On the Theogony. 129 



To briug our own remarks, which have already extended to a length 

 far beyond that which we originally contemplated, to a conclusion, we will 

 only subjoin a few words on the application of the mythology which we 

 have been considering to the purposes of poetry. We have seen that this 

 mythology at once divides itself into two great classes or periods, whicii 

 we may distinguisli as the Saturnian and Jovian ages. Now the mythi 

 connected with the former of these periods, when not obviously referable 

 to allegorical representations of physical causes, are enveloped in fables 

 seeming to defy every attempt to give a probable explanation of their 

 origin, and marked by a peculiar character of obscure and uncultivated 

 wildness and horror. The materials supplied by this elder school of fiction 

 appear eminently calculated to subserve the purposes of the sublime in 

 poetry, and to impress it with a character of religious awe : for these fictions, 

 whether we receive them in their allegorical or literal acceptation, will 

 very generally be found to excite and sustain that intense elevation of 

 mind, with which our nature ever prompts us to pursue objects invested 

 in all the mysterious obscurity of remote distance and high antiquity. 

 What competent student of classical poetry is there, who must not have 

 experienced this feeling, while perusing the Prometheus and Eumenides 

 of iEschylus ? 



The character of the second class of mythological fictions, connected with 

 Jupiter and the new dynasty of Olympus, is distinguished by the superior 

 gracefulness of its forms j and as being far more intimately accommodated 

 to, and blended with, the common affairs of human society. In it we 

 no longer find gods described only as presiding over kingdoms, nations, 

 and the whole earth j but we are taught to view them as allied to par- 

 ticular families, by the closest ties of affinity and afi'ection. Meanwhile 

 not a single human virtue, and, I fear we must add, not a single human 

 vice, no condition of life, no duty of society whether military or civil, no 

 province either of nature or art, is left by this diffusive system unprovided 

 with some appropriate and specific patron, among the numerous hosts with 

 which it peoples the heavens. 



Merai 5c Otwi/ vaaai /lev Ayviai, 

 Xlaffai S' \vBpti)iTo>v ayopoi, fifsr) Se OaXaaaa 

 Kai Xifievtg. 



There's not a path but teems with deities ; 

 In each assembly and debate of men 

 They mix, and fill the seas and every port. 



Yet if from the poetical we turn to the moral effect of these systems, we 

 must acknowledge the justice of the condemnation, which Cicero has put 

 into the mouth of his representative of the Epicureans. " Ea ^[\v,v poeta- 

 rum vocibus fusa ips.l suavitate nocuerunt : qui ct irA inflammatos, ct 

 libidiiic furentes, induxerunt decs : fcceruntquc ut corum bella, pugnas. 



No. 4.— Vol. I. T* 



