Classical Theology.—Lxxxv.

tian dame his mother—fair Marica was her name . But Faunus came from Picus ; Picus drew his birth from Saturn , if records be true . " Certainly some records do mention that Faunus or Fatuellus had in marriage Venilia , and that the word of

itself signifies the flowing of the sea . We might almost now again find cause to speak of Italy in the words of the poet just quoted , without becoming very ambiguous : —

" Now , Erato , thy poetic mind inspire , And fill his soul with thy celestial fire ; Relate what Latium was ; her ancient kings ; Declare the past and present state of things ; When first the Trojan fleet Ausonia sought , And how the rivals loved and how they fought . These were my theme , and how the war began , And how concluded by the God-like man .

For I shall sing of battles , blood , and rage , Which princes and their people did engage ; And haughty souls , which moved with mutual hate , In fighting fields pursued and found their fate , That roused the Tyrrhene realms with loud alarms , And peaceful Italy involved in arms , A larger scene of action is display'd

, And rising hence a greater work is weigh'd . The priest on skins of offerings takes his ease , And nightly visions in his slumber sees . A swarm of thin aerial shapes appears , Floats round his temples , deafening his ears . These he consults the future fate to know , From powers above , and from the friends below . "

When Neptune , or rather Jupiter , came of age , he divested his father , Saturn , of regality , and divided the kingdom , which must have comprised the four principal elements , or otherwise heaven and earth , between himself , his wife , Juno , Pluto ,

and Neptune . It is to be observed that those sons of Ops , otherwise called Cybele , and also named Magna Deorum Mater , " the Great Mother of the Gods , " i . e ., the earth , must have been born , according

to received chronology , which we doubt not , like many other things , is liable to err , sometime long after the Deluge . Furthermore , the Jupiter of whom we treat was the third , or , as we take it , a thrice-born , Jupiter ; for , it is said that the

learned in heathen theology have concluded that there were three principal Jupiters ; that the first and second were bom in Arcadia , of which the father of the cne was . / Ether , from whom Proserpine and Liber descended . Tho father of the

other was Ca-Ius , who it is computed begot Minerva ; the third being as supposed , tho son of Saturn , and bom in the Isle of Crete . But it is in this manner that it is to be understood . At the birth of Zeus , to prevent Kronus destroying

him , Cybele , or Rhea , sent Hera , his twin-sister , to her father and had the immortal babe , or fmcvma ( irvev / m ) conveyed to the nymphs on

Mount Ida to be educated and befitted by them for mau ' s estate . On arriving at some such stage of pubescence , Zeus was not long in discovering the secret of his birth . He may have entered into man ' s estate in two ways consistently with

the ancient Greek or Pelasgian , and other ancient doctrines , and in one way or the other it must have been , if we are to comprehend him as the king of Crete , or as the Kronides , Zeus , joined with Poseidon , and Hades , triumphantly defeating

their father , Kronus and the united Hranides , or Titans , and dividing the sovereignty of the world between them . It was heaven and earth that

Zeus claimed ; Poseidon , the rulership of the sea ; Hades , the government of hell . The admixture of different organisations of religion has ever ended in confounding by such a course a national hierachy . It has engendered dreadful

superstitions , extravagant suppositions , and exaggerated fables . Through such adaption and heresy the sacred systems of Greece and Rome became disorganised and abused , the more and more they approached to hybridism and fell from their

legitimacy . In this respect especially we may point to Rome ; she has with special unsteady worship introduced a multitude of idol gods , with their borrowed Grecian feast-days and fast-days and ceremonies into her temple . She has , in like

manner , introduced a multitude of idol-saints , with their borrowed Roman feast-days and fast-days and ceremories into her Church- Long , indeed , there has been a den of thieves to be driven out .

And here then , at last , in this respect ive may well rejoice to see the progressive success of that King , Emanuel , whose good sense and good sword has achieved for Italy so glorious a service . The erudite ancients for the most believed a

wide-world kingdom was in a state of creation before time , that is , before the birth of Kronus , when there existed an universal whole and soul in one amalgamated body , out of which proceeded , to make use of Greek names , TartarusNyx

, , Hemera , and Eros ( Hell , Night , Day , and Love ) , Gaia and Uranus ( Earth and Heaven ) , whence , from the union of these two , creation now beina * o complete , sprang Kronos ( Time ) , the youngest of the twelve Titans ; the Cyclops , and the

hundredhanded Giants . These all grew so hateful to Uranus , that he imprisoned them in the centre of the earth . This act of harshness exciting the compassion of Gaia , she furnished them with iron and the means of its use , wherewith they manu-