esteem that is based upon the appreciation of literary art, but rather
gained.

It will be better to say that Horace finally came more fully into his
own. This was not because he changed. He did not change. The times
changed. The barriers of intellectual sloth and artificiality fell away,
and men became accessible to him. Virgil lost nothing of his old-time
appeal to the fancy and to the ear, but Horace's virtues also were
discovered: his distinction in word and phrase, his understanding of the
human heart. Virgil lost nothing of his charm for youth and age, but
Horace was discovered as the poet of the riper and more thoughtful mind.
Virgil remained the admired, but Horace became the friend. Virgil
remained the guide, but Horace became the companion. "Virgil," says
Oliver Wendell Holmes, "has been the object of an adoration amounting
almost to worship, but he will often be found on the shelf, while Horace
lies on the student's table, next his hand."

The nature and extent of Horace's influence upon modern letters and life
will be best brought into relief by a brief historical review. It is not
necessary to this purpose, nor would it be possible, within ordinary
limits, to enter into a detailed account. It will be appropriate to
begin with Italy.


_i_. IN ITALY

Horace did not spring immediately into prominence with the coming of the
Renaissance, whether elsewhere or in Italy. As might be expected, the
essentially epic and medieval Dante found inspiration in Virgil rather
than in Horace, though the _Ars Poetica_ was known to him and quoted