4(34 CRUCIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



derived from experience and observation : The 

 lamp of life, the gloiv of health, the warm vigour 

 of youth, the lustre of a beaming eye, the brightness 

 of fancy, the light of reason, thejire of genius, the 

 heat of passion, the chillness of age, and the cold- 

 ness of death, with a thousand others that might 

 be adduced, which are not less philosophically 

 correct than poetically beautiful. 



In the mythology of Greece, the germs of which 

 were derived chiefly from the traditions of a re- 

 mote antiquity, the solar orb was represented, 

 under the name of Apollo, as the god of health, 

 poetry, and song ; or as the grand dispenser of life, 

 and the universal Poet of nature. The harp of 

 Memnon, that responded in sweet and melodious 

 tones to the rising sun, was probably intended to 

 represent his benign agency in filling the world 

 with music and gladness. When he sheds his 

 beams upon the earth the still air begins to move, 

 and resound through the groves with gentle mur- 

 murs; while the waves of the sea re-echo with a 

 bolder song. When the sun returns from beyond 

 the equinoctial line, to recall the sleeping world 

 to a new existence, the icy bands of winter give 

 way, when the floods leap forth, and join the 

 universal chorus of the living world. The buds 

 of leaves and flowers expand ; the fields are 

 clothed with a verdant carpet ; the trees with 

 luxuriant foliage and we can almost hear the 

 fluids gushing through their veins. 



