The great minister died in the summer of 8 b.c., leaving to the emperor himself a charge with which he was not long to be burdened—"Horatii mei ut mei esto memor." The poet's health had been for some time infirm; the sore eyes which had been foremost among the torments of his friend, and a feverish restlessness, beset him. The note to Albinovanus presents a touching picture of an unhappiness which could only come to such a cheerful temper from a disordered frame. He moved from place to place, seeking rest and finding none:—
" Romæ Tibur amem ventosus, Tibure Romam."
On the 27th of November of the same year he died, leaving the whole of his fortune to Augustus, and to the world the inheritance of that monument, more stable than bronze, which he was conscious of having reared—
" Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens,
Pussit diruere, aut iunumerabilis
Annorum series."
There is little need to reiterate the universal verdict on an author who has made no enemies. Horace has contrived to live on good terms with all men in all ages. There is nothing harsh about his writings to offend, nothing exaggerated to provoke, the most cautious critic. We may turn him on what side we will, he is, like his own model, "totus teres atque rotundus." A lover of liberty in his youth, his temper led him to prefer the certainty of repose to the chance of anarchy, and he followed and soon surpassed Virgil in the task of turning men's minds to peace. His verses reflect a storm settling into a calm, "the embers of civil war burning out, society becoming crystallized into other forms," the Parthians giving back the standards of Crassus, the Vindelici and Cantabri bending to the yoke; agitations at home and abroad being lulled to rest. His satire, "un comedie un peu triste," consoles the vanquished by making them laugh, and represses the pride of the victors by exhibiting their errors without exciting their rancour. His philosophy is a sort of sad content, like that of a man warming his hands over a genial fire, and mourning that it must, by and by, burn to an end:—
" Damna tamen celeres reparant celestia lunæ
Nos ubi decidimus."
The "dies atra" is a sombre background to the festal hours of the poet. Horace's masterpieces are in grace and delicacy as far above the efforts made to emulate them in the time of Queen Anne, as Horace was himself in character removed above Pope, and in genius above Addison. No man ever lived, who knew so well how and when to say the most delicate, the most good-natured, and the wisest things. The epistles best reflect the maturity of a mind tolerant without effeminacy, dignified without coldness, at once familiar and respectful, conscious of power without a shade of jealousy. The least interesting among them is perhaps the last, known as the "Ars Poetica," in which the freedom of the poet is sometimes lost in the precision of a critical dictator deriving his rules from authority; but it preserves much of the freshness which has been lost in the French and English imitations. Horace did not live in the age when lyric poetry gushes forth "in profuse strains of unpremeditated art." His liveliest odes are adapted neither to inspire men with passionate thought, nor to move them to action; they are exquisitely cut gems, original imitations adapted from models of Greece, "non ante vulgatas per artes," and enlivened by the writer's own wisdom, and affection, and sense of beauty. We say Lucretius is the more sublime, that Catullus has a stronger wing, and Ovid a still softer flow; but we take Horace closer to our hearts, and find him more of a familiar friend—
" Nostræ deliciæ tempus in omne eritis."
The more cumbrous records of antiquity will have fallen back among the tombs from which they were gathered, when he will continue to open for us the doors of the Roman houses as they were when Virgil and Pollio walked to meet Mæcenas up the long white street, and to lead us with him through the shades of Italian valleys as they came down the hillside nineteen hundred years ago.—J. N.
HORBERY, Matthew, was the son of the vicar of Haxey, near Gainsborough, where he was born in 1707. He was first sent to a school at Gainsborough, whence he removed to Lincoln college, Oxford, after which he obtained a fellowship at Magdalen college. When he entered into orders Richard Smallbrooke, bishop of Lincoln, became his patron, and appointed him his chaplain, and also collated him to the vicarage of Eccleshall, and the curacy of Gnosall, and subsequently made him canon of Lichfield and vicar of Hanbury. He became B.D. in 1743, and D D. in 1745. His college presented him to the rectory of Stanbroke, and he died in 1773. The work by which he established his reputation was one on the "Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishments;" he also wrote animadversions upon a pamphlet entitled Christian Liberty Asserted, and published a volume of sermons of considerable merit.—B. H. C.
HOREBOUT, Gerard, a painter of Ghent employed by Henry VIII. of England. He was born about 1498, and died in London in 1558 as court painter to Philip and Mary. He painted in the style of Mabuse. A very good picture of the "Root of Jesse" by Horebout, belonging to Sir Culling Eardly, was exhibited at Manchester in 1857.—His son Lucas and his daughter Susanna were both skilful portrait-painters in England. The daughter became the wife of a sculptor named Whorstley, and died at Worcester.—Walpole calls this painter Gerard Luke Horneband.—R. N. W.
HORMAYR, Joseph, Baron von, a German historian and political character of note, was born at Innspruck on the 20th January, 1781, and died at Munich on the 5th November, 1848. After having studied the law he entered the army, and afterwards the administrative service of Austria. In 1809 he was the chief instigator and leader of the Tyrolese insurrection against Napoleon, and his scheme for the liberation and organization of Tyrol met with eminent success. In 1815 he was appointed historiographer of Austria, but in 1828 was called to Munich, where he obtained an office of the highest responsibility. Among his numerous works we mention his histories of Tyrol and of Andreas Hofer; his "Austrian Plutarch," 20 vols.; "Archives for History, Literature, and Art," 18 vols.; "History of Modern Times," 3 vols.; and his "History of Vienna," 9 vols.—K. E.
HORMISDAS, the name of several Persian kings from the third century to the sixth. Hormisdas IV. succeeded his father, Chosroes Nushirwan, in 579. He began his reign well, but yielded to passions which involved him in war with the Roman empire, provoked insurrection and revolt in his own states, and resulted in his captivity, the loss of his eyes, and assassination. The ecclesiastical history by John of Ephesus gives some interesting and original details respecting Hormisdas, and also of a pretender to his throne, who, after his detection, was sheltered by Tiberius, and became a christian. Hormisdas died in 591.
HORMISDAS, the successor of Symmachus in the bishopric of Rome, held that see from 514 till 523, the throne of Italy being still occupied by the wise and generous Theodoric, who fostered the growing wealth and influence of the papal episcopate. The prevailing party in the Eastern church, opposed to the heresy of the monophysites, induced the Byzantine emperor to reopen negotiations with Rome, and the terms which Hormisdas was permitted to dictate, secured a temporary agreement. Faustus of Rhegium, however, was not condemned by him; and the Scythian monk Maxentius, who warmly defended the doctrines of free grace, met with harder treatment at his hands than the plausible semipelagian.—W. B.
HORN, Franz Christoph, a German novelist and litterateur, was born at Brunswick, 30th July, 1781, and died 19th July, 1837, at Berlin, where since 1809 he had lived in literary retirement. His novels did not rise above the common level, and his critical and literary works—especially his "History of German Poetry" and his "Elucidations of Shakspeare"—though not without merit in their day, have long been superseded.—K. E.
HORN, Gustavus Carlsson, an eminent Swedish general who took a prominent part in the Thirty Years' war, was born in 1592. He was descended from a distinguished family, which emigrated from Flanders into Sweden about the middle of the fourteenth century. He entered the army at an early age, and after serving some time in Finland, he went to Holland to complete his military training under Maurice, prince of Orange. After his return to his own country in 1618, he was employed in various diplomatic missions, and served in several campaigns. In 1629 he captured the important town of Colberg in Pomerania. At the great battle of Leipsic in 1631 he commanded the left wing of the Swedish army under Gustavus Adolphus, and contributed greatly to the defeat of the imperialists. When Gustavus followed up his victory by marching towards the Rhine for the
