To detect the more invisible sort requires the
keen eye and the sensitive spirit of the poet-scholar, but the reader
not so specially qualified may have faith that it exists. With Goethe
writing of Horace as a "great, glowing, noble poet, full of heart, who
with the power of his song sweeps us along, lifts us, and inspires us,"
with Menendez y Pelayo in Spain defining the Horatian lyric, whether
Christian or pagan, by "sobriety of thought, rhythmic lightness, the
absence of artificial adornment, unlimited care in execution, and
brevity," and holding this ideal aloft as the influence needed by the
modern lyric, and with no countries or periods without leaders in poetry
and criticism uttering similar sentiments and exhortations, it would be
difficult not to believe in a substantial Horatian effect on literary
culture, however slight the external marks.
3. HORACE IN THE LIVING OF MEN
Let us take leave of these illustrations of the dynamic power of Horace
in letters, and consider in conclusion his power as shown directly in
the living of men.
First of all, we may include in the dynamic working of the poet his
stirring of the heart by pure delight.
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