N EPIST. XVI. Ad QUINTIUM. E perconteris fundus meus, optime Quinti, Pomifne an pratis, an amictâ vitibus ulmo : 5 10 Hæ We may fuppofe, that Quintius had often rallied our Poet on the Situation, Extent and Revenues of his Eftate. After having fatisfied all his Queftions in very few Words, he throws himself into the Moral, and touches upon certain Points, probably, of much Importance to Quintius; but all is pleafing, interefting, and inftructive. The Name of Auguftus in the twenty-ninth Line is a Proof, that the Letter was written after the Year 726. SAN. Verse. 2. Opulentet.] Is purely a Country-word derived from ops, terra. It is not eafy to fay, whether Horace invented the Word, but at least he gave it Credit, and it was afterwards used by Columella. SAN. 4. Loquaciter.] Horace was apprehenfive, that a Description of ten Lines might be tedious; an Apprehenfion, fays Mr. Dacier, which ought to be an Inftruction to many of our modern Poets. Pindar boafts of having taught his cotemporary Bards to fhorten their Descriptions. A To EPIST. XVI. TO QUINTIUS. S K not, dear Quintius, if my Farm maintain With Fruits, or Meadows, or abundant Grain, Its wealthy Mafter; afk not if the Vine Around its Bridegroom-Elm luxuriant twine, A Chain of Mountains with a Vale divide, E 3 This 9. Corna vepres & pruna ferunt.] Our Poet fhews the whole Value of his Farm. Sloes and Cornels were its beft Revenue, but these are rural Wealth, and are here mentioned for Beauty and Ornament. Yet, as Mr. Dacier well obferves, they were not barren Ornaments, for Columella tells us, Cornels were pickled, and then ferved for Olives in the Country. Hæ latebræ dulces, etiam (fi credis) amœnæ, 15 20 25 Dicat: & his verbis vacuas permulceat aures : Tene magis falvum populus velit, an populum tu, Servet in ambiguo, qui confulit & tibi & urbi, Jupiter; Augufti laudes agnofcere poffis. 30 Vir 15. He latebra dulces.] Latebræ might have been a Word of Pleafantry used by Quintius in talking of our Poet's Eftate; or the Poet himself might have confidered it as a little Refuge and Retreat from the Bufinefs and Impertinence of Rome. 17. Tu rectè vivis.] Horace is here very careless of the Connexion. After having described his Farm, he would infinuate to Quintius, that the tranquil, innocent Pleasures he found there, were infinitely preferable to the dangerous and tumultuous Purfuits of Ambition. He would inform him, that Happiness, founded upon the Opinion of others, is weak and uncertain; that the Praises which we receive from a mistaken Applause, are really paid to Virtue, not to us; and that while we are outwardly honoured, efteemed, applauded, we are inwardly contemptible, and miferable. Such was, probably, the then Situation of Quintius, who disguised, under a feeming Severity of Manners, the most irregular Indulgences of Ambition and Senfuality. Singularem nequitiam fupercilio truci protegens. Some Years afterwards he broke through all Reftraint, and his Incontinence plunged him into the laft Diftreffes. This pleafing, this delicious foft Retreat In Safety guards me from September's Heat. Would you be happy, be the Thing you feem, And sure you now poffefs the World's Efteem; Nor yet to others too much Credit give, But in your own Opinion learn to live; For know the Bliss in our own Judgement lies, `And none are happy, but the Good and Wife. Nor, though the Croud pronounce your Health is good, Disguise the Fever lurking in your Blood, 'Till trembling feize you at th' unfinish'd Meal, For Fools alone their ulcer'd Ills conceal. If fome bold Flatterer footh your listening Ears, "The conquer'd World, dread Sir, thy Name reveres, "And Jove, our Guardian God, with Power divine, "Who watches o'er Rome's Happiness and thine, "Yet holds it doubtful, whether Rome or You, "With greater Warmth, each other's Good purfue." This Praife, you own, is facred Cæfar's Fame; But can you answer to your proper Name, When you are call'd th' Accomplish'd or the Wife, Names which we all with equal Ardour prize ? 21. Neu, fi te populus.] They, who fancy themselves wife and happy because they appear fo to the public Opinion, are here compared to Perfons, who are told, and therefore believe, that they are in perfect Health. They fit down to Dinner: force a fickly Appe. tite: affume a falfe Gaiety, and are almost dying, before they will contradict the civil Creatures, who affure them, they are not out of Order, 27. Tene magis faluum.] The carelefs Manner of introducing the Name of Auguftus, is not the leaft beautiful Part of this Paffages That his Glories are infeparable from those of the State, and that his Happiness confifts in loving and being beloved by his People, is the highest Praise, which can poffibly be given to a great and good Prince. Vir bonus ac prudens dici delector ego, ac tu. Qui dedit hoc hodie, cras, fi volet, auferet: ut fi 35 Pone, meum eft, inquit: pono, triftifque recedo. quis? QUINTIUS. Qui confulta patrum, qui leges, juraque fervat ; 40 HORAT. 32. Nempe vir bonus ac prudens.] The Poet fays, that a Man, who fuffers himself to believe the falfe Praises, which Flattery lavishes upon him, fhall be equally alarmed at the Crimes, imputed to him by Calumny, becaufe his Complaifance and Dejection of Spirit proceed from the fame Principle, and fhew the fame Weaknefs. But although it is not required, that a good Man fhould be infenfible to the public Opinion, yet he will rather chufe to be really virtuous, than appear fo to the World. SAN 33. Qui dedit boc bodie.] If the People were lefs inconftant and variable in the Praises they beftow, it were lefs ridiculous to court their Applause by an Appearance of Wisdom and Virtue. DAC 38. Mutemque colores.] Horace would exprefs that Variety of Changes and Colours in the Face, which often arise in a Disorder of the Paffions. Lucian has the fame Expreffion, although the Latins, in general, faid mutare colorem, as we do, to change Colour. BENT. 40. Quem, nifi mendofum, & medicandum.] Such is the Reading of the Scholiaft, of twelve Manufcripts and eight Editions. It perfectly. well agrees with the metaphorical Expreflions in the preceding Lines, fanum, valentem, febrem and ulcera, which are spoken of the Diftempers |