of wealth, and other interests than those of commerce.  And, lastly, if the myth complete itself to the fulfilled thoughts of the nation, by attributing to the gods, whom they have carved out of their fantasy, continual presence with their own souls; and their every effort for good is finally guided by the sense of the companionship, the praise, and the pure will of immortals, we shall be able to follow them into this last circle of their faith only in the degree in which the better parts of our own beings have been also stirred by the aspects of nature, or strengthened by her laws.  It may be easy to prove that the ascent of Apollo in his chariot signifies nothing but the rising of the sun.  But what does the sunrise itself signify to us?  If only languid return to frivolous amusement, or fruitless labor, it will, indeed, not be easy for us to conceive the power, over a Greek, of the name of Apollo.  But if, fir us also, as for the Greek, the sunrise means daily restoration to the sense of passionate gladness and of perfect life—­if it means the thrilling of new strength through every nerve,—­the shedding over us of a better peace than the peace of night, in the power of the dawn,—­and the purging of evil vision and fear by the baptism of its dew;—­if the sun itself is an influence, to us also, of spiritual good—­and becomes thus in reality, not in imagination, to us also, a spiritual power,—­we may then soon over-pass the narrow limit of conception which kept that power impersonal, and rise with the Greek to the thought of an angel who rejoiced as a strong man to run his course, whose voice calling to life and to labor rang round the earth, and whose going forth was to the ends of heaven.

9.  The time, then, at which I shall take up for you, as well as I can decipher it, the traditions of the gods of Greece, shall be near the beginning of its central and formed faith,—­about 500 B.C.,—­a faith of which the character is perfectly represented by Pindar and AEschylus, who are both of them outspokenly religious, and entirely sincere men; while we may always look back to find the less developed thought of the preceding epoch given by Homer, in a more occult, subtle, half-instinctive, and involuntary way.

10.  Now, at that culminating period of the Greek religion, we find, under one governing Lord of all things, four subordinate elemental forces, and four spiritual powers living in them and commanding them.  The elements are of course the well-known four of the ancient world,—­ the earth, the waters, the fire, and the air; and the living powers of them are Demeter, the Latin Ceres; Poseidon, the Latin Neptune; Apollo, who has retained always his Greek name; and Athena, the Latin Minerva.  Each of these are descended from, or changed from, more ancient, and therefore more mystic, deities of the earth and heaven, and of a finer element of aether supposed to be beyond the heavens;* but at this time we find the four quite definite, both in their kingdoms and in their personalities.  They are the rulers of the earth that we tread upon, and the air that we breathe; and are with us closely, in their vivid humanity, as the dust that they animate, and the winds that they bridle.  I shall briefly define for you the range of their separate dominions, and then follow, as far as we have time, the most interesting of the legends which relate to the queen of the air.