Why should I rear some hall sublime to Rome's last taste refined, With pillared doors' which never ope but envy enters in? Oh, why for riches, wearier far, Exchange my Sabine vale? 1 'Postibus invidendis.' 'Postes' were the jambs, columns, or pilasters that flanked the entrance door, and the word is often used for the door itself. I do not know of any authority for interpreting 'postes' as the rows of pillars within the atrium' itself, which some commentators are inclined to do. I ask indulgence for my paraphrase of invidendis. Cur invidendis postibus et novo Cur valle permutem Sabina ODE II. THE DISCIPLINE OF YOUTH. As in the preceding ode the virtue of contentment is enforced, so this commences with enjoining that early training in simple and hardy habits which engenders the spirit of content, because it forms the mind betimes to disdain luxury. To bear privation' as a friend—to love its wholesome stint, Train the youth nerved by hardy sports which form the school of war, A rider dread, with practised spear, To harry Parthian foes, Inured to danger and to days beneath unsheltered skies. On him from high embattled walls of kings at war with Rome, Matron and ripening maid shall gaze, And inly sigh, 'Alas! 'O never may our princely lord in arms unskilled, provoke Yon lion whom 'twere death to touch; by the fell rage for blood, Where most the slaughters thicken round, Hurried, in rapture, on !' Glorious and sweet it is to die-when for our native land ;' Ev'n him who runs away from Death, Death follows fast behind Death does not spare the recreant back, And hamstrings limbs that flee. Pauperiem.' It is difficult here, as elsewhere, to find an English word that correctly renders the sense of 'pauperies.' In this passage I can think of no better word than privation,' interpreted as the luxury. Discipline of this kind is the foundation of courage, love of country, the independence of character which loves virtue for its own sake, and the self-restraint which is essential to social good faith and honour. CARM. II. Angustam amice pauperiem1 pati Vexet eques metuendus hasta, Vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat Prospiciens et adulta virgo Suspiret, Eheu, ne rudis agminum Per medias rapit ira cædes. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori :2 privation of luxuries. Poverty would be here wholly inapplicable, this ode being addressed, with the one that precedes and the three that follow it, to youths quite as much of the richer classes as of the poorer. 'Robustus acri militia puer:' I take robustus' with 'militia'the boy made robust by martial exercise and discipline. Among the Romans, the age for military exercise began at seventeen. ''Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.' 'In Horace's mind there was a close connection between the virtue of frugal contentment and devotion to one's country.'-MACLEANE. Virtue ne'er knows of a defeat which brings with it disgrace;' The blazon of her honours ne'er the breath of men can stain; Her fasces she nor takes nor quits As veers the popular gale. Virtue essays her flight through ways to all but her denied ; To those who do not merit death she opes the gates of heaven, And, spurning vulgar mobs and mire, Soars with escaping wing. There is a silence unto which a safe reward is due. With him whose tongue the sacred rites of Ceres blabs abroad, May I ne'er sit beneath a roof, Nor launch a shallop frail ! For Jove neglected oft confounds the good man with the bad; And though avenging Punishment is lame indeed of foot, Yet rarely lags she long behind ''Virtus, repulsæ nescia sordidæ, The meaning of these lines has been much disputed, but seems to me sufficiently clear. The point is in the epithets, sordidæ,' 'intaminatis.' It cannot be truly said that Virtue is ignorant or unconscious of a defeat or rejection ('repulsæ' applies to the defeat at a popular election (a)), but it is said truly that Virtue knows not any such defeat as can disgrace her (sordida). The honours that Virtue seeks are distinguished from civil honours, insomuch as the latter, being conceded by the people or the state, are by the people or the state to be reversed or sullied; but (a) Thus, in the Epistles, I. i. 42, Horace says, 'Vides, quæ maxima credis Esse mala, exiguum censum turpemque repulsam ;' which Macleane, referring to 'repulsæ- sordida' of this ode, interprets quaintly, 'He who would secure an election must have a command of money.' |