1. maxime:
probably half in jest in allusion to his aspirations and promise (flower
of the house of Lollius, or the like).
2. declamas:
the technical word for the exercises practised in the study of oratory.
Praeneste:
one of the favorite retiring places or country resorts of the Romans.
3. pulchrum:
tò kalòn, tò spépon, in a technical sense for virtuous
conduct. turpe:
tò aischròn, the opposite. utile:
chrastòn, advantageous, a worthy object of desire
from a moral point of view. quid
non: áchraston, injurious. The whole
contains the sum and substance of the fundamental question of ethics.
Cf. Aristotle Nicomach, Eth. II. 2.
4. plenius:
in reference to the range of topics. melius:
in reference to clearness and convincing power.
Chrysippo: cf.
Sat. I. 3. 127 and note. Crantore:
the head of the Academic school, contemporary with Chrysippus. The
use of these distinguished examples gives the meaning, "than
any philosopher."
5. distinet:
properly, "distracts your attention," meaning, keeps you
busy, and prevents you from giving attention to philosophy.
7. barbariae:
i.e. Asia, as a foreign country to the Greeks.
8. stultorum:
and hence examples of the opposite of sapientia.
aestus,
disordered passions, with an allusion to the philosophical
idea of fever of other unsoundness in the passions.
9. Antenor:
an example of a philosopher to whom Paris refuses to listen.
praecidere: depending
on censet used in the sense of a verb of commanding.
For the reference, cf. Il. VII. 347 seq. Livy also
refers to the same story, I. 1.
10. quid
Paris: originally no doubt agit or facit
was to be supplied, but the expression becomes idiomatic, like "How
was it with Paris?" or "But Paris?"
11. componere,
etc.: cf. Il. I. 247.
13. hunc:
better taken as referring to Agamemnon, as if Horace were going to
say illum ira, but corrected it (as is indicated
by quidem) into utrumque. The love
of Agamemnon for Chryseis is the original cause of the quarrel.
14. quidquid,
etc.: i.e. there are plenty of examples of the consequences
of folly to serve as lessons.
19. domitor:
as called ptolíporthos, since it was his craft and not the
prowess of Agamemnon that took the city. Cf. Odys. I. 2,
and Cic. ad Fam. X. 13. multorum:
with hominum. providus:
a general representative of the epithets polúmatis and polútropos,
but expressing his character as well.
20. inspexit:
referring to Odys. I. 3, but here representing the hero as
improving his opportunities by studying human nature and institutions.
21. dum.
. .parat: a common form of translation of the Greek participle.
Cf. arnúmenos, Odys. I. 5.
22. pertulit,
etc.: thus showing the power of wisdom under the trying circumstances
of life.
23. Sirenum:
Odys. XII. 39 seqq. Circae:
Odys. X. 1. 36 seq.
25. turpis,
unshapely, as a beast.
26. canis:
the dog was proverbial for uncleanliness as the pig is with us. Hence
came part of the reproach to the Cynic philosophy.
27. nos,
etc.: i.e. an example that comes nearer home to us is found
in the self-indulgent Phaeacians (Odys. VIII. 11), or in
the riotous suitors of Penelope (Odys. II. 74 et al.)
numerus
(as árithmos in Greek), mere ciphers, persons of
no significance except to swell the number of mankind.
fruges, etc.:
doubtless proverbial of persons good for nothing else.
consumere: poetic
(and colloquial?) for ad consumendas.
29. cute
curanda: see Sat. II. 5. 38.
30. pulchrum:
i.e. their only ambition. Cf. pulchrum,
v. 3.
31. ad
strepitum: cf. Od. III. 1. 20.
cessantem, reluctant,
that does not come when desired on account of the want of natural
fatigue. Cf. Sat. II. 2. 80. (Another reading, cessatum.
. .curam, is approved by many editors.)
32. ut
iugulent, etc.: the description of a self-indulgent life
naturally leads to an exhortation to end it, and devote one's self
to the study of philosophy as a defence against it.
surgunt: i.e.
if cut-throats are willing to rise early to take life, how much more
should one rise early to save his own, and this rising early is a
beginning of strenuous resistance to self-indulgence.
