n for such persons as were compelled to work on unlucky days;
and every one who repeated the verse reverently on the morning of an
unlucky day, was preserved from all the evils that would have
otherwise befallen him.

THE GODS AND GODDESSES OF HEATHEN NATIONS.

CHAPTER IX.

The Classification of Gods and Goddesses--Primeval
Parent Chaos--Creation--Influence of Ether--The Human
Race in danger of Perishing--Celestial Fire--Birth of
Cupid--Banishment of Cupid from the Blest
Abodes--Cupid's Armour--Fate--Eternal Decrees--Throne
of Jove--Fortune and Happiness--Misfortune and
Misery--Twofold Nature--Rewards and Punishments--First
Man and Woman--Pan the Emblem of all Things--Power of
Heathen Gods--Descriptions of Juno--Venus the Goddess
of Love and Beauty--Rustics turned into
Frogs--Vulcan--AEolus--Momus the Jester--The Carping
God's Fault-finding--Improper Position of the Bull's
Horns--Minerva as a House--Window in Man's Breast.

We do not intend to notice at great length the ancient opinions and
writings concerning the deities which heathen nations thought presided
over the world and the heavens, and influenced the affairs of the
spheres above and below; but as much of comparatively modern
superstition has been traced to mythology, generally so called, we
cannot pass without observation the history of the gods, nor avoid
giving such extracts therefrom as bear particularly on our subject,
"The Collected Mysteries of all Nations."

The gods and goddesses of heathen nations were classified as
follows:--1st, the celestial gods and goddesses; 2nd, the terrestrial
deities; 3rd, the marine and river gods and goddesses; 4th, the
infernal gods; 5th, the subordinate and miscellaneous deities; 6th,
the ascriptious gods, demigods, and heroes; and 7th, the modal
deities. Ancient writers speak thus:

"When the primeval parent Chaos, hoary with unnumbered ages, was first
moved by the breath of Erebus, she brought forth her enormous
first-born Hyle, and at the same portentous birth the amiable almighty
Eros, chief of the immortals. They had no sooner come to light than
they produced the terrible Titans."

Again we are informed that--"Ere the universe appeared; ere the sun
mounted on high, or the moon gave her pale light; ere the vales were
stretched out below, or the mountains reared their towering heads; ere
the winds began to blow, or the ri