Odes Horace Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882. True Virtue never knows defeat:Her robes she keeps unsullied still,Nor takes, nor quits, her curule seatTo please a people's veering will.True Virtue opens heaven to worth:She makes the way she does not find:The vulgar crowd, the humid earth,Her soaring pinion leaves behind.