Heathen mythology, Illustrated by extracts from the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern. Various

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D E S T I N Y.

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      We have already seen that the decrees of Destiny, or Fate, were superior even to the will of Jupiter, as the King of the Gods could not restore Proserpine to her mother, Destiny having decreed otherwise. But of this being, as possessing a place among the heroes of mythology, we are left in considerable ignorance. Scarcely knowing even if he were a God, or only the name or symbol whereby to represent an immutable and unchangeable law. In the antique bas-reliefs he is often to be seen, with a bandage over his eyes, and near him an open book which the gods alone might consult: and in which are written those events which must inevitably come to pass, and which all are so anxious to discover.

      "Thou power which all men strive to look into!

      Thou power which dost elude all human search!

      To thee alone is given the right to gaze

      Into the fate prepared for all who live.

      Oh! wilt thou ne'er unlock thine iron bars,

      Oh! wilt thou ne'er enable us to look

      Into the volume clasped at thy right hand?

      The past is known to us, and doth contain

      So much of evil and so little good,

      So much of wrong, and oh! so little right,

      So much of suffering, and so little peace,

      That we would fain turn o'er the leaves which speak

      Of future things to our sore troubled souls.

      Yet no! perchance the burden is too much,

      And is in mercy hidden from our eyes.

      Earth is made up of so much care and woe,

      The past, the present, and the future known,

      Would sink us into deep and desperate sorrow."

A P O L L O.

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      This Deity, whose name still lives with us, as the presiding divinity of the art of song, was the son of Jupiter, by the beautiful Latona, daughter of the Titan, Cœus. Asteria, her sister, disdaining the embraces of the God, threw herself into the sea, and was changed into the isle which bears the name of Delos; where Latona afterwards sought refuge from the fury of Juno, when about to overwhelm her, for her frailty with her husband. The irritated Goddess, to punish Latona for her crime, excited against her the serpent Python, who pursued her wheresoever she went; until at last, in the Isle of Delos, alone and unfriended, bearing in her bosom the fruit of her weakness, she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Weary of her confinement, and wishing to return to her father Cœus, she arrived near his dominions, where, fatigued with her journey, she begged a drop of water from the peasants, whose cruel refusal to aid her she punished by changing them into frogs.

      

      "The Goddess came, and kneeling on the brink,

      Stooped at the fresh repast, prepared to drink:

      Then thus, being hindered by the rabble race,

      In accents mild expostulates the case:

      'Water I only ask, and sure 'tis hard

      From Nature's common rights to be debarred.

      This, as the genial sun, and vital air,

      Should flow alike to every creature's share;

      One draught, as dear as life I should esteem,

      And water, now I thirst, would nectar seem:

      Oh! let my little babes your pity move,

      And melt your hearts to charitable love:

      They (as by chance they did) extend to you

      Their little hands, and my request pursue!'

      Yet they the goddess's request refuse,

      And, with rude words, reproachfully abuse.

      Her thirst by indignation was suppressed;

      Bent on revenge, the Goddess stood confessed!

      'And СКАЧАТЬ