THE religions of ancient Greece
           and Rome
        are extinct.

    The so-called divinities of Olympus
        have not a single worshipper
               among living men.

    They belong
          now not
               to the department of theology,
           but to
               those of literature and taste.

    There they still
           hold their place,
         and will continue
              to hold it,
         for they
            are too closely
                  connected with the finest productions
                       of poetry
                     and art,
           both ancient and modern,
         to pass into oblivion.

    We propose
          to tell the stories
              relating to them
          which have come
               down to us
                   from the ancients,
           and which
            are alluded to
                   by modern poets,
         essayists,
           and orators.

    Our readers
        may thus
               at the same time
              be entertained by the most
                  charming fictions
          which fancy has ever created,
           and put
               in possession
                   of information indispensable
                 to every one
             who would read
                   with intelligence
                       the elegant literature
                     of his own day.

    In order
          to understand these stories,
           it will be necessary
              to acquaint ourselves
                   with the ideas
                       of the structure
                     of the universe
              which prevailed
                   among the Greeks-
                       the people from
                  whom the Romans,
         and other nations through them,
           received their science and religion.

    The Greeks believed the earth
          to be flat and circular,
           their own country
              occupying the middle of it,
         the central point
            being either Mount Olympus,
           the abode of the gods,
         or Delphi,
           so famous for its oracle.

    The circular disk
           of the earth
        was crossed
               from west to east and
              divided into two equal
                   parts by the Sea,
           as they called the Mediterranean,
         and its continuation the Euxine,
           the only seas
             with which they were acquainted.

    Around the earth
        flowed the River Ocean,
           its course
            being from south to north
                   on the western side
                       of the earth,
         and in a contrary direction
               on the eastern side.

    It flowed in a steady,
           equable current,
         unvexed by storm or tempest.

    The sea,
           and all the rivers
               on earth,
         received their waters from it.

    The northern portion
           of the earth
        was supposed
              to be
                  inhabited by a happy race
                       named the Hyperboreans,
           dwelling in everlasting bliss
               and spring
             beyond the lofty mountains
             whose caverns
                were supposed
                      to send forth the piercing
                           blasts of the north wind,
         which chilled the people
               of Hellas
        (Greece).

    Their country
        was inaccessible
               by land or sea.

    They lived exempt from disease
          or old age,
           from toils and warfare.

    Moore has given us the
         "Song of a Hyperborean,"
            beginning

              "I come from a land in the sun-bright deep,
                 Where golden gardens glow,
               Where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep,
                 Their conch shells never blow."

    On the south side
           of the earth,
         close to the stream
               of Ocean,
         dwelt a people happy
               and virtuous
             as the Hyperboreans.

    They were named the AEthiopians.

    The gods
          favoured them so highly
         that they
            were wont
                  to leave
                       at times their Olympian abodes
                  and go
                      to share
                           their sacrifices and banquets.

    On the western margin
           of the earth,
         by the stream of Ocean,
         lay a happy place
               named the Elysian Plain,
           whither mortals
             favoured by the gods
            were transported
             without tasting of death,
         to enjoy
               an immortality of bliss.

    This happy region
        was also called the
         "Fortunate Fields,"
            and the "Isles
               of the Blessed."

    We thus see
         that the Greeks
               of the early ages
            knew little of
                   any real people
         except those
               to the east
                   and south
                       of their own country,
           or near the coast
               of the Mediterranean.

    Their imagination meantime