sing of railroads, and of postoffice romances, for
there were none ; but he sat behind the desk where
he should have been making up accounts for the
treasury of the Caesars, and scratched out dreamy
odes, and witty odes, concerning the hours which
he should spend in his country villa, —fond hours
spent in pruning his vines, superintending his
slaves, and entertaining his friends over a capon
and a flask of Falernian. He sang too of other
pleasures, of the strong friendships between man
and man, which so ennobled his own intercourse
with Maecenas and Augustus; he sang of laugh
ing eyes, and red lips, but Roman as he was, nev
er appreciated the sublime joys of domestic at
tachment. He was a moralist too, simple in his
tastes, and frugal in temperament j but his phil
osophy was light and careless, and only occasion
ally does a strain of misgiving and inquiry digni
fy his song. i
He never reached those serener heights upon
which his great contemporary and friend, Vergil,
moved, and which Wordsworth, Tennyson and
Emerson have attained in our day; and on the
other hand was not a tailor-made poet like Pope,
or Dryden, or Tupper, or (shall we say it?) Low
ell, and smaller fry such as Lang and Fawcett. I
think of all modern poets Heine, and Walt Whit
man most resemble him, except that Heine was
a cynic, and Whitman had the instinct, but not the
ability, to write poetry.
The life of the poet Horace was uneventful.
His father was a well to do freedman, a tax col
lector and merchant, who lived at the little town
of Venusia, and here the poet was born B. C. 65.
A liberal education was given to him by his
father, who sent him to a noted teacher in Rome,
and then to Athens, where he studied the language
and philosophy of Greece with ardor. After this
he fought bravely in the cause of Brutus at Philip
pi, but yielded to the situation when the empire
was established, and finally became its servant by
securing an office in the Treasury department.
Maecenas, the great patron of art and literature,be
came his friend, and Augustus himself learned to
THE FREE LANCE.
love him. His remaining years were spent in
tranquillity, and were devoted to composition of
the poems which to a degree made the Augustan
age, the golden age of Roman literature.
This edition, like all of the Chase and Stuart
series is excellent in every particular, and can be
recommended to all, who have tasted the honey
of antiquity. t.
O 0 LJOB
—Dr. Fernald is now working upon the devel
opment of the cabbage butter fly.
—The members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity
have moved into their new chapter house.
—Dr. and Mrs. Atherton gave a reception to
the faculty, at their home, Friday evening, Oct. 7.
—The Friday Club held its first meeting of this
term at the home of Professor Buckhout, Sept. 30.
—Mr. Charles Atherton’s fine large collec
tion of bird eggs has been donated to the museum.
—C. W. Burkett was recently elected manager
of the second foot ball team and W. A. Moore,
captain.
—There are at present 252 students enrolled, —
a gain of 20 over the number at the same time
last year.
—A temperance lecture was delivered in the
college chapel, Oct. 12, under the auspices of the
Prohibition club of this place.
—The present indications are that we shall play
the E. E. G. of Pittsburg Nov. 5, at Pittsburg, and
Bucknell Nov. 12 on our home grounds.
—The Senior class spent a pleasant and profit
able afternoon on Oct. 11, geologizing about the
country at Shingletown and Boalsburg.