The figure of Pan represents the universe, and is a dolineation of nature and the rough face which it first wore, while his spotted robe of a leopard's skin represents the starry heavens. His person is a compound of various and opposite parts, rational and irrational, a man and a goat; so is the world; an all-governing mind and heterogeneous, prolific elements pervade and constitute it.

Pan's symbol of the pipes is most eloquently expressive of nature's divine, harmonious constitution, and of the order and measure that govern all her works, producing that solemn movement called the music of the spheres; imperceptible indeed to our material organ, but so delightful and pleasing to the ear of the mind. This wondrous

reed on which he incessantly plays, is composed of seven pipes, unequal among themselves, but fitted together in such just proportion as to produce the most unerring and melodious notes, calling forth the echo, which poets have made the object of his love.

The worship and the different functions of Pan, were derived from the mythology of the Egyptians. This deity was one of the eight great gods that they worshipped, ranking before the other gods, which the Romans called Consentes. They regarded him as the emblem of fecundity, and the principle of all things; therefore the Greeks gave him the appellation of Pan. He was worshipped with great solemnity at Mendes.

By the Arcadians he was venerated as the chief of the rural deities. Herdsmen and shepherds are said to have dreaded the sight of Pan, yet they regarded him as the tutelary deity of themselves, and of their flocks and herds, and brought him frequent offerings of milk and honey. Sacrifices were offered to him in a deep cave in the midst of a wood. The Athenians had a statue of him like that of Mars, and in some antique gems and sculptures his figure is nearly as formidable as that of the Medusa.

At Rome, there was a yearly festival celebrated in honor of Lupercus, or the Grecian Pan, with whom he was identified. This celebration took place on the 15th of February, and was called Lupercalia. The priests who officiated, and who were dedicated to the service of Pan, were called Luperci. This order of priests was the most ancient and respectable of all the sacerdotal offices. It was divided into two separate colleges, called Fabiani and Quintiliani, from Fabius and Quintilius, two of the high priests. The former were instituted in honor of Romulus, and the latter of Remus.

A goat was sacrificed to Pan, to which a dog was added because as god of shepherds he protected the sheepfold

from the devouring wolf. The priests touched with a bloody knife the foreheads of two illustrious youths, who were obliged to smile during the ceremony; the blood was then wiped off with a bit of wool dipped in milk. After this, the skins of the victims were cut into thongs, with which whips were made for the youths, who ran about the streets, using them freely on all whom they met.

According to Baronius, Pope Gelasius abolished the Lupercalia in the year 469 of the Christian era.

PARCE OR FATES.

The Parcæ were daughters of Night, or an invisible, overruling power. According to some, the daughters of Necessity, or the necessary connection of things-by which is meant the Creator's eternal and immovable essence, to which the fable of her daughters, and their fatal spindle plainly points.

This necessary connection of things, or necessity itself, called by the Greeks Moira and Heimarmene, and by the Romans Fatum, was that mysterious power, which, with invisible sceptre, ruled over gods and men The inexorable Parca were the attendants of this unknown being, and presided chiefly over the life and fate of mortal men.

They were three in number, according to the triple division of time into past, present, and future. Their everrunning thread is partly spun and wound up, partly just drawn out and twisting, and partly as yet on the distaff. Clotho holds the distaff, and is ever furnishing the present; Lachesis (allotment) spinning the thread of life, lays out the future; and Atropos (irreversion) with the fatal scis. sors cuts it off, severing the past; so that the grand transaction of time is not badly represented in the fable. But as Plato has nobly said, "All this is nothing but God himself, who, according to the ancient tradition, having the beginning, middle, and end of all things in his power,

keeps one straight, steady course according to nature, with his inseparable adherent, Justice, who is ever ready to avenge the least deviation from his divine law."

Although the Parcæ signify that terrific power which governs as it were from the dark, whose decrees are passed as soon as conceived, and against which there is no resistance, yet, they are represented as beautiful females, spinning, and joining at the same time in the song of the Sirens. In high and unlimited power, all things are easily accomplished; and the resistance even of the mighty finds in this height its termination. To prescribe bounds to all revolutions, only the slightest touch of the fingers is requisite, and to manage the mysterious course of events is made the easiest work of a female hand. This beautiful representation of the thread of life, delicately spun and easily severed, cannot be equalled by any other. The thread does not break, but is cut off; and the cause of this

lies in a superior power, which has already firmly and irrevocably disposed of what gods and men still strive to accomplish in their own way.

Ancient representations of the Parce by the hand of art are seldom found. Upon the gems which antiquity has left us, Lachesis, who spins the thread of life, and is sometimes called the handsome daughter of Necessity, is represented in youthful beauty, seated, and spinning, having one distaff before and another behind her, and at her feet lie a comic and tragic mask. These masks are among the happiest allusions to human life, if we behold it with all its serious and comic scenes. Unaffected by either, she cannot be diverted from her purpose; but, during their course, the tender and delicate finger of the goddess never ceases to turn the fatal thