Classical Theology. Apollo And May.

and became fixed aud immovable , by the order of Neptune , for the lady ' s use and , from its thus becoming visible , it received its name of Ai ' jXoe , and became the theme of much mystical fancy . We have , therefore , our fair right to believe , while Ave read of Diana being the midwife to her mother in bringing her tivin brother into the world , that

that son lost no time in wreaking vengeance on his mother ' s terrible and ravining persecutor . The god was the inventor of arrows and of the boAv , and the first who taught men to kill at a long range—at least so it is said , and that thus armed he Avent out to combat with his enormousscalyand deadly foe—nor not his alone

, , and his mother ' s enemy , but the dreadful and dreaded scourge of all the land . Thousands gathered afar off to see the light . A multitude was silent—a multitude mourned—a- multitude was in the poiver of the beast . For the first time they saw the monster smitten ; it writhed Avith contortions of fury and pain ; it tore up trees , it rent down rocks ; its breath

grew thicker and hotter , like smoke and fire ; it scorched what it could not burn , as shaft after shaft hit their mark , ripping up its flesh and striking between its horny plates , and entering their whole length beneath : then a multitude cheered , and the encouraging cry of his mother , " Strike him Avith thy dartsmy son ! strike him , 0 Pieau ! " was

, caught up and repeated until it ivas re-echoed as the one . shout of all the spectators . It Avas dead . Aud hence , by his name of P-ean , arose fche custom of invoking his aid in . sickness and in danger , and of calling tho hymns , in honour of his praise , Paeans . Also iu all the songs of triumph , at the

celebration of great A'ictories , tlie people cried out "Io Pasan !" However , in blending fable with history and taking their scriptures for the groundwork of their building , the ancients raised a fabric of poety and of prose , iu which their heroes and heroines figured and fluttered , appeared and disappeared , both as the Dii Consentes and Adscriptitii and the Patellar !!

and " llptdeui , or in other words as the first , second , and third class of supramundane persons . Just as if Ave , who may knoiv a little about Milton aud Klopstock , should take our book of Job and select therefrom one of the " sons of God , " and call his name Ariel—very well ! But Ave would rather say , suppose Ave took another personage and gave him the

cognomen of Faust or Mephistophiles and made him the principal character in a historical noA * el or a tale of romance , be it so . Thus , in the place of a " certain gentleman in black , " and of our Robin GoodfelloAv , by Avay of a Comus , and of Mab and the fairies , the ancients had their more refined gods , nymphs , and goddesses . Thank God Ave no longer make them to Avorship them , yet they are made still , they preside over many things ; we have said we cannot do Avithout them . Mentioned , or seen , where are they not ?

In our studio they are present ; in our atelier they arc to be found ; go into our theatre , they are there ; in our very church , behold them ; look on high—even the very heavens are marked out by their names ! As there is only one sun , some think the Latins therefore gave him the name of Sol ; and for the same reason the

Greeks called him Apollo . . Nevertheless , the poets in their lays , as far back as ivhen Homer wrote , go far to convince us that they knew something more than ive do of tlie " angels that kept not their first estate ; " ancl of the war in heaven . We are reminded of many fine things which haA * e been said or sung about Apollo , who was deprived of the privileges of his

divinity , and exposed to the calamities of earth for destroying the Cyclops , in his indignation and revenge for the death of his son . / Esculapius . Distressing want compelled him to look after the cattle of Admetns ; Avhile there , ive are told by Pausanias , to pass aAvay his time , being wearied AA'ith leisure , he devised and constructed the harp . We do not , ivisTi to deny the

divincness ofthe instrument ; the Avorldis in want of heavenl y tilings ! Is heaven in want < J earthly things ? The gods taught men , so they nay , their inventions ; bnfc wli ; vfc they

Classical Theology. Apollo And May.

formed and made on earth they carried aAvay witii ttieln into heaven . The SAveet sound of the harp , perohun-oe SAA-oeter ancl more invigorating than wine , hlppoeras , or a more plebeian nectar , exhilarated the labourei * s iu their work of building the walls of Troy . At any rate the poet found it requisite to drink

much wine to describe IIOAV they were built , and in his OAVU lighfc and airy way , brings doAvn the god of the muses , as if thereby to signalize that they were erected alone by poetry and melodv : —

"f lion aspicics , finnatuqiic turrilius aids , iMccnia , Apollincie structa ciinorc lyne . "—Drill . " Troy shalt thou s » ee ; its Avails divine admire ; liaised by the ' music of Apollo ' s lyre' " Wc may as Avell add that the-city became the metropolis of all Asia . It Avas taken and sacked and almost entirely destroyed ,

by being burned , somewhere about A . M . 2 S 71 . It was thought that iEneas and Antcnor betrayed it . However , up to this time , from the commencement of the Avar , there fell of the Grecians , -886 , 000 , and of tho Trojans , 670 , 000 ; aud among these 1 ,-562 , 000 who wero slain , Avere many of their generals in chief ; a feiv of their names will more than suffice if AA-C

recall them , for , of course , they ai'o ivell knoAvn . By the treachery of Paris , Achilles lost his life ; Hector , whom he SIOAV , styled " patrke columen , " the pillar of his country ; Paris himself ; and , after him , his brother Deipho-1 ms , whom Helena married , and afterwards betrayed to Menclaus to reconcile her to his favour again . This beauty ,

having been made as ifc Avere the golden apple of discord—and Menclaus , by his efforts-to regain her having been its cause—• between them they thus formed the beginning and end of the war , by Avhich tho king of Troy , Priamus , not only lost his kingdom , Hecuba his queen , and all his children , bufc likewise his OAVII life .

Notwithstanding all AVC have said and shall have fco say hi our series , we see it is requisite Ave should mark out more distinctly the genealogy and names of the sun : we shall , therefore , resume this subject in another paper .

Birth Of The Steam Engine.

BIRTH OF THE STEAM ENGINE .

WHO has not stood on an eminence in the ni ght and seen in tlie farthest darkness tAvo red spots , flickering , menacing , goblin-looking orbs , peering from beloAv and casting from them tbe shadows Avhich the night CICAV holds before them like a curtain' ? They seem to approach Avith cat-like stealth . Presently is heard a shriek , and the gazer stops his ears as

the shrill echo winds round the hill . Ho next sees a dark serpent-like form , Avhose motion seems to groiv quicker as it approaches , and then the thunder of its wild flight makes itself heard , groAVS louder , and soon dies away in the distance . But for all this it is a benevolent monster , that snnke-liko giant . If AVC could subject it to an autopsy , its interior

Avoukl reveal a strange conglomeration of opposites . Beneath one rib is the youth , full of hi gh hope and enterprise , nothing daunted at being swallowed up for a while ; next to him the salloAV and meditative free of age . In this comer is the youngbride with her garland of orange blossoms set so daintily beneath her pretty little bonnet ; in that the widoAv in her

weeds . On this side is the soldier , bearded like a pard ; on . that tlie meek looking clergyman ; loiver doivn , the gambler _ and the bankrupt running from justice ami their creditors ; and last , in that lugubrious looking truck , is the corpse , perhaps of youth , or meditative age , of bride , or AvidoAV , or soldier , or clergyman , or thief aforesaid , being carried to

" that bourne whence no traveller returns . " Thus files this iron monster over the land from morning till night , freighted AA'ith hopes and disappointments , joys and sorrows , crimes ami virtues , the paragon of modern science- —the steam engine , it forms no part of our design to enter upon minute detailsthese can onl y be useful to fche scientific student : but rather io