lessness of a casual conversation, in the course of which, however, he himself finds an opportunity, as it were by chance, and as if between themselves alone, to disclose in confidence to Trebatius, his private opinion of one and another, which was partly designed for quite different persons.

In order to feel the beauty of this piece to its full extent, as far at least as that is possible at present, we must previously have made ourselves acquainted with the character of Trebatius through the medium of Cicero's letters to him which are still extant*. The dialogue itself will be the more perspicuous, the more distinct and lively the knowledge we have of the interlocutor. We then behold as it were the gesture, the looks, the tone with which he utters every word; and who can need to be told, how totally different in signification the very same words frequently are, when pronouneed with one or another modulation of voice, accompanied with such, or a contrary motion of the eyes, lips, &c.? Caius Trebatius Testa, sprung from a good family, though it always remained in obscurity, of the equestrian order, appears to have been the first of his name, who felt impulse and capacity to distinguish himself in the world. To a young man, destitute both of credit and fortune, only two avenues were open at Rome to either, the law, and the army. Trebatius made choice of the former, and thus becoming acquainted with Cicero, was so successful in his assiduities as in early life to secure to himself the protection of that great man, and had the art, no less by his industry and abilities than by the charms of his converse, to render himself so agreeable and estimable to him, that of all his humble friends there was scarcely one in whose behalf, from real attachment alone, he made such earnest applications, and in whose success he took so cordial an interest. Trebatius was in the prime of life, when Cicero, in the year 699, recommended him to Julius Cæsar, who (as every one knows) was then, as proconsul of Gaul, making

hasty strides to the completion of the great plan he had been regularly prosecuting all his life. Gaul, and a place amongst Cæsar's comites, was at that juncture, a gold mine in the contemplation of all young folks who wanted to make their fortune; without being too scrupulous about the means. Trebatius was not cold and insensible to this shining bait; ou the contrary, he had an eager desire to take the short road to opulence; but he appears to have been too heedless, too impatient, andwhat some would perhaps call too honest, for pushing his fortune, by a zealous and entire devotion to his new patron, as far as in his power lay. The truth is, in the temper and disposition of Trebatius, there were several points in which he resembled Cicero; he had not fortitude enough always to act, altogether and without capitulation and conditions, according to his conviction; though he had the principles of integrity. Whenever he was attracted towards the contrary side, he uniformly vacillated back again to his natural propensity, and there were propositions to which he could not be determined by any prospect of advantage. Hence it was, that notwithstanding the various obligations he was under to the mighty Casar, yet at the breaking out of the civil war, without assisting the republic in any way by it, he improvidently found himself engaged, together with his old and first patron, Cicero, in the Pompeian faction, and therefore, presently after, in the necessity of leaving his fate to the vaunted Clementia Cæsaris. He was not, however, deceived in his calculation. Cæsar forgave him; and Trebatius, to whom (as it appears) this event was a lesson of prudence for the rest of his life, henceforth addicted hiself entirely to his former profession without meddling any farther with matters of state, excepting that in the year 706 he personated a very harmless popular tribune. He was, to judge from the familiar and jocose style of Cicero's letters to him, and the many clear indications they containt; a man of activity and enterprise,

with a high flow of spirits and a jovial disposition, and appears (as Melmoth observes) to have had in his youth somewhat more of the character of a man of the world, and agreeable companion, than befitted the gravity of his profession. Cicero therefore frequently rallies him on his juristery, in a strain that might have entirely ruined the credit of his friend with his clients, if he had not as often repaired the mischief by other passages of a serious nature, and particularly recommended him to Cæsar in expressions which only a man of extraordinary worth could deserve*. That conjunction of sold and useful, with agreeable qualities, that application to business associated with wit and sprightliness in conversation, it was, that in the sequel, raised him so high in the favour and esteem of the young Cæsar, that he was regularly consulted in all weighty affairs that hinged on points of law. It is therefore unquestionable that, for the same reasons, he lived in amicable connexion with Mæcenas, that this intimacy brought our poet acquainted with him, and that, notwithstanding their disparity of aget, the similarity and unison of their disposition and humour placed them on that familiar footing toge ther, which is exhibited to us through the whole of this entertaining dialogue. For, on such a footing they must have stood together, if it be at all conceivable, that Horace could make a man of Trebatius's public character and consequence the interlocutor in such a conference. But, no sooner do we presuppose this circumstance, and the jovial humour of the old lawyer, than we have the true point of view from which this piece should be contem

