Virgil  represents  her  in  colours  yet  more  dark.
£t  scissa  gaudens  vadit  discordia  palla
Quam  consanguineo  sequitur  Bellona  flagello.
.£neid.  lib.  viii.
et  discordia  demens
Vipereum  crinem  vittis  innexa  cruentis.      ^n.  lib.  vl.
The  picture  of  Petronius  is  yet  more  striking  and  poetical :

hujus  in  ore
Concretus  sanguis,  contusaque  lumina  flebant.
Stabant  irati  scabrd  nibigine  dentes,
Tabo  lingua  fluens,  obessa  draconibus  ora,
Atque  in  toto  laceratam  pectore  vestem
Sanguinea  tremulam  quatiebat  lampada  dextra.    Petr.  Salys.
t  Hesiod.  Th^.  lib.  iv.  The  simplicity  of  Hesiod  did  not
think  it  necessary  to  conceal  the  vices  of  his  gods.  His  works  con-
tain the  essential  spirit  of  the  Greek  mythology.
\  Seneca  speaks  of  (Edipus  as — Phoebi  reus — and  the  excla-
maticiD  of  the  suflfering  hero^Fecimusccelum  nocens,^-8ufficiehtly
explains  the  nature  of  his  faith.  Seneca  CEdip.  In  this  tragedy
the  poet  sometimes  elevates  the  rhetorician,  but  the  rhetorician
more  frequently  subdues  the  poet.
PROVIDENCE.  W

nodiing  certain  in  human  affairs,  and  that  the  rulers
of  the  worldy  influenced  neither  by  benevolence  nor
by  wisdom,  cast  all  life  into  confusion,  and  min-
gled, as  they  pleased,  reverses  and  contradictions  in
die  concerns  of  men*.
A  providence  of  such  a  character  was  well  calcu^
hted  to  excite,  at  one  moment,  emotions  of  terror^
at  another,  of  contempt  We,  accordingly,  find
diat  the  popular  faith  frequently  vibrated  between
diese  contradictory  impressions.  The  language  of
saperstidon  was  often  succeeded  by  that  of  impiety,
the  language  of  impiety  by  that  of  superstitionf.
He  who  trembled  at  an  evil  omen,  could  yet  dare
to  insult  his  gods:}; ;  and  the  populace  themselves^
idolatrous  as  they  were,  could  rush,  in  a  moment  of
irritation,  to  the  shrines  of  their  deities,  and  stone,
with  infatuated  indignation,  the  wonted  objects  of
dieir  reverence  and  fear  ||.
