SATIN SPAR

A fibrous variety of carbonate of lime a uming a silky appearance when polished. SATIRE, in Literature, has been defined a representation of vice, or of the ridiculous, either in the form of discourse or put in dramatic action. The word satire must not be confounded as to its etymology with the satyr i of the Greeks, which were burlesque dramatic pieces, in which the persons represented a band of satyrs. (See Drama.) The modern word satire, Latin satira, is derived from the lanx satura, — a dish full of various fruits and herbs which was carried in proce ion at the feasts of Ceres. Whence the word came to signify a poem full of miscellaneous matter without orderly method; and in this sense only it was probably employed by Lucilius, the first writer of satires: although the title so usurped by him was afterwards only applied to poems of a similar character with his own, viz. containing moral reflection, interspersed with critical touches directed against real or imaginary personages. Satire, in the literary sense of the word, as designating a species of composition, is usually confined to a species of poetry; but prose works, of which the contents are of a satirical character, are often comprehended under the same appellation. Dramatic writings, also, are not satires in the stricter sense of the word, although their contents be of a satirical character. According to their subjects, satires are divided into political and moral; and these again severally subdivided into personal and general. Political satires, in almost every language, have been nearly confined to prose; the moral satire alone has found its appropriate vehicle in verse. The only Greek satirist, of whom any fragments have reached us, was Archil och us; and his attacks were evidently directed against individuals. Aris toph anes po e ed a vein of satirical power, both in the indignant and ludicrous strain, which has never been surpa ed; and his dramas contain not only sarcasms on individuals, but also political and ethical le ons of the highest value. But the moral satire, properly so called, was invented by the Romans, not only in form, but in substance also, and by them carried to perfection; and it is remarkable that the only species of Roman poetry which has any degree of originality, is that which would seem to have accorded the least with the grave and austere turn of the genuine Roman character. Of the three Roman satirists whose works have reached us, Horace, the earliest, excels in conveying moral and prudential le ons in beautiful and precise language, in light allusions to the follies or exce es of his time; sometimes, though rarely, a uming the comic character, but generally evincing more of the indefinable quality termed by us humour, than is shown by any 1082 SATURN. other cla ical writer, with the exception of Aris toph anes. Whether the various personages introduced by Horace, for the most part rather as examples to be shunned than as individuals to be held up to laughter or contempt, were intended to represent to his readers, by allusions now Undiscernible, actual characters known to them, is a matter not easily ascertainable. The same may be said with respect to Juvenal, whose selected victims are for the most part exalted or notorious personages of the generations immediately preceding his own; and it is not ascertained, although it has often been conjectured, that their names were intended to conceal those of cotemporaries of his own. Juvenal, without either wit or humour, excels in the deep tones of moral indignation befitting the scandalous exce es of the times in which he lived: his exalted notions of virtue, and even of sanctity, are so far superior to the ordinary standard of moral excellence to be drawn from cla ical writers, that it has been conjectured that he, as well as Persius, had made some acquaintance, either directly or indirectly, with the le ons of Christianity. Persius, although he occasionally rises into very elevated flights of poetry, does not afford many examples of the peculiar excellences of the satirist. In the literature of the modern nations, the fate of satire has been similar to that which has befallen many other species of composition. The name and form of the ancient satire have been preserved by many writers, who have produced, for the most part, little besides cold or exaggerated imitations of antiquity. But the true spirit of satire, in its moral beauty, its humour, and its delicate irony, has been inherited by others, who had too much originality of thought to tie down their genius to an antiquated form of writing. Thus in France, Boileau is or was generally cited as the prince of satirists: his satires are closely formed on the model of Horace, and are elegant and correct in style. Besides him, Regnier and many other writers have adopted the same line. But the true satirists of France are Rabelais, in his inimitable romances; Montaigne the e ayist, endowed with much of the delicate and harmle sarcasm of Horace; and, in later times, Voltaire. So in England, although we po e satirists of considerable merit, who have adopted the form of the ancient satire, our true national satirists are to be found among our e ayists and novel-writers. Bishop Hall, in the reign of Elizabeth, and Donne, in that of James, published collections of satires, directed partly against the actual follies or vices of their times, but too closely paraphrased, for the most part, from the Latin, to admit of much original observation. Withers, among pur early satirists, is the only other writer who is at all remembered. Among our modern poets. Pope founded his satires on the model of those of Horace, and of some of his English piedece ors. His style and train of thought were rather French than Roman. His works of this description are, in point of form, mere imitations; but they are admirable for their point and the beauty of the verse, and not unfrequently contain pungent personal allusions, without which, unfortunately, a profe ed satirist can attract little notice and produce little effect. Johnson in his two well-known imitations of Juvenal, Church ill, and Young, are the latest writers of any note who have composed in the form of the ancient satire. But of all these writers, not one po e es a genuine or national character, except perhaps Church ill; while Swift, Fielding, ., are, in our literature, what Horace and Juvenal were in those of the Romans, — the painters of existing manners, and the representatives of public opinion respecting them. The literary satire may, perhaps, be mentioned as a separate species of composition, containing cither rules of writing, or critical observations on the defects of individual writers. Some of Horace's satires and epistles (as well as his Ars Poetic a) belong exclusively, others partially, to this cla ; and have given birth to a series of similar productions, down to the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers of Lord Byron. (See as to the Roman satire, Qtiart. Rev. vol. lii.; Mem. de VAc. des Inscr. vol. xxxix.) [s. 1095]