Just a soft hint of singing, to beguile

A man from all his toil;

Some vanished gleam of beckoning arm, to spoil

A morning's task with longing, wild
and vain.

Then if across the parching plain
He seek her, she with passion burns
His heart to fever, and he hears
The west wind's mocking laughter
when he turns,

Shivering in mist of ocean's sullen
tears.

It is the Medicean: well I know The arts her ancient subtlety will show,

The stubble field she turns to ruddy

gold;

The empty distance she will fold In purple gauze; the warm glow. she has kissed

Along the chilling mist:

Cheating and cheated love that grows to hate

And ever deeper loathing, soon or late.

Thou, too, O fairer spirit, walkest here

Upon the lifted hills:

Wherever that still thought within

the breast

The inner beauty of the world hath moved;

In starlight that the dome of evening fills;

On endless waters rounding to the

west:

For them who thro' that beauty's

veil have loved

The soul of all things beautiful

the best.

For lying broad awake, long ere the dawn,
Staring against the dark, the blank of space
Opens immeasurably, and thy face

Wavers and glimmers there and is withdrawn.
And many days, when all one's work is vain,
And life goes stretching on, a waste gray plain,
With even the short mirage of morning gone,
No cool breath anywhere, no shadow nigh
Where a weary man might lay him down and die,
Lo! thou art there before me suddenly,

With shade as if a summer cloud did pass,

And spray of fountains whispering to the grass.

Oh, save me from the haste and noise and heat

That spoil life's music sweet:

And from that lesser Aphrodite there

Even now she stands

Close as I turn, and O my soul, how fair!"

$ 41. Mercury (Hermes), born in a cave of Mount Cyllene in

Arcadia, was the son of Jupiter and Maia

conjecture, his name Hermes means the Hastener. Mercury, swift as the wind, was the servant and herald of Jupiter and the other gods. On his feet, his shoulders, and his low-crowned, broadbrimmed petasus, or hat, were wings. As messenger of Heaven, he bore a

wand (caduceus) of wood or of gold, twined with snakes and surmounted by wings, and possessed of magical powers over sleeping, waking, and dreams. He was beautiful, and ever in the prime of youthful vigor. To a voice sweettoned and powerful, he added the persuasiveness of eloquence. But his skill was not confined to speech: he was, also, the first of inventors to him are ascribed the lyre, the syrinx, and the flute. He was the forerunner, too, of mathematicians and astronomers. His agility and strength made him easily prince in athletic pursuits. His cunning rendered him a dangerous foe; he could well

play the trickster and the thief, as Apollo found out to his vexation, and Argus, and many another unfortunate. His methods, however, were not always questionable; although the patron of gamblers and the god of chance, he, at the same time, was the furtherer of lawful industry and of commerce by land and sea. The gravest function of the Messenger was to conduct the souls of the dead "that gibber like bats as they fare, down the dank

ways, past the streams of Oceanus, past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams, to the mead of asphodel in the dark realm of Hades, where dwell the souls, the phantoms of men outworn."

"1

§ 42. Vesta (Hestia), goddess of the hearth, public and private, was the first-born child of Cronus and Rhea, and, accordingly, the elder sister of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, and Ceres. Vesta was an old maid by choice. Averse to Venus and all her ways, she scorned the flattering advances of both Neptune and Apollo, and resolved to remain single. Whereupon Jupiter gave her to sit in the middle of his palace, to receive in Olympus the choicest morsels of the feast, and, in the temples of the gods on earth, reverence as the oldest and worthiest of Olympian divinities. As goddess of the burning hearth, Vesta is the divinity of the home of settled, in opposition to nomadic, habits of life. She

was worshipped, first of the gods, at every feast. Before her shrine in city and state the holy flame was religiously cherished. From her altars those of the other gods obtained their fires. No new colony, no new home, was duly consecrated till on its central hearth there glowed coals from her ancestral hearth. In her temple at Rome a sacred fire, tended by six virgin priestesses called Vestals, was kept religiously aflame. As the safety of the city was held to be connected with its conservation, any negligence, by which it might go out, was severely punished. Whenever the fire did die, it was rekindled from the rays of the sun.

$ 43. Of the Lesser Divinities of Heaven the most worthy of mention are : —

(1) Cupid (Eros), small but mighty god of love, the son of Venus, and her constant companion. He was often represented with eyes covered because of the blindness of his actions. With

his bow and arrows, he shot the darts of desire into the bosoms of gods and men. Another deity named Anteros, reputed the brother of Eros, was sometimes represented as the avenger of slighted love, and sometimes as the symbol of reciprocal affection. Venus was also attended at times by Hymen, a beautiful youth of divine descent, the personification of the wedding feast, and leader of the nuptial chorus.

"Within a forest, as I strayed

Far down a sombre autumn glade,
I found the god of love;

His bow and arrows cast aside,
His lovely arms extended wide,
A depth of leaves above,
Beneath o'erarching boughs he made
A place for sleep in russet shade.

"His lips, more red than any rose,
Were like a flower that overflows

With honey pure and sweet;

And clustering round that holy mouth,

The golden bees in eager drouth

Plied busy wings and feet;

They knew, what every lover knows,

There's no such honey-bloom that blows."1

(2) Hebe, daughter of Jupiter and Juno, goddess of youth, and cup-bearer to the gods. According to one story, she resigned that office on becoming the wife of Hercules. According to another, Hebe was dismissed from her position in consequence of a fall which she met with one day when in attendance on the gods. Her successor was Ganymede, a Trojan boy whom Jupiter, in the disguise of an eagle, seized and carried off from the midst of his playfellows on Mount Ida, bore up to Heaven, and installed in the vacant place.

(3) The Graces, daughters of Jove by Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus. They were goddesses presiding over the banquet, the dance, all social pleasures, and polite accomplishments. They were three in number, — Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia. Spenser describes the office of the Graces thus:

These three on men all gracious gifts bestow
Which deck the body or adorn the mind,
To make them lovely or well-favored show;
As comely carriage, entertainment kind,
Sweet semblance, friendly offices that bind,
And all the complements of courtesy;

They teach us how to each degree and kind
We should ourselves demean, to low, to high,

To friends, to foes; which skill men call civility.

(4) The Muses, daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory). They presided over song, and prompted the memory.

1 Eros, by Edmund Gosse. For verses on the blindness of Cupid, see Lyly's Cupid and Campaspe in Commentary, § 43.