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to marry. Their principal employment consisted in maintaining the sacred fire, which burn

ed in honour of Vesta, the preservation of which was considered of so much importance, that if it happened to expire, all public business and amusements were suspended till the crime was expiated. This event was a subject of general mourning, and regarded as a direful presage; if it was discovered, that one of the Vestal virgins had violated her vows of chastity, nothing could save her from the dreadful death of being buried alive. Besides the consecrated fire, the temple of this Goddess contained the household Gods, which the pious neas had saved from the destruction of Troy, and the Palladium, a sacred image of Minerva, which was supposed to have fallen from the skies, and had been preserved with great vigilance in the citadel of Troy, an oracle having declared that as long as it remained there the city would be invincible : it was, however, conveyed away by Ulysses and Diomed, and Troy was taken. Hence the

word palladium is used figuratively, to signify the preservation of a valuable object.

DIANA.

Diana was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and the Goddess of chastity and hunting: she was called by the Greeks the triform Goddess, being worshipped under three different characters; on earth she was stiled Diana; in heaven, Luna; and in the infernal regions, Hecate. In her earthly department she presided over the chase, where she is represented attended by her 60 nymphs, with buskins on her feet, and a quiver and bow in her hand, and her forehead ornamented with a crescent. In her heavenly office, where she is called the moon, she enlightens the earth by the mild influence of her rays: she is there represented in a chariot of ebony, covered with a black veil, surrounded with stars, and holding a flambeau in her hand. In the infernal regions she is likewise called Proserpine as well as Hecate, and is supposed to preside over the shades of the departed.

In her pride, severity, and spirit of vengeance, she resembled Juno. She punished with unrelenting cruelty the unfortunate Acteon, for accidentally entering a grotto where she was bathing with her nymphs, by metamorphosing him into a stag, when he was immediately torn to pieces by his own dogs. The temple of Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the world, was dedicated to her; and another situated in Taurica Chersonesus, now called Crimea, where human victims were offered to her. Strangers, who were shipwrecked on the coast, were likewise sacrificed on her altars.

VENUS.

Venus was the Goddess of beauty and the mother of love. She is said to have sprung from the froth of the sea, and to have been wafted by the Zephyrs to the island of Cyprus, where the rosy hours, who were entrusted with her education, received her, and conducted her into heaven. Her history is involved in much obscurity, the

ancients reckoning four different Goddesses, who bore the name of Venus, whose origin, fable, and properties, were distinct. She is sometimes a planet; sometimes presides over chaste affection and marriage; at others over criminal desires; but she is generally considered as governing the passions, and her influence is acknowledged to be more powerful than that of any of the Goddesses. Vulcan demanded her for a wife, as a reward for a signal service he had rendered Jupiter in forging his thunderbolts; Mars deposited his trophies at her feet; Adonis was enamoured of her; and Paris presented her with the apple thrown by the Goddess Discord. She is represented surrounded with the graces and loves, who are her attendants; flowers spring under her feet, and smiles and joy are in her train. She wears round her waist the mysterious cestus or girdle, which is supposed to inspire irresistible affection, and traverses the heavens in a chariot of ivory, drawn by doves. Her worship extended over all the known world; but her principal temples were at Paphos, Cytherea and Idalia. Incense was

burnt on her altars, and sometimes a white goat

was sacrificed. The dove, the swan, the rose,

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and the myrtle, were sacred to her.

REFLECTIONS.

AFTER the fatal disobedience of our first parents, which brought death and sin into the world, the evil passions of mankind being no longer guided or restrained by the divine presence, the precepts and worship of the true God gradually decayed. Succeeding generations becoming still more involved in the mazes of ignorance and error, an almost universal depravity ensued, and the sacred ordinances of religion were buried in the grossest superstitions, and accompanied with the most atrocious barbarities. In proportion as the tradition of one Almighty, Omnipresent and Omniscient Deity became obscured, the human

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