the meaning of Pythagoras* 



