"Plutarch, a devout and yet a liberal believer, "when he went to study theology and philo"sophy at Delphi: with what feelings must "he not have passed along the woody paths "of the hill, approaching nearer every instant "to the presence of the divinity, and not "sure that a glance of light through the "trees was not the lustre of the god himself "going by. This is mere Poetry to us, and 66 very fine it is; but to him it was Poetry, "and Religion, and Beauty, and gravity and "hushing awe, and a path as from one World "to another."

Jupiter was the god of gods, and the ruler of the World. Neptune presided over the mighty and glorious Ocean. Venus over Love and Beauty, aided by the Graces in her girdle, and the rosy Boy whom she clasps to her heart.

Bacchus bestows

Bacchus bestows upon Man

fancy-creating and heart-upholding Wine.

Diana accompanies the manly and invigorating Chase. Flowers, that gem and glitter in the bright Spring and Summer, upon the rich and teeming lap of bounteous Mother Earth, are the loved and admired tears of Aurora, who is the goddess of Morning. The fresh air which we inhale, and which we now term the breath of God, was then the breath of the gentle Zephyrs. The Naiads sigh forth their murmurs across the bosom of the Summer Sea. Ceres watches over the Corn-fields, until they be golden and ripe for the Sickle of the ruddy Husbandmen. Pomona weighs down the freighted boughs of Fruit-trees with a rich and lusty load, and thickly spangles with many colours the bushes and beds beneath and around those trees with varieties of tempting Fruits. Every planet, from the gorgeous and effulgent Sun, and the calm, pale, gentle Moon, to the smallest Star that

glistens, diamond-like, in the vast Heavens, is a divinity. What luxuriant and delightful fancy-what" pleasing errors of the mind”! What a vast World of charming illusions, which have hitherto, and will unto the end of time, enrich the Literature and Art of every land. What inexhaustible hoards of ideal pleasures, "well fitted to compensate, in a measure, for the real troubles and miseries of the World in which we live." We can give but small sympathy to a Nature incapable of appreciating such mental riches.

Apollo, the son of mightiest Jupiter, was the god who presided over the divine art of Song or Poesy.

The glorious god of soul-upraising Song
To whom the lays of all the World belong
For evermore.

We cannot better close our observations

upon the poetry of the Ancient Mytho

logy, than with the following beautiful lines from Coleridge's wonderful translation of "Wallenstein."

"For fable is Love's world, his home, his birth

place;

Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talismans,
And spirits; and delightedly believes
Divinities, being himself divine.

The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,

The power, the beauty, and the majesty,
That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain,

Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring,

Or chasms and wat'ry depths; all these have

vanished;

They live no longer in the faith of Reason!"

CHAPTER XII.

Its presence shall uplift the thoughts from Earth,

As to the sunshine, and the pure bright air,

Their tops the green trees lift.

Longfellow.

GENERAL CONCLUSION, CONTAINING "FLOW YE ON, for EVER FLOW," A POEM.

N conclusion, we reiterate our firm belief and conviction, that true Poetry

has an elevating and ever-increasing influence-like a soul-upraising Fountain of pure glory-that has permeated the World since. Creation. We reiterate our faith in the immensely preponderating practical good, achieved by the Ideal, over that which has resulted from the Actual. We reiterate our faith in the Godliness of true and Philosophical Poetry, and yearn to live in that condition of spirit indicated by Coleridge, in the paragraph upon Universal Existence which we have quoted.