Minerva. Gryllus says of Ulyssus, " you are as persuasive as Minerva." Minerva is sometimes called Pallas, and sometimes Athenæ she was the tutelary genius of Athens. In that city, her temple, and the services performed in honour of her, were more splendid than any where else—the Athenians expressing by this homage, their character, more intellectual and spiritual than the rest of the heathen world.

This

Minerva, or Wisdom, was the daughter of Jove, the supreme god of the heathens, and sprung from her father's head. fable implies that God is the origin or beginning of Wisdom.

God's wisdom is infinite—extends through time and eternity, and to all beings and events, and appoints and executes all his laws. Man's wisdom extends to all his duties. Human wisdom

is like divine wisdom, but infinitely less in degree. It is sufficient to enable man to do right, to please God, and to make him happy.

Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, has personified Wisdom— that is, spoken of this moral attribute of God as of an intelligent and living being. The power and virtue which the heathens imputed to Minerva, are far less exalted than the power and virtue of that Wisdom which the king of Israel described.

Solomon makes Wisdom say, "I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Receive my instruction and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. Riches and honour are with me: yea, durable riches and righteousness. —Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.—He that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear: for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be of right things.

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

:

"When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the earth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of

the earth then I was by him, as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him."

CIRCE'S PALACE.

The following description of Circe's palace, and of the transformations she wrought, is taken from the tenth book of the Odyssey.

"The palace in a woody vale they found,

High raised of stone; a shaded space around:
Where mountain wolves and brindled lions roam,
(By magic tamed) familiar to the dome.
With gentle blandishment our men they meet,
And wag their tails, and fawning lick their feet.
As from some feast a man returning late,
His faithful dogs all meet him at the gate,
Rejoicing round, some morsel to receive,
(Such as the good man ever used to give.)
Domestic thus the grisly beasts draw near;
They gaze with wonder, not unmixed with fear.
Now on the threshold of the dome they stood,
And heard a voice resounding through the wood:
Placed at her loom within, the goddess sung;
The vaulted roofs and solid pavement rung.
O'er the fair web the rising figures shine,
Immortal labour! worthy hands divine.
Polites to the rest the question moved,
(A gallant leader, and a man I loved.)

'What voice celestial, chanting to the loom
(Or nymph, or goddess) echoes from the room?
Say shall we seek access? with what they call;
And wide unfold the portals of the hall.'

The goddess rising, asks her guests to stay,
Who blindly follow where she leads the way.
Eurylochus alone of all the band,

Suspecting fraud, more prudently remained.
On thrones around with downy coverings graced,
With semblance fair the unhappy men she placed.
Milk newly pressed, the sacred flour of wheat,
And honey fresh, and Pramnian wines the treat:
But venomed was the bread, and mixed the bowl,
With drugs of force to darken all the soul:

Soon in the luscious feast themselves they lost,
And drank oblivion of their native coast,
Instant her circling wand the goddess waves,
To hogs transforms them, and the sty receives.
No more was seen the human form divine;
Head, face, and members, bristle into swine:
Still curst with sense, their minds remain alone,
And their own voice affrights them when they groan.
Meanwhile the goddess in disdain bestows
The mast and acorn, brutal food! and stows
The fruits of cornel, as their feast around;
Now prone and groveling on unsavory ground."

When Ulysses was absent, the princes and noblemen of the neighbouring countries went into his kingdom, lived in his palace, fed upon his flocks, and severally demanded the queen Penelope in marriage—these, in the Odyssey, are called the Suitors.

Penelope, who loved her husband, refused them all, and lived with her son Telemachus in Ithaca, always in hopes of the return of Ulysses. After twenty years from his departure for Troy, he again entered the walls of his palace in the disguise of a beggar he was treated with kindness by the Queen and Telemachus, but with contempt and insolence by the Suitors; however he was soon recognized by an old domestic. In due time he declared himself, and with his son and their faithful adherents, killed the Suitors, and was restored to his ancient dignity.

