observed respecting the mystic rites practised in them, that any person revealing the various ceremonies was condemned to an ignominious death.

Ceres is usually represented as a lovely nymph crowned with ears of corn, a wheat sheaf at her side, and the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, in her hand.

Jove some amends for Ceres' loss to make,
Yet willing Pluto should the joy partake,
Gives 'em of Proserpine an equal share,
Who, claimed by both, with both divides the year;
The goddess now in either empire sways,
Six moons in hell, and six with Ceres stays.
Her peevish temper's changed; that sullen mind
Which made even hell uneasy, now is kind.
Her voice refines, her mien more sweet appears,
Her forehead free from frowns, her eyes from tears;
As when with golden light, the conquering day
Through dusky exhalations clears away.
Ceres her daughter's rape no longer mourned,
But back to Arethusa's spring returned,
And sitting on the margin, bade her tell
From whence she came, and why a sacred well.

OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 5.

Here Arethusa stopped; then Ceres takes
Her golden car and yokes her fiery snakes;

With a just rein, along mid-heaven she flies
O'er earth and seas, and cuts the yielding skies.
She halts at Athens, dropping like a star,
And to Triptolemus resigns her car.
Parent of seed, she gave him fruitful grain,
And bade him teach to till and plough the main ;
The seed to sow, as well in fallow fields,

As where the soil manured a richer harvest yields. I MARS.

Mars was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and the God of War ; he was placed under the care of a preceptor during his youth, who instructed him in every kind of martial and manly exercise: he was accused of the murder of Hallerhotius, and summoned by Neptune to appear in the assembly of the Gods, and clear himself of the charge; they met on a hill near Athens, where Mars was tried and acquitted; the hill received the name of this God in consequence, and afterwards became famous in history as the place of debate for the court of Areopagus, the most illustrious tribunal on record.

In the war of Troy, Mars fought on the Trojan side, and defended the favourites of Venus with great assiduity; his

intrigues with the Goddess of beauty need not be recounted; Cupid, Anteros, and Harmonia, were his offspring by her; but he was also the father of Alcippe, Ascalaphus, Pylus, and several others. The worship of Mars was not very general among the Greeks, but he was universally adored by the Romans, who considered him as the founder and guardian of their city, and the parent of their warlike monarch Romulus. Religious rites were instituted in honour of him by Numa Pompilius, and priests were appointed to watch over and guard the ancilia, or bucklers, sacred to Mars, made after the model of one said to have fallen from heaven. His most celebrated temple was built by Augustus Cæsar, after the battle of Philippi.

Mars is sometimes mentioned in the fables of the ancients by the names of Quirinus, Mavors, and Gradivus; he is often represented as a warrior, clad in armour, and driving a chariot drawn by the two famous horses, Flight and Terror, and is sometimes accompanied by his sister Bellona, the Goddess of War.

As in the Lemnian caves of fire,
The mate of her who nursed desire,
Moulded the glowing steel, to form
Arrows for Cupid thrilling warm;
While Venus every barb imbues
With droppings of her honied dews;
And Love (alas the victim heart!)
Tinges with gall the burning dart;
Once, to this Lemnian cave of flame,
The crested lord of battles came;

'Twas from the ranks of war he rushed,
His spear with many a life-drop blushed;
He saw the mystic darts, and smiled
Derision on the archer child.

"And dost thou smile?" said little Love;
"Take this dart, and thou mayest prove
"That tho' they pass the breeze's flight,
"My bolts are not so feathery light."
He took the shaft and oh! thy look,
Sweet Venus! when the shaft he took-
He sighed, and felt the urchin's art ;
He sighed in agony of heart,-

" It is not light,- I die with pain!
"Take,-take thy arrow back again."
"No," said the child, "it must not be,
"That little dart was made for thee!"

MOORE'S Anacreon, ode 28.

Mars and Bellona are well introduced by Homer, assisting

and animating the Trojans against the Greeks.

Great Hector saw, and raging at the view,
Pours on the Greeks; the Trojan troops pursue;
He fires his host with animating cries,
And brings along the furies of the skies.
Mars, stern destroyer! and Bellona dread,
Flame in the front, and thunder at their head;
This swells the tumult and the rage of fight,
That shakes a spear that casts a dreadful light.
Where Hector marched the god of battle shined;
Now stormed before him, and now raged behind.

Iliad, book 5.