Ares, from the destruction of war; the Hindus, Kartiguna and Seanda, or the leader of the celestial armies. He had a sister called Bellona, who is also called the goddess of war. He was represented on foot in armor; and when in a chariot he was drawn by two horses called Flight and Terror; Discord leads the way in front: Clamor and Outrage follow in the rear; his chariot is driven by Bellona, who lashes the horses with a torch; and he holds in either hand a javelin and a sword.

2. What is the mythology of Vulcan ?

A. This god though reduced, by the freedom which men take even with the gods, to a secondary rank, was in the early stages of mythology a deity of the first order. He was the Phita of the Egyptians, which the Greeks expressed Ephiastos, and the Romans Vulcan; he is the same as the Hindu god Viswarcarma, who like the Greek God was reduced to the rank of a mere mechanical God. The true origin of Vulcan was the same as that of Jupiter, he repre-sented fire or heat, one of the most active principles of nature, by which the world has been enriched with the works of genius and art. He erected the palace of the immortal Gods, and forged the weapon of Jupiter, the symbol of omnipotence; he is represented as a deformed lame old man, occupied in a forge, with a long beard, a round blue cap or tonsure on his head. He is called also Mulciber; he was the father of Cupid by Venus, of Cacus, and of Cecrops. His forge was supposed to be under Mount Etna, and the Cyclops his workmen; he forged the shield of Achilles, the collar of Hermione, and the sceptre of Agamemnon; to him is at

tributed the manufacture of Pandora's Box. He was betrothed to Minerva, but she rejected him; he was married to Venus.

2. Give me some account of Venus and the rest of the family of love?

A. Venus. Cupid, Hymen and the Graces.... Matter modified in its most beautiful form was called Venus; the most exquisite emotions are excited by her presence; she displays her cestus. ....she disarms the god of war, dissipates storms, and arrests even thunder; at her appearance the earth becomes calm, and multitudes of beings yield to her influence and propagate their kind. Cupid or Love was held to be her son, though he accompanied her from her birth; the Graces or Charities are her attendants....Aglaia, from her virtue and cheerfulness, Thalia from her perpetual bloom of youth, and Euphrosyne from her liberality and vivacity. Cupid is re presented as a boy void of experience, naked because love has nothing of his own, blind because love cannot see faults. Hymen presides over marriage, is a young man crowned with sweet marjoram and roses, denoting that marriage should be early; in one hand he carries a torch, indicating the purity of connubial love, and in the other a flame colored veil, representing the blushes of modesty. Cupid was called Eros, by the Greeks, and Manmadin by the Hindus, by whom Venus was callen Bhavani and Kha madera.

CLASS VIII....LESSON. X.

OF MYTHOLOGY.

2. PROCEED with your account....Who is Mercury?

A. The history of this God shews how subtle is the allegorical mythology of the ancients; his parents were Jupiter and Maia; he is the messenger of the Gods, the patron of travellers, orators, merchants, and thieves; his name is derived a Mercibus; he is the Hermes of the Greeks; the Nared and Bhudda of the Hindus, who attribute to him the invention of writing, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy. The allegorical divinity of Mercury is to be traced into his attributes, and are various. The use of speech must have preceded society. When letters were discovered, they must have excited great reverence for the inventor. The divisions of the ground among families gave rise to geometry, which being written was naturally attributed to the same author. The study of the stars had a similar reference. His attire the winged cap, or petasus, the wings or talari to his feet, indicate the rapidity of the mind, and that writing superceded oral communication at immense distances; his caduceus is the symbol of astronomy, the rod represents the equator, the two serpents the oblique progress of the sun in the ecliptic. He was called Thot by the Egyptians, and on the pedestal of his statue was written the number 36,525, understood to refer to the Egyptian year which consisted originally of 360 days; they attributed to Thot, or