letter is called out by Lollius' appointment
as confidential secretary to some man of great consequence; an office
such as Horace himself declined when offered by Augustus. The post,
he says, is full of difficulty, and endangering to self-respect: the
servility it exacts will be intolerable to a man so truthful, frank, and
independent as his friend. Let him decline it; or, if committed, get out
of it as soon as possible.

Epistles there are without a moral purpose, called forth by some
special occasion. He sends his "Odes" by one Asella for presentation
to Augustus, punning on the name, as representing an Ass laden with
manuscripts (Ep. I, xiii). The fancy was carried out by Pope in his
frontispiece to the "Dunciad." Then his doctor tells him to forsake
Baiae as a winter health resort, and he writes to one Vala, who lives in
southern Italy, inquiring as to the watering places lower down the coast
(Ep. I, xv). He must have a place where the bread is good and the water
pure; the wine generous and mellow; in the market wild boars and hares,
sea-urchins and fine fish. He can live simply at home, but is sick
now and wants cherishing, that he may come back fat as one of the
Phaeacians--luxurious subjects, we remember, of King Alcinous in the
"Odyssey,"

Good food we love, and music, and the dance,
Garments oft changed, warm baths, and restful beds.

Odyssey, viii, 248.

Julius Florus, poet and orator, presses him to write more lyrics
(Ep. II, ii). For many reasons, no, he answers. I no longer want money.
I am getting old. Lyrics are out of fashion. No one can write in Rome.
I have become fastidious. His sketch of the ideal poet is believed to
portray the writings of his friend Virgil. It is nobly paraphrased
by Pope:

But how severely with themselves proceed
The men, who write such verse as we can read!
Their own strict judges, not a word they spare,
That wants or force, or light, or weight, or care;
Pour the full tide of eloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong;
Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine,
But show no mercy to an empty line;
Then polish all with so much life and ease,
You think 'tis nature, and a knack to please;
But ease in writing flows from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.

The "Epistle to Augustus" (Ep. II, i) was written (page 28) at the
Emperor's request. After some conventional compliments it passes to a
critici