"Horace grows dearer as the years go by. Although you young people may consider your Latin already lost, you will find that later on in life it will come back to you, and you will read Horace with growing delight," Such was the promise which Professor C. H. Moore '89 made to his hearers yesterday afternoon in the second lecture of the series on five great authors.

Professor Moore pointed out to his audience the danger of misinterpreting some of the finest of Horace's theories. "For instance," he said, "almost every student I have ever taught has told me that Quintus Horatius Flaccus originated the philosophy of 'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow ye die!'" The Professor explained that while Horace did actually "Eat, drink, and make merry," he did it with moderation, and not at all in the spirit of the familiar "quotation."

Likens Period to Present

"Roman poetic literature reached its culmination in the work of Virgil and Horace. . . . It is remarkable that Rome reached the highest peak of her literary success in a period very similar to the present one." The conditions were rendered unsettled by the "constant, actual or threatening, civil war," besides Rome's foreign troubles. Yet in this period Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace produced the greatest works of Latin literature.

In closing Professor Moore remarked that Horace's ideal was "perfection, in so far as man is able to attain perfection."

In illustration of the lecture fifty-one editions of Horace's works were placed on exhibition in the Treasure Room of the Library. Among them was one copy prepared in 1806 for the use of Harvard students, in that it was expurgated of "certain obscene expressions and allusions of this otherwise excellent author."