n heathen theology;
nor unjustly, from the glorious attributes ascribed to him, for he was
the god of light, medicine, eloquence, music, poetry and prophecy.

[Illustration:

THE GODS DESCENDING TO BATTLE

IN AID OF TROY, LATONA, PHOEBUS CAME,
MARS FIERY HELM'D, THE LAUGHTER LOVING DAME,
XANTHUS, WHOSE STREAMS IN GOLDEN CURRENTS FLOW,
AND THE CHASTE HUNTRESS OF THE SILVER BOW.

Pope's Homer's Iliad. B. 20. L. 51.
Pl. 3. ]

Amongst the most remarkable adventures of this god, was his quarrel with
Jupiter, on account of the death of his son AEsculapius, killed by that
deity on the complaint of Pluto, that he decreased the number of the
dead by his cures. Apollo, to revenge this injury, killed the Cyclops
who forged the thunder-bolts. For this he was banished heaven, and
endured great sufferings on earth, being forced to hire himself as a
shepherd to Admetus, king of Thessaly. During his pastoral servitude, he
is said to have invented the lyre to sooth his troubles. He was so
skilled in the bow, that his arrows were always fatal. Python and the
Cyclops experienced their force.

He became enamored of Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus of Thessaly.
The god pursued her, but she flying to preserve her chastity, was
changed into a laurel, whose leaves Apollo immediately consecrated to
bind his temples, and become the reward of poetry.

His temple at Delphi became so frequented, that it was called the oracle
of the earth; all nations and princes vieing in their munificence to it.
The Romans erected to him many temples.

The animals sacred to him were the wolf, from his acuteness of sight,
and because he spared his flocks when the god was a shepherd; the crow
and the raven, because these birds were supposed to have, by instinct,
the faculty of prediction; the swan, from its divining its own death;
the hawk, from its boldness in flight; and the cock, because he
announces the rising of the sun.

As to the signification of this fabulous divinity, all are agreed that,
by Apollo, the sun is understood in general, though several poetical
fictions have relation only to the sun, and not to Apollo. The great
attributes of this deity were divination, healing, music, and archery,
all which manifestly refer to the sun. Light dispelling darkness, is a
strong emblem of truth dissipating ignorance;--the warmth of the sun
conduces greatly to health; and there can be no juster symbol of the
planetar