Classical Theology.—Lxxxi.

From blood so mixed a pious race shall flow , Equal to gods , excelling all below . No nation more respect to you shall pay , No greater offerings on your altars lay . " To this , we are informed , " Juno consents , well pleased that her desires

Had found success , and from the cloud retires . " We will now select another quotation from the poem before us , for the sake of Virgil ' s sketch of Juno , by the mouth of Venus , thus classically embodied and addressed to Jupiter , —

"Power immense ! eternal energy ! ( For to what else protection can we fly ?) Seesfc thou the proud Rufcuh ' atis , how they dura In fields , unpunished , to insult my care ? How lofty Turnus vaunts amidst his train In shining arms triumphant o ' er the plain ?

E'en in their lines and trenches they contend , And scarce their walls the Trojan troops defend ; The town is filled wifch slaughter , and o'erfioats With a red carnage their increasing moats . iEneas , ignorant , and far from thence , Has left a camp exposed without defence .

This endless outrage shall they still sustain ? Shall Troy renewed be fired and fired again ? A second siege my banished issue fears , And a nevr Diomcde in arms appears . One more audacious mortal will be found ; And I , thy daughter , wait another wound : Yet if with fates averse , without thy leave . The Latini lands my progeny receive ,

Bear they the pains of violated law And thy protection from their aid withdraw . But , if the goels their sure success fortell—If those of heaven consent with those of hell To promise Italy—who dare debate The power of Jove , or fix another fate ?

What should I tell of tempests on the main , Of iEolus usurping Neptune's reign ? Of Iris sent , with Bacchanalian heat , To inspire fche matrons , and destroy tho fleet ? Now Juno to the Stygian sky descends ; Solicits hell for aid , and arms the fiends !

Thafc new example wanted yet above—An act that well became the wife of Jove ! Aleeto , raised by her , with rage inflames The peaceful bosoms of the Latian dames . Imperial sway no more exalts my mind—Such hopes I had , indeed , while heaven was kind .

Now , let my happier foes possess my place , Whom Jove prefers before the Trojan race ; Anel conquer they whom you with conquest grace : Since you can spare , from all your wide command , No spot of earth , no hospitable land , Which may my wandering fugitives receive ,

Since haughty Juno will not give you leave . Then father ( if I still may use thafc name ) By ruined Troy , yefc smoking from the flame , I beg you , let Ascanius by my care Be freed from danger , and dismissed fche war ; Inglorious let him live without a crown :

The father may be cast on coasts unknown , Struggling with fate ; bufc let me save the son . "

Be it here likewise remembered how King Latimus had entertained iEneas , and had promised him his only daughter and heiress , Lavinia , beloved by Turnus , who , favoured by her mother , and incited by Juno and her accomplice Aleeto , breaks the

treaty and caused the quarrel and the war . Venus goes on to say"Mine is Cytbera , mine the Cyprian towers : In those recesses , anel those sacred bowers , Obscurely let him rest ; his right resign To promised empire and his Julian line .

Then Carthage may the Ausonian towns destroy , Nor fear the race of a rejected boy . What profits ifc , my son , to ' scape the fire , Armed with his gods , and loaded with his sire ; To pass the perils of the sea and wind , Evade the Greeks , and leave the war behind ,

To reach the Italian shores , if , after all , Our second Pergamus is doomed fco fall ? Much better had he curb'd his high desires , And hovered o'er his still extinguished fires . To Simois' banks the fugitives restore , And give them back to war , and all the ills before . "

We have had modem poets , but the ancient ones perhaps were less particular , in putting words into the mouths of their deities , as might best suit their purpose . Juno severely retorts throughout , up to the peroration in which we find her

saying , with swelling heart , — " But 'tis my crime—fche queen of heaven offends If she presumes to save her suffering friends . Your son , nofc knowing whafc his foes decree , You say is absent ; absent let him be . Yours is Cytheria , yours the Cyprian towers , The soft recesses and the sacred bowers .

Why do you then these needless wars prepare , And thus provoke a people prone fco war ? Did I with fire the Trojan town deface , Or hinder from return your exiled race ? Was I the cause of mischief , or the man Whose lawless lusfc fche fatal war began ? Think on whose faith the adulterous youth relied ;

Who promised , who procured the Spartan bride ? When all the united states of Greece combined , To purge the world of the perfidious kind , Then was your time to fear the Trojan fate—Your quarrels and complaints are now too late . " Jupiter , however , as we have stated , thought

contrariwise , and to Juno spoke pointing out to her in particular " While leave was given thee , and a lawful hour For vengeance , wrath , and unresisted power , Toss'd on fche seas thou couldsfc thy foes distress , And driven ashore , wifch hostile arms oppress ,

Deform the i-oyal honse , and from the side Of the just bridegroom tear the plighted bride—Now cease afc my command . " We all know , although with " dejected eyes" the imperial goddess did not forget the becoming majesty of Juno in answering like a wise and