buskin on the stage of life, and that each man in his time plays many
parts. Experience has begotten reflection, and reflection has
contributed in turn to experience, until contemplation has passed from
diversion to habit.

Horace is another Spectator, except that his "meddling with any
practical part in life" has not been so slight:

Thus I live in the world rather as a Spectator of mankind than as one of
the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman,
soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical
part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband, or a
father, and can discern the errors in the economy, business, and
diversion of others, better than those who are engaged in them: as
standers-by discover blots which are apt to escape those who are in the
game.

He looks down from his post upon the life of men with as clear vision as
Lucretius, whom he admires:

Nothing is sweeter than to dwell in the lofty citadels secure in the
wisdom of the sages, thence to look down upon the rest of mankind
blindly wandering in mistaken paths in the search for the way of life,
striving one with another in the contest of wits, emulous in distinction
of birth, night and day straining with supreme effort at length to
arrive at the heights of power and become lords of the world.

Farther, Horace is not merely the stander-by contemplating the game in
which objective mankind is engaged. He is also a spectator of himself.
Horace the poet-philosopher contemplates Horace the man with the same