In the opening satire of his second book Horace makes a spirited reply to his contemporary critics. It is such an excellent example of his sprightly wit that I cannot do better than make use of a summary of this satire as the introduction to my paper. His published writings up to this date (29 b.c.) were the Epodes and the first book of the Satires, his earliest efforts, many of them composed in the grimmer period of his life when the poet had reason for depression, disillusionment, and anxiety, and before he had attained that philosophic calm which gives to the works of his maturity a mellow quality, dear to many subsequent generations of cultivated readers in all countries.