translation. I have omitted four Odes altogether, one in each Book, and
some stanzas of a fifth; and in some other instances I have been
studiously paraphrastic. Nor have I thought it worth while to extend my
translation from the Odes to the Epodes. The Epodes were the production
of Horace's youth, and probably would not have been much cared for
by posterity if they had constituted his only title to fame. A few of
them are beautiful, but some are revolting, and the rest, as pictures
of a roving and sensual passion, remind us of the least attractive
portion of the Odes. In the case of a writer like Horace it is not easy
to draw an exact line; but though in the Odes our admiration of much
that is graceful and tender and even true may balance our moral
repugnance to many parts of the poet's philosophy of life, it does not
seem equally desirable to dwell minutely on a class of compositions
where the beauties are fewer and the deformities more numerous and more
undisguised.

I should add that any coincidences that may be noticed between my
version and those of my predecessors are, for the most part, merely
coincidences. In some cases I may have knowingly borrowed a rhyme, but
only where the rhyme was too common to have created a right of
property.




PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.


I am very sensible of the favour which has carried this translation
from a first edition into a second. The interval between the two has