to the perils of unknown seas, braving the vio lence of the tempests through the unfathomed deep, unappalled by the fables of the fiery dragons which stratagem. trusted to subdue, when courage dared not hope for success;-Hercules capturing monsters, and astounding by his deeds of prowess the princes of the earth;-Perseus endangering his own life to deliver captive innocence and beauty;-the fabled Twins, trium phant in the field of battle, and in those celebrated games, where the mental and corporeal powers, trained by a long course of discipline, displayed unrivalled agility, strength, and skill; —and, what is more interesting to friendship and feeling, the tender Pollux imploring death to be his portion if immortality was not to be the lot of his brother Castor; "they were "swifter than eagles; they were stronger than "lions; they were lovely and pleasant in their "lives, and in their death were not divided.". Orpheus taming the ferocious beasts, and still more ferocious heart of man, by the sweet sounds

1 2 Sam. i. 23.

of his lyre, which melted even the obdurate spirit of Pluto, and won from the regions of the dead his beloved Eurydice,-round whose tomb the birds of song warbled a plaintive melody, to charm her wandering shade and soothe his tender melancholy. If those days of heroic prowess are past, if the improvement of the arts has removed the difficulties they encountered, and science taught the fallacy of the dangers feared; if the page of truth unadorned by the poet's fiction sinks to insignificance, when compared with these visionary achievements; let us turn from the triumphs of the Pagan to the nobler and higher conquest of the Christian hero; let us contend for the mastery of our passions, and the subjection of our heart, putting on the whole armour of God; let us fight under the banners of Christ crucified, to obtain, not the fading laurel, nor the perishable gem, but to ensure that incorruptible crown of glory, which is prepared for his followers in the kingdom of the blessed.

A corrupted tradition of the transgression of

Myth.

L

our first parents may be traced in the fabled adventures of Prometheus, whose presumptuous spirit dared to rival the god of his idolatry, and wrest from the celestial abodes that light and knowledge, which in mercy had been withheld from his bounded faculties. In the specious and seducing suggestions, which pointed out to him the advantages of possessing, and the means of attaining these blessings, which had been denied, the wiles of the great deceiver of mankind are faintly typified; "ye shall not "surely die. For God doth know, that in the "day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be "opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good “and evil.” 1

99,2

In the punishment which followed the offence, and in the evils which succeeded, spreading desolation and misery over all the earth," tri"bulation and anguish to every soul of man,' leaving only hope to comfort his sinful and fallen race; the fatal disobedience of Adam, and the wreck of his temporal and eternal happiBut if the bringing

ness are obscurely figured.

down from above that animating spirit, which the Heathens symbolised under the emblem of fire, roused the vengeance of the God of Prometheus, and was to him a consuming fire, even unto death; is there not for us a spirit which destroys to make alive, a spirit which purifies the heart, and sanctifies it to obedience? If the acquisition of this forbidden knowledge taught only the misery and desolation of sin, is there not a wisdom to which we may aspire, which we are bid to seek, which we are enjoined to pray for; "the wisdom that is from above, "which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy "to beintreated, full of mercy and good fruits ?"1

In the beautiful allegory of Pandora may we not trace the consoling influence of that hope, which, though hid from many in the darker ages, and but faintly shadowed out to the chosen servants of God, softened the primal curse, that bitter punishment of sin, and tempering justice with mercy, held out the promise of redemption to a future race, and the hope of salvation to the ends of the earth?

James iii. 17.

EIGHTH DIVISION.

THE THEBAN WARS.

THE city of Thebes, so renowned for its wars, was situated in Boeotia. Laius, its king, had been informed by the oracle, that the son who should proceed from his marriage with Jocasta should be the murderer of his father, and the husband of his mother. When the child was born, he was exposed to become the prey of wild beasts. But being found by one of the shepherds of the king of Corinth, he was presented to the queen, who brought him up as her son, under the name of Edipus. Having learnt when he arrived at manhood, that he was not the son of Polybus, and finding from the oracle he con