with effect.'

'By the memory of old Coelus and these fast-flowing tears,' murmured the
venerable Oceanus, patting at the same time a crocodile on the back,
'I call you all to witness that I have no interest to deceive you.
Nevertheless, we should not forget that, in this affair of the
thunderbolts, it is the universal opinion that there is a very
considerable reaction. I have myself, only within these few days,
received authentic information that several have fallen of late without
any visible ill effects; and I am credibly assured that, during the late
storm in Thessaly, a thunderbolt was precipitated into the centre of a
vineyard, without affecting the flavour of a single grape.'

Here several of the Titans, who had gathered round Enceladus, shook
their heads and shrugged their shoulders, and a long and desultory
conversation ensued upon the copious and very controversial subject of
Re-action. In the meantime Rhoetus, a young Titan, whispered to one of
his companions, that for his part he was convinced that the only way
to beat the Olympians was to turn them into ridicule; and that he would
accordingly commence at once with the pasquinade on the private life of
Jupiter, and some peculiarly delicate criticisms on the characters of
the goddesses.

PART IV.

_Containing the First View of Elysium_

THE toilsome desert was at length passed, and the royal cavalcade
ascended the last chasm of mountains that divided Elysium, or the
Regions of Bliss, from the Realm of Twilight. As she quitted those
dim and dreary plains, the spirit of Proserpine grew lighter, and she
indulged in silent but agreeable anticipations of the scene which she
was now approaching. On reaching, however, the summit of the mountainous
chain, and proceeding a short distance over the rugged table-land into
which it now declined, her Majesty was rather alarmed at perceiving that
her progress was impeded by a shower of flame that extended, on either
side, as far as the eye could reach. Her alarm, however, was of short
continuance; for, on the production of his talisman by Tiresias, the
shower of flame instantly changed into silvery drops of rose-water and
other delicious perfumes. Amid joyous peals of laughter, and some
slight playful screams on the part of the ladies, the cavalcade ventured
through the ordeal. Now the effect of this magical bath was quite
marvellous. A burthen seemed suddenly to have been removed from the
spirits of the w