Through thick and thin away they dash,
(Such rapid driving is always rash!)

When all at once, with a dreadful crash,
establishment' went to smash !

The whole

And Phaethon, he,

As all agree,

Off the coach was suddenly hurled

Into a puddle, and out of the world!

MORAL.

Don't rashly take to dangerous courses,
Nor set it down in your table of forces,
That any one man equals any four horses.
Don't swear by the Styx !

It's one of Old Nick's

Diabolical tricks

To get people into a regular 'fix,'

And hold 'em there as fast as bricks!

In the first book of the "Iliad," Apollo is represented as the god of pestilence. He it is who brings unnumbered woes to Greece by means of a contagious disease which "heaped the camp with mountains of the dead.”

The story of Phaëthon gives us Apollo as the sungod. Among the Romans the seven days of the week were dedicated each to a god or goddess, and the first was sacred to Apollo, hence our name Sunday.

The greatest of Christian artists, Raphael, found in these myths subjects not unworthy of his genius, and among the famous paintings in the Vatican galleries are seven by this master, called "The Days of the Week," representing Apollo, Diana, Mars, Mercury, Jove, Venus, and Saturn.

DIANA, Lat.; SĒLĒ'NE, Gr.

SELENE, daughter of Hyperion and Thea, represented the moon. The name signifies wanderer among the stars. She was supposed to drive her chariot across the sky whilst her brother Apollo was reposing after the toils of the day.

When the shades of evening began to enfold the earth, the two milk-white steeds of Selene rose out of the mysterious depths of Oceanus. Seated in a silvery chariot appeared the mild and gentle queen of the night, with a crescent on her fair brow, a gauzy veil flowing behind, and a lighted torch in her hand.

It was said that Selene loved Endym'ion, on whom Jupiter had bestowed the gift of perpetual youth, but united with perpetual sleep, and that she descended to gaze on him every night on the summit of Mount Lăt'mos, the place of his repose.

The name Endymion denotes the sudden plunge of the sun into the sea.

Longfellow makes use of this myth in the following

poem.

ENDYMION.

The rising moon has hid the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,

Lie on the landscape green,
With shadows brown between.

And silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana, in her dreams,

Had dropt her silver bow
Upon the meadows low.

D

It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep Are Life's oblivion, the soul's sleep, And kisses the closed eyes

Of him, who slumbering lies.

O weary hearts! O slumbering eyes!
O drooping souls whose destinies

Are fraught with fear and pain,
Ye shall be loved again!

No one is so accursed by fate,

No one so utterly desolate,

But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.

-

Responds, as if with unseen wings, An angel touched its quivering strings; And whispers, in its song,

"Where hast thou stayed so long?"