ARGUS.

A very interesting account is given of the dog Argus, who recognised his master Ulysses, when he approached his palace, attended by Eumsus, an old servant. This sagacious dog has been celebrated for three thousand years, and his history is thus related in the Odyssey.

"Thus, near the gates conferring as they drew,
Argus, the dog his ancient master knew;

He, not unconscious of the voice, and treadf
Lifts to the sound his ear, and rears his head;
Bred by Ulysses, nourished at his board,
But ah! not fated long to please his lord!

To him, his swiftness and his strength were vain ;
The voice of glory called him o'er the main.
'Till then in every sylvan chase renowned,
With Argus, Argus, rung the woods around;
With him the youth pursued the goat or fawn,
Or traced the mazy leveret o'er the lawn.
Now left to man's ingratitude he lay,
Unhoused, neglected in the public way;

And where on heaps the rich manure was spread,
Obscene with reptiles, took his sordid bed.

He knew his lord; he knew, and strove to meet ;
In vain he strove, to crawl, and kiss his feet :
Yet (all he could) his tail, his ears,

his eyes,
Salute his master, and confess his joys.
Soft pity touched the mighty master's soul;
Adown his cheek a tear unbidden stole,

Stole unperceived; he turned his head, and dried
The drop humane; then thus impassioned cried :
What noble beast in this abandoned state
Lies here all helpless at Ulysses' gate?
His bulk and beauty speak no vulgar praise;
If, as he seems, he was in better days,

Some care his age deserves: or was he prized
For worthless beauty; therefore now despised!
Such dogs, and men there are, mere things of state,
And always cherished by their friends, the great.
Not Argus so (Eumæus thus enjoined)

But served a master of a nobler kind,
Who never, never shall behold him more !
Long, long since perished on a distant shore !
Oh had you seen him, vigorous, bold, and young,
Swift as a stag, and as a lion strong;

Him no fell savage on the plain withstood,
None 'scaped him, bosomed in the gloomy wood;
His eye how piercing, and his scent how true,
To wind the vapour in the tainted dew!
Such, when Ulysses left his natal coast:
Now years unnerve him, and his lord is lost!
The women keep the generous creature bare,
A sleek and idle race is all their care:
The master gone, the servants what restrains?
Or dwells Humanity where Riot reigns?
Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away,"

GREEK POETS.

It is not the province of a teacher limited to a literature purely English to afford much knowledge of the writers of ancient Greece. But these writers have recorded the religion, the moral sentiments, the domestic manners, and the public amusements of the Greeks; and matters of fact in relation to this people, if not the elegance of their language and the utmost refinement of their thoughts, are offered to common readers in the form of translation.

The connexion of the Greek literature with the English, is derived from this circumstance, that the greater part of our writers are classical scholars—have been instructed in the language and literature of Greece; and those who have not been thus instructed, have been informed in the spirit of the Greek literature by their intercourse with books and scholars, so that young persons who cultivate any knowledge of the literature of their own language, have need of some popular elementary information concerning the Greek.

The translations of Homer and the Greek dramatists are the best means which merely English students have to inform themselves of the fables, the religion, the public amusements, and the domestic life of the Greeks. Theatrical amusements are not approved by many religious persons, but, dramatic literature—written plays include so much of the poetry of Greece and England, that it is difficult to exclude it from the liberal studies of any young person.

The origin and progress of the Drama among the Greeks cannot be an unsuitable illustration of a collection of poetry, of which the professed object is to connect poetry with the history of nations, and the progress of society.

ESCHYLUS.

Eschylus was an Athenian of an honourable family, distinguished for the sublimity of his genius and the ardour of his martial spirit. In his youth he had read Homer with the warmest enthusiasm ; and finding his great master unrivalled in the Epic, he early conceived the design of creating a new province for himself, and forming the drama; so much we may be allowed to infer from the fable, that whilst he was yet a boy Bacchus appeared to him as he lay asleep in a vineyard, and commanded him