nce rapidly along the clouded heaven
When winds are blowing."[8]

[Footnote 8: In _The Excursion._]

There were other pleasant beliefs about Diana such as might be
connected with the thought of the moon. As the moonlight cheers the
traveller on his way and enters the chamber of the sick and lonely, so
Diana was said to watch with the sick and help the unfortunate. The
pale, white light of the moon is a natural symbol of purity, hence
Diana was a maiden goddess above all allurements of love. Her worship
was conducted with splendid rites in various ancient cities. The
temple built in her honor at Ephesus was famous as one of the seven
wonders of the world.

The ancients naturally liked to fancy the goddess very beautiful. The
Greek poet Anacreon called her "the goddess of the sun bright hair."
The English Keats, who delighted in the old Greek myths, has also
described the charms of "the haunter chaste of river sides, and woods
and heathy waste."[9] She had "pearl round ears, white neck, orbed
brow, blush tinted cheeks," and "a paradise of lips and eyes."

[Footnote 9: In _Endymion_. See also Lowell's _Endymion_ for a
description of Diana.]

In our picture the moon goddess is mounting her car for the nightly
course across the sky.[10] Though she seems to be but just springing
to her place, with bending knee, she is already speeding on her way.

[Footnote 10: As Apollo drives the sun chariot across the sky by day.
Compare Guido Reni's Aurora.]

"How tremulous-dazzlingly the wheels sweep
Around their axle."

Her quiver, well filled with the bow and arrows, hangs at her back,
held by the strap bound over her breast.[11] The crescent moon gleams
above her brow. The vehicle is the small two-wheeled chariot used
among the Romans, scarcely larger than a chair. Only the hind legs of
the steeds may be seen, but we fancy them to be two white does.

[Footnote 11: It seems odd that with this full quiver the subject
should be called by some "Diana's Return from the Chase."]

[Illustration: DIANA
_Convent of S. Paolo, Parma_]

The huntress turns her face earthward, lifting a fluttering veil high
in her left hand. It is as if the face of the moon had been hidden
behind a cloud which the goddess suddenly draws aside and shows "her
fulgent head uncovered, dazzling the beholder's sight." It is with a
bright, cheerful countenance that she beams upon her worshippers. A
sense of courage and exhilaration is expressed