world was no longer young, no longer fresh and fair and hopeful;
it had passed through ages of war and misery, it was harassed by
doubt, the general feeling was what we would now call pessimistic, and
a resigned melancholy, a keen sense of there being something wrong in
the universe, can be felt in every line of Virgil, and there are tears
in his voice.

In person Virgil was tall, his complexion dark, and his appearance
that of a rustic. He was modest, retiring, loyal to his friends. The
liberality of Maecenas and Augustus had enriched him, and he left a
considerable property and a house on the Esquiline Hill. He had troops
of friends, all the accomplished men of the day; he was quite free
from jealousy and envy, and of amiable temper. No one speaks of him
except in terms of affection and esteem. He used his wealth liberally,
supporting his parents generously, and his father, who became blind in
his old age, lived long enough to hear of his son's fame and feel the
effects of his prosperity.

HORACE

By J. W. MACKAIL

(65-8 B.C.)

[Illustration: Horace.]

Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace], Latin poet and satirist, was born
near Venusia, in Southern Italy, on December 8, 65 B.C. His father was
a manumitted slave, who as a collector of taxes or an auctioneer had
saved enough money to buy a small estate, and thus belonged to the
same class of small Italian freeholders as the parents of Virgil.
Apparently Horace was an only child, and as such received an education
almost beyond his father's means; who, instead of sending him to
school at Venusia, took him to Rome, provided him with the dress and
attendance customary among boys of the upper classes, and sent him to
the best masters. At seventeen or eighteen he proceeded to Athens,
then the chief school of philosophy, and one of the three great
schools of oratory, to complete his education; and he was still there
when the murder of Julius Caesar, March 15, 44 B.C., rekindled the
flames of civil war.

In the autumn of this year, Brutus, then propraetor of Macedonia,
visited Athens while levying troops. Horace joined his side; and such
was the scarcity of Roman officers, that though barely twenty-one, and
totally without military experience, he was at once given a high
commission. He was present at the battle of Philippi, and joined in
the general fight that followed the republican defeat; he found his
way back to Italy, and apparently was not thought important