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tudes she formerly loved, and is often to be heard, but never seen.

Narcissus afterwards fell in love with his own image in a fountain: it was so pretty, that I believe he thought it was a girl: he tried to kiss it, but he could not: yet when he smiled, it smiled: when he withdrew, it withdrew; and when he .returned, it came back again: he visited the fountain every day: he was so vexed and wasted with his fruitless attempts, that at length the Gods in pity turned him into a flower, which still bears his name, and is called Narcissus'.

Beside the nymphs already mentioned, who are called terrestrial, there were also other nymphs, called celestial: they presided over the starry heavens they drove along the planets in their orbits and as an ancient Greek wandered out in a calm and brilliant midnight, every star seemed to him to have a separate life, an eye, an ear, and a voice: he had a thousand witnesses to his prayers and his gratitude, and a thousand friends contributing to his happiness: they were the monitors of his conduct, and the genii who watched over his steps.

1 Ov. Met. iii. 340 et seqq.

CHAP. XII.

OF THE DOMESTIC DEITIES.

Gods Protectors of Kingdoms, Provinces and Cities.The Penates, or Houshold Gods.--Their Importance.-Story of Heraclitus.-The Lares.-The Manes, Gods of the Dead.--Ghosts and Spirits.-The Larvæ and Lemures.-The Lamiæ.-The Genii, or Dæmons.-Dæmon of Socrates. Evil Genius of Brutus.-Sense of the Word Genial.

ANOTHER class of divinities of great importance in the Grecian mythology were the Penates or local divinities: of these there are reckoned three classes, the Gods of kingdoms or provinces, the Gods of cities and towns, and the Gods of single houses: there is some ambiguity as to the descent and character of these Gods: the inhabitants of kingdoms and cities seem to have chosen their protecting Gods as they pleased, and therefore frequently from among the superior Gods; thus Minerva was the protecting divinity of Athens, and Jupiter of Rome.

But besides the protecting Gods of kingdoms and cities, each house, as I told you, had its Penates or Houshold Gods: these were the presiding deities of hospitality: they spread a sacredness over domestic life: every member of a family was placed under the guardianship of the same friendly divinity: nothing could be done contrary to the great duties of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant, without

STORY OF HERACLITUS.

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offending the Penates: every stranger who en tered the house became sacred and secure from violation and no thought could be less endured, than that the master of a family should be affronted or assaulted under his own roof: thus Themistocles, when he fled to king Admetus", and Coriolanus to the king of the Voisci", immediately placed themselves on the hearth, and claimed the sanctuary of this stranger roof (the hearth was peculiarly the altar of the Houshold Gods): it has become a proverb in this country, that Every Englishman's house is his castle;" it might have been a proverb among the ancients, that Every Grecian's house was his temple.'

We may judge of the importance annexed to the worship of the Houshold Gods, when we observe that at the time when Eneas? fled from amidst the flames of Troy, what he was careful to carry away with him was his ancient father, his wife, his only child, and his Houshold Gods.

There is a beautiful story of Heraclitus the ancient philosopher, which is connected with this subject: the Grecian philosophers were accustomed to wear mean garments, and to show by their habits of living, that they were disdainful of the frivolous luxuries of society; yet they were every where sought after, and every where admired: certain strangers of rank came to Athens, and were desirous to visit the celebrated Heraclitus: they enquired out where he lived: as they approached his habitation, they saw a hut, ragged, narrow and dark: they knocked at the door, and the philosopher opened: struck with the appearance of things, they shrunk back, and hesitated to

a Thục. i. 136. n Plut. in Coriolan, O Virg. Æn. ii. 707.

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LARES MANES.

enter: Heraclitus observed their uncertainty, recollected what was due to his own character, and with a magnanimous simplicity said to them, "Enter boldly, for here also are Gods?!"

Another class of the Houshold Gods, distinct from the Penates, were the Lares: these are said to be the twin-children of the nymph Lara by Mercury: they presided not only over single houses, but also over cities and streets, countryscenes and the waters of the sea: hence they were called according to their respective functions, Lares Familiares, Urbani, Compitales, Rustici and Marini: and under each of these characters worship was paid, and sacrifices were offered, to them: how the two sons of Mercury and Lara could furnish distinct deities for every street and house in Italy and Greece, is somewhat hard to explain.

It is difficult to distinguish between the Lares and the Manes: in many respects they seem to be the same: the mother of the Manes is called Mania, and Mercury was probably their father: they are reckoned among the infernal deities, and their particular province was to preside over burial-places, and the monuments of the dead: hence the Romans superscribed their sepulchral inscriptions with the letters D. M. that is, Diis Manibus, "To the Gods, of the dead," to remind the profane that they must not look to molest with impunity the ashes of the deceased: now, as it was the ancient custom of the Romans and other nations to bury their dead beneath the floors of the houses in which they had lived, hence the 9 Ov. Fasti, ii. 599.

P Aristot. de Part. Anim. i. 5.

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Lares and Manes came to be confounded together, and regarded as Houshold Gods.

Among the other kinds of homage paid to the Lares or Manes, one was that, on certain solemn occasions, the Romans hung up on the outsides of their houses images of wool to represent the master and mistress of the family, smaller images for the children, and little balls of wool for the slaves these packets were designed as a sort of commutation or substitute for the persons within, that the Dii Manes, or “Gods of the future state," seeing these, might be pleased to spare the lives of the members of the family.

By the Manes however were frequently understood the spirits of the departed: all nations have had traditionary stories of ghosts, or the appearance of persons deceased to their relations, their friends, and others: the Romans went so far as to separate the ghosts, which made a part of their religious creed, into two classes: the good and friendly were called Lares and Manes, and the ill and wicked spirits they denominated Larvæ and Lemures'.

The Lares or Manes, taking the words in this sense, were the spirits of a man's ancestors, hovering around the spot where their mortal lives had been spent, and solicitous for the welfare of their descendants: these were the objects of sacrifices and other marks of religious veneration: this circumstance gave an additional sacredness to the houses of the Greeks and Romans: beneath the floor the remains of their buried forefathers were often deposited; their spirits were not afar off; and their virtuous and honourable descend

'Apuleius de Deo Socratis.