upiter.

* * * * *

This was performed accordingly, the eldest sister presenting herself
before the vessel, and introducing it with an apology for what they had
done.

* * * * *

"O Jupiter!" says she, "we have gathered together all the good and evil,
the comforts and distresses of human life, which we thus present before
thee in one promiscuous heap. We beseech thee that thou thyself wilt
sort them out for the future, as in thy wisdom thou shalt think fit. For
we acknowledge, that there is none beside thee that can judge what will
occasion grief or joy in the heart of a human creature, and what will
prove a blessing or a calamity to the person on whom it is bestowed."

No. 147. [ADDISON AND STEELE.

From _Thurs., March 16_, to _Satur., March 18, 1709-10_.

----Ut ameris, amabilis esto.--OVID., Ars Am. ii. 107.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, March 17._

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. As by the one,
health is preserved, strengthened and invigorated; by the other, virtue
(which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished and
confirmed. But as exercise becomes tedious and painful when we make use
of it only as the means of health, so reading is apt to grow uneasy and
burdensome, when we apply ourselves to it only for our improvement in
virtue. For this reason, the virtue which we gather from a fable, or an
allegory, is like the health we get by hunting; as we are engaged in an
agreeable pursuit that draws us on with pleasure, and makes us
insensible of the fatigues that accompany it.

After this preface, I shall set down a very beautiful allegorical fable
out of the great poet whom I mentioned in my last paper, and whom it is
very difficult to lay aside when one is engaged in the reading of him.
And this I particularly design for the use of several of my fair
correspondents, who in their letters have complained to me, that they
have lost the affections of their husbands, and desire my advice how to
recover them.

Juno, says Homer,[159] seeing her Jupiter seated on the top of Mount
Ida, and knowing that he had conceived an aversion to her, began to
study how she should regain his affections, and make herself amiable to
him. With this thought she immediately retired into her chamber, where
she bathed herself in ambrosia, which gave he