The Works of HoraceMachine readable text


The Works of Horace
By Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Translated by: C. Smart
New York Harper & Brothers 1863


Perseus Documents Collection Table of Contents


   That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the hardest.
   Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite extremes.
   We ought to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offenses are not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes.
   He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and particularly by himself
   He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with great pleasantry.
   Of true nobility.
   He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius.
   Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the incantations of sorceresses.
   He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent fellow.
   He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire.
   He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist from writing satires, or not.
   On Frugality.
   Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad.
   He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of human felicity in the culinary art.
   In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the heirs of rich old men.
   He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the troubles of a life in town.
   One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed them at the Saturnalia,206 rates his master in a droll and severe manner.
   A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant.

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One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed them at the Saturnalia,206 rates his master in a droll and severe manner.

 

Who then is free? The wise man, who has dominion over himself; whom neither poverty, nor death, nor chains affright; brave in the checking of his appetites, and in contemning honors; and, perfect in himself, polished and round as a globe,214 so that nothing from without can retard, in consequence of its smoothness; against whom misfortune ever advances ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any thing applicable to yourself? A woman demands five talents of you, plagues you, and after you are turned out of doors, bedews you with cold water: she calls you again. Rescue your neck from this vile yoke; come, say, I am free, I am free. You are not able: for an implacable master oppresses your mind, and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite, and forces you on though reluctant. When you, mad one, quite languish at a picture by Pausias;215 how are you less to blame than I, when I admire the combats of Fulvius and Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in crayons216 or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged, and push and parry, moving heir weapons? Davus is a scoundrel and a loiterer; but you have the character of an exquisite and expert connoisseur in antiquities. If I am allured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing fellow: does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments? Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me? For my back pays for it. How do you come off with more impunity, since you hanker after such dainties as can not be had for a little expense? Then those delicacies, perpetually taken, pall upon the stomach; and your mistaken feet refuse to support your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by night pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes? Has he nothing servile about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates? Add to this, that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself, nor dispose of your leisure in a right manner; and shun yourself as a fugitive and vagabond, one while endeavoring with wine, another while with sleep, to cheat care-in vain: for the gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues you in your flight. "Where can I get a stone?" "What occasion is there for it?" "Where some darts?" "The man is either mad, or making verses." "If you do not take yourself away in an instant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer217 at my Sabine estate."