ttle was said about him in the Ode for which he was to pay. This
abruptness of transition was, therefore, in the Greek lyric poets, a
fault rendered inevitable by the peculiarly barren and uniform nature
of the subjects which they had to treat. But, like many other faults
of great masters, it appeared to their imitators a beauty; and a beauty
almost essential to the grander Ode. Horace was perfectly at liberty to
choose his own subjects, and to treat them after his own fashion. But he
confounded what was merely accidental in Pindar's manner with what was
essential; and because Pindar, when he had to celebrate a foolish lad
from Aegina who had tripped up another's heels at the Isthmus, made all
possible haste to get away from so paltry a topic to the ancient heroes
of the race of Aeacus, Horace took it into his head that he ought always
to begin as far from the subject as possible, and then arrive at it by
some strange and sudden bound. This is my solution. At least I can
find no better. The most obscure passage,--at least the strangest
passage,--in all Horace may be explained by supposing that he was
misled by Pindar's example: I mean that odd parenthesis in the "Qualem
Ministrum:"

quibus
Mos unde deductus per omne--.

This passage, taken by itself, always struck me as the harshest,
queerest, and most preposterous digression in the world. But there are
several things in Pindar very like it. [Orelli makes an observation,
much to the same effect, in his note on this passage in his edition of
1850.]

You must excuse all this, for I labour at present under a suppression of
Greek, and am likely to do so for at least three years to come. Malkin
may be some relief; but I am quite unable to guess whether he means to
come to Calcutta. I am in excellent bodily health, and I am recovering
my mental health; but I have been sorely tried. Money matters look well.
My new brother-in-law and I are brothers in more than law. I am more
comfortable than I expected to be in this country; and, as to the
climate, I think it, beyond all comparison, better than that of the
House of Commons.

Yours affectionately

T. B. MACAULAY.

Writing three days after the date of the foregoing letter, Macaulay
says to his old friend Mr. Sharp: "You see that my mind is not in great
danger of rusting. The danger is that I may become a mere pedant. I feel
a habit of quotation growing on me; but I resist that devil, for such
it i