Classical Theology. Apollo And May.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . APOLLO AND MAY .

IQXDOX , SATURDAY , AUGUST 0 , 1 S 59 .

( . Continued from p . 02 . ) THE spirit of truth is a holy spirit ; that is to say , it is a ghost in which there is no guile—consequently , if to keep silent is profitable , and to be heard is unprofitable , it will eschew the ovil ancl choose the good . Howsoever let ns not deceive ourselves in screening the truthlest we find out

, "the truth is not in us . " Our religion wants no disguise ; there is no longer a call to enforce it under a parable ; it requires no longer a veil to hide its sublime , refulgent , and ineffable beauty . The spirit of truth rejoices in its loveliness —it never knew it was naked ; its shame is not in its beinguncovered , but in its being hidden .

But is the world free from guile 1 Do people like to hear the truth ? We answer in tho words of the royal preacher ; he who saw " under the sun the place of judgment , that wickedness was there ; and the place of righteousness , that iniquity was there ; " and old as his counsel is , like good wine , it has improved by keeping : — " Suffer not thy mouth

to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither say thou before the angel that it was an error ; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice , ancl destroy the work of thine hands ? Go thy way , eat thy bread with joy , and drink thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works . Live joyfully with the wife whom thou West , all the days of the lifo of

tliy vanity which he hath given , thee under the sun , all the clays oF thy life of vanity , for that is thy portion in this lifo , ancl in thy labour which thou takest under the sun . " Peradventure with tho exception , of the Christian and of the Mahomedan , every nation under the sun has paid divine homage to the sun . The Alcoran forbids this , and how much the more so does the Pentateuch ; yet strange to say ,

in Hierosolyma , the city of Jerusalem , within the very most holy temple , there was the chapel or chamber dedicated to the sun ; exempli gratia , 2 Kings , xxiii . ; " And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given , to the sun , at the entering in of the house of the Lord , and burned the chariots of the sun with fire . " Ancl again , Ezekiel ,

chap , viii ., "Then ho brought me to the cloor of the gate of the Lord ' s house , which was towards the north ; ancl , behold , there sat women weeping for Tammuz" ( the sun '" ' ) . "And he brought me into tho inner court of the Lord ' s house ; and , behold , at the cloor of the temple of the Lord , between the porch ancl the altarwere about five and twenty menwith

, , their backs towards the temple of the Loi-d , and their feces towards the east ; and they worshi pped the sun towards the east . " We can very well embrace the idea , but not the idolatry , of this barbarism of making the transeff ' ulgent , glory crowned "king of day" the supercelestial God and majesty both of heaven and earth ; but how the Jews could

have embraced the idolatry in the idea , or how Solomon , the king of Israel , was induced to build the hi gh places , ' ' which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption , " namely , "for Ashtoveth , the abomination of the Zidonians , and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabitos , ancl for Milcom the abomination of the children of Amnion . "—we

cannot comprehend ; it could only have been on account of their having partaken of the sacrament of idols . The sun is the centre of the system to which our earth belongs : the earth moves round on its own axis in about twenty-four hours , in which small space of time it circumambulates its entire selfor orbed circlethat is

, ; , many parts of the earth , and all who inhabit them , are carried i-oi . liid with the world in the course of a day and night ; and yet , as it moves in a mass , on its points , its motion is so * Venus is the earth , and Adonis is tho sun , ride tho " Fable of Proserpina , and Venus . "

wonderfully slow that we can only compare it to its own connatural movement in an upper wheel of an upset cart , * set agoing and being twenty-four hours in turning itself or in being turned once round ; this gyration gives the sun its apparent advance towards the west ; but it has too its own centric or heliocentric rotation ; only , instead of the number

of hours the earth takes to make one revolution , the sun organically requires about as many numerical clays ; consequently , if it were not lightened by its own efficiency or invidious atmosphere , but were , like the earth , dependent on au heliacal luminary for its light , its day ancl its night would each consist of one hundred and forty-four hours .

In these latter remarks there may bo au exemplified teaching of astronomy ; yet , nevertheless , wo aro almost inclined to put faith in the symbols of tho Indian and Egyptian zodiacs ; ancl with the Greeks assign to Osiris or Horns the Eye of the universe—that over watching , never closing Eye , which sees all things , ancl comprehends all

things , that arc going on ancl arc taking place , both in tho heavens and on the earth . Yea , like tho primteval aud . media ) val theocratical romancist , we might be tempted to give the diadem to Sol , and be half led away to believe their report of the gorgeous magnificence of his royal palace of the sun , ancl of the beauty of his dutiful daughtersPhaethusa

, , Lampetia , and Phcebe , preparing his chariot with its fiery steeds , the same , perchance , which wero destined to run away with their ill advised brother Phaeton , therewith setting both the higher and lower worlds in one united conflagration ; nay , we could all but extend to Phoebus his own solitary diurnal ancl guiding course , now coming up from

tho east , and now going down in tho west , through his kingdom of the stars . But , in leaving Ptolemy to follow Phaeton , do we beg the question ? There is but a slender jjai'tition between the sublime and the ridiculous . Jupiter , to put an end to the ompyrosis and fervent burning up of tho elements , struck Phaeton out of his whirled away chariot with a thunderbolt headlons- into the river Po . All this we

acknowledge is finely told in the Ovidian metamorphosis ; ancl by tho fable we are taught what an awful end the ambitious may expect , when they soar higher than they ought . But when wc havo to reconcile to common sense the event of these three sisters in their incessant lamentation for

their brothers death upon the banks of that river being * It does not matter of what size or circumference the wheel of tho cart referred to may be , let its dimensions be supposed even equal to tho earth's orbit ; and its height , over its fellow wheel , not much moro than sufficient for a horse , attached to one of its bars or spokes , to move under it ; thus , every time the horse is made to move round the cart the wheel will also go right round with it ; in which way—could it be possible

for a Uovsse to be trained to take twenty-Sour hours iu pacing once round a small cart—tho movement of the wheel would ho scarcely perceptible . This quick rate of travelling at a slow speed may be immediately understood by placing the middle of a long polo on the head or over tho shoulders of some person who is to hold it fast with both his hands , when , on turning himself leisurely round , it would be found upon the trial that another person would have to run to keep up with tho ends of the pole

. Some of the Brachmauto , or some sect of Hindoos , have long held the whimsical notion of a largo frog having been placed by Brahma , when he created the world by the command of Brahm , in the centre of the earth , to whose careful superintendence we are solemnly informed , if our memory docs not deceive us , he cousigucd the successive rotations of our globe . Certainly there may be some who ironically could point out how this geographical abstract in itself would account for the earth ' s motionuniullaeacad

jerking motion . However , to the earth ' s rotary , by the moon , we think may be attributed the phenomena of the tides . About eleven hundred years ago , when the last of the Gebers wero driven out of Persia , many of them settled along the western coast of India . They are among the most opulent class in Bombay , where they are styled fire worshippers , or rather Parsees . They say that more than four thousand their het Zoroaster lihted the fire thoy

years ago prop g still keep burning—they carried some of it with them . Their priests are called Magi . They believe in one Most High and Supremo Being . To tho three other elements besides fire , they pay great veneration . Nevertheless they are tho veal sun-worshippers , their religion imposes the unalterable duty of its great commandment ; or of paying every morning , their orisons to the awaking sum Zoroaster , as they reckon , must have lived not less than 5 , 500 years before Christ ,