It is sometimes necessary to distinguish between the position which an author holds in the world of letters at large, and that which a nearer consideration of the circumstances of his life and times would dispose the student of history to assign him. The literary reputation of Juvenal is a case in point. The scourge of a corrupt age, the master of moral indignation, the great representative of the most original production of the Latin genius; such is the idea of Juvenal which may be said to have prevailed, and still to prevail, in the modern literary world. I am far from saying that such an estimate is false, but I think it partial and inadequate. Take Juvenal at his own estimate, assume that the pictures which he draws of contemporary life are in the main correct, study him alone and leave the younger Pliny and Quintilian and Suetonius and the inscriptions unread, and the ordinary view of Juvenal becomes the natural one. But literary criticism must in the present day be based upon history; and studied historically the position of the famous satirist will, if I am not mistaken, appear to be a peculiar and personal one, and his satires, though containing a large element of truth, to represent the partial and exaggerated views natural in such circumstances.