*

plated. All then appears in its natu ral light; we understand both Trebatius and the poet; we are no longer puzzled here and there at expressions which, only to him who has not comprehended the genius and spirit of the whole, can appear problematical; and we wonder how so many commentators, engrossed with verbal criticism, could so perversely mistake this spirit, and how even the learned Cru quius could adopt the supposition, that Horace, on account of an unfavourable judgment that Trebatius had passed upon his satires, intended to give him a secret wipe. We rather on the direct contrary perceive, that with all their pretended difference of opinion, they are at the bottom in a perfectly good understanding together, and although the bard, (as is the manner of all those who, on affairs in which every man must follow his own advice, apply to others for theirs) had already taken his resolution before hand, ere he asks his adviser what he should do; yet at least he could have consulted no other oraculum juris, from whom he was more sure of being dismissed at last with the pleasing decision:

Solventur risu tabulæ, tu missus abibis. Ter, uncti corpus habento!] Horace humorously makes Trebatius, as a learned counsellor, deliver his advice with affected solemnity in the authoritative style of a prætorian edict transnanto! — habento ! — Dacier at this place observes, from a passage in the fifth of Cicero's letters to Trebatius (Famil. vii. 10. where he is termed studiosissimus homo natundi) that Trebatius here speaks as an old lover of swimming, and recommends to Horace his favourite diætetic remedy as

a pa

a panacea which would infallibly cure him of the poetic itch. To me it appears extremely probable that Trebatius was a lover both of bathing in the Tiber, and of old wine, and that the poet jocosely alludes to both. Many such particular touches, which derive all their facetia from local and personal circumstances, are undoubt edly couched in this and several other pieces, which to us are as good as lost. Cupidum, pater optime, vires, &c.] This excuse which Horace so frequently avails himself of, I think I have placed in its proper point of view, in the introduction to the epistle to Augustus. Here we cannot fail to observe the particular ingenuity, with which (for the purpose of avoiding the bad appearance of a bare evasion) he as it were forces himself into the dilemma, by putting this objection into the mouth of Trebatius: "If then thou hast no talent for heroic poesy, what hinders thee from celebrating the great qualities which Cæsar displays in peace?"— To such an objection no other salvo remained but that which he gives in reply: I should not be backward in so doing, when the proper time and opportunity arrive. The fact was, the Romans began with some reason to expect, that Cæsar Octavianus, by a mild and wise administration in peace, would efface the remembrance of what he had been during the triumvirate. But that remembrance was still too fresh, and that hope too fallacious to excite a vehement passion in the breast of any houest Roman to praise and extol the successful usurperas fortem et justum, that is, precisely for those virtues, in diametrical opposition to which he had been manifestly acting but a few years before. All in good time. Octavianus must first have learnt to play with greater ease and propriety, the new part, which Mæcenas and Agrippa were tutoring him to perform. At present such panegyrics would wear too much the appearance of flattery for being really flattering to him; and from whose mouth would such strains sound more suspicious, than from one who, six or seven years ago had borne arms against him? At that circumstance the poet seems to give a gentle hint in the words, nisi dextro tempore Flacci verba, &c.

recalcitrat undique tutus.] This metaphorical expression taken

from a wild unbroke horse deserves notice as an instance how different the notions of propriety and decorum are in different ages and with different nations. It would ill become a modern poet to use it, notwithstanding J.Matthias Gesner thinks that kings are fond of being compared to horses. This whole passage, from the twelfth to the twentieth line, may be alleged, in my opinion, as a very striking proof of the little inclination and disposition, Horace had to recommend himself to Octavianus by the arts of adulation since even on this so gratifying an occasion (for Trebatius probably acts here only as the spokesman of the public) he could not bring himself to say any thing obliging, so far from flattering, even but incidentally, to one who, with all his authority and power, acted so equivocal a part in the Roman government.

Votiva tabella.] The votive tablets, with which we still see in our days, the Roman Catholic churches garnished, especially in petty towns and villages, are best adapted to give us an idea of these tabula votiva, which in the times of paganism, superstitious persons who attributed their deliverance from any imminent danger to the immediate assistance of some particular deity whom they had invoked in the hour of their distress, were wont to testify their gratitude. The poor blind heathens had likewise their consecrated places, and miraculous images; they made vows to them when groaning under affliction, which they paid on being relieved from it, by votive tablets, waxen, silver or golden arms, legs, eyes, breasts, &c. As these votive paintings, with which principally the temples and chapels of the marine deities were richly hung, were mostly put up by common people, and daubed by wretched painters, at a moderate price; it is no wonder, that, together with other errors against good taste, they transgressed the rule of the unity of the subject represented. Frequently, therefore

on the same tablet was to be seen at one end of the fore-ground the credulous votary going on shipboard; in the middle ground buffeting the billows in a violent storm; on another plan suffering shipwreck; on another again upon the top of a prodigious wave, with uplifted bands making vows to Neptune, and lastly, at the.

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