He laughs
with some purpose and to some purpose, but his laughter is not sardonic.
Sane judgment and generous experience tell him that the foibles of
mankind are his own as well as theirs, and are not to be changed by so
slight a means as a railing tongue. He reflects that what in himself has
produced no very disastrous results may without great danger be forgiven
also in them.
It is this intimate and warming quality in Horace that prompts Hagedorn
to call him "my friend, my teacher, my companion," and to take the poet
with him on country walks as if he were a living person:
Horaz, mein Freund, mein Lehrer, mein Begleiter,
Wir gehen aufs Land. Die Tage sind so heiter;
and Nietzsche to compare the atmosphere of the _Satires_ and _Epistles_
to the "geniality of a warm winter day"; and Wordsworth to be attracted
by his appreciation of "the value of companionable friendship"; and
Andrew Lang to address to him the most personal of literary letters; and
Austin Dobson to give his Horatian poems the form of personal address;
and countless students and scholars and men out of school and immersed
in the cares of life to carry Horace with them in leisure hours.
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