33. expergisceris:
present for future, as in the language of comedy.
atqui: as if
the answer had been in the negative, the poet proceeds to argue the
point, hence the adversative.
34. noles
sanus: i.e. if you won't take exercise (another
effort against self-indulgence) while in good health, you will be
obliged to do so under the advice of your physician when you have
become dropsical through your sloth. Cf. Multum ambulandum, currendum
aliquid, Celsus, III. 21.
35. posces,
etc.: if you won't wake and fortify yourself against passion by the
study of philosophy, your passions will keep you awak all night by
and by.
37. nam
cur, etc.: i.e. you take instant measures against
bodily ills; why do you postpone the cure of moral affections?
40. dimidium,
etc.: an old proverb. archà gàr légetai mèn hámisu pantòs, ktl.
Plato de Legg. VI. (cf. the sentiment of Ep. I.
1. 28). aude:
have the courage, i.e. to withstand temptation,
not in reference to any risk, but merely to the pain of self-denial.
42. rusticus,
is like the countrymen who (cf. I. 1. 2, note), referring
to some well-known story.
44. quaeritur,
etc.: we keep on seeking to get more of the good things of life without
paying attention to our moral state, whereas true philosophy would
teach us that moral health is the first thing which would make all
our desired good things unnecessary and without which we cannot enjoy
them at all. argentum:
put for wealth generally. pueris
creandis: i.e. to found a family to preserve
our estates and our memory after death, an object of ambition not
sanctioned by philosophy. beata,
rich, to increase our wealth by her dowry, and by uniting
families to establish an illustrious house.
45. pacantur,
etc.: i.e. we enlarge our landed estates. All these things
are the objects of worldly ambition which become nought in the eyes
of the contented (quod satis est, etc.) sage.
47. non
domus, etc.: a familiar idea with Horace, cf. Od.
III. 1. 41 seqq. The real force, however, is in the non
animo curas, "they will not do the one any more than
the other." Cf. neque. . .nec, Od. III.5.27.
48. deduxit:
the so-called gnomic aoristic perfect, "they never did, and so
presumably they never will."
49. valeat:
in reference to both the bodily and the mental ills just spoken of,
but of course particularly to the latter. The same comparison, almost
confusion, of bodily and moral unsoundness is continued in the next
verses.
50. cogitat,
expects, like the dialectic "calculates."
51. cupit
aut metuit: referring to moral diseases, pátha,
passions.
52. fomenta:
hot water applications used by the ancients for pleasure indulgence,
but in this the deep-seated disease prevents any enjoyment.
54. sincerum,
etc.: i.e. pleasure offered to a soul disturbed by passion
is spoiled.
55. sperne,
etc.: here follows a string of general moral precepts in regard to
sensual pleasure, covetousness, envy, and anger.
58. Siculi:
the cruelty of Dionysius and Phalaris, Sicilian tyrants, passed into
a proverb.
60. dolor
et mens, angry heart, of the momentary purpose
inspired by dolor.
63. hunc
frenis, etc.: the peculiar Horatian connection of thought
is very well illustrated by this passage. The idea contained in paret,
imperat, frenis, suggests the figure of the horse trained
when a colt, and so obedient, but in the mean time the object compared
has changed in Horace's mind, and becomes not the passions to be controlled,
but the boy himself who is to be trained by himself while he is still
young and docile.
66. cervinam
pellem, etc.: it would seem that dogs were taught to
hunt by showing the hide of a deer, and teaching them to recognize
that animal as the object of their pursuit. The moral is, that men
learn their habits while young, and follow them ever after.
in aula, in
the courtyard, where the lesson is given, as in a school, before
the real hunting in the forest, which presents difficulties comparable
to those of actual life.
67. puro,
unsullied, i.e. before bad habits are formed.
68. melioribus,
cf. I. 1. 48.
70. quodsi,
etc.: in closing, Horace half-jestingly reasserts his doctrine of
the golden mean; if his pupil lingers, he himself will pursue his
even way without him, or, if in the enthusiasm of youth, the pupil
presses on, he himself will not be thrown out of his calm philosophic
spirit even in pursuit of philosophy itself. |
