the
operation of the Fates are hidden, but descend by the means and
interposition of the stars, wherefore it is necessary that all inferior
things submit to the cares, calamities, and death which the Fates bring
upon them, without any possibility of resisting the divine will.

Hesiod relates of Hec{)a}te, to show the extent of her power, that
Jupiter had heaped gifts and honors upon her far above all the other
deities; that she was empress of the earth and sea, and all things which
are comprehended in the compass of the heavens; that she was a goddess
easy to be entreated, kind, and always ready to do good, bountiful of
gold and riches, which are wholly in her power; that whatever springs
from seed, whether in heaven, or on earth, is subject to her, and that
she governs the fates of all things.

PALES was a rural goddess of the Romans. She was properly the divinity
of shepherds, and the tutelar deity and protectress of their flocks. Her
votaries had usually wooden images of her. A feast called Palilia or
Parilia was celebrated on the twenty-first of April, or, according to
some, in May, in the open fields. The offerings were milk and cakes of
millet, in order to engage her to defend their flocks from wild beasts
and infectious diseases. As part of the ceremony, they burned heaps of
straw, and leaped over them. Some make Pales the same with Vesta or
Cyb{)e}le. This goddess is represented as an old woman.

FLORA, the goddess of flowers, was a Roman deity. The ancients made her
the wife of Zephyrus, to intimate that Flora, or the natural heat of the
plant, must concur with the influence of the warmest wind for the
production of flowers. Varro reckons Flora among the ancient deities of
the Sabines, which were received into Rome on the union of the Sabines
with the Romans. Ovid says, that her Greek name was Chloris, and that
the Latins changed it into Flora.

FERONIA was the goddess of woods and orchards. She is called Feronia
from the verb _fero, to bring forth_, because she _produced_ and
_propagated_ trees, or from Fer{=o}n{)i}ci, a town situated near the
foot of Mount Soracte, in Italy, where was a wood, and a temple
dedicated to her; which town and wood are mentioned by Virgil, in his
catalogue of the forces of Turnus. The Lacedemonians first introduced
her worship into Italy under Evander; for these people, being offended
at the rigor of the laws of Lycurgus, resolved to seek out some new
plantation, and arriving,