ns round. Her being drawn by lions,
may imply that nothing is too fierce and intractable for a motherly
piety and tenderness to tame and subdue. Her garments are painted with
divers colors, but chiefly green, and figured with the images of several
creatures, because such a dress is suitable to the variegated and more
prevalent appearance of the earth.

VESTA was the daughter of Vesta the elder, by Saturn, and sister of
Ceres, Juno, Pluto, Neptune and Jupiter. She was so fond of a single
life, that when her brother Jupiter ascended the throne, and offered to
grant whatever she asked, her only desires were the preservation of her
virginity, and the first oblation in all sacrifices. Numa Pompilius, the
great founder of religion among the Romans, is said first to have
restored the ancient rites and worship of this goddess, to whom he
erected a circular temple, which in succeeding ages was not only much
embellished, but also, as the earth was supposed to retain a constant
fire within, a perpetual fire was kept up in the temple of Vesta, the
care of which was intrusted to a select number of young females
appointed from the first families in Rome, and called _Vestal virgins_.

[Illustration:

APOLLO AND THE MUSES.
Pl. 6.]

As this Vesta was the goddess of fire, the Romans had no images of her
in her temple; the reason for which, assigned by Ovid, is that fire has
no representative, as no bodies are produced from it: yet as Vesta was
the guardian of houses or hearths, her image was usually placed in the
porch or entry, and daily sacrifices were offered up to her. It is
certain nothing could be a stronger or more lively symbol of the supreme
being than fire; accordingly we find this emblem in early use throughout
the east. The Romans looked upon Vesta as one of the tutelar deities of
their empire; and they so far made the safety and fate of Rome depend on
the preservation of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, that they
thought the extinction of it foreboded the most terrible misfortune.

CERES was daughter of Saturn and Ops, or Vesta. Sicily, Attica, Crete,
and Egypt, claim the honor of her birth, each country producing the
ground of its claims, though general suffrage favors the first. In her
youth, being extremely beautiful, Jupiter fell in love with her, and by
him she had Pereph{)a}ta, called afterwards Proserpine. For some time
she took up her residence in Corc{=y}ra, so called in later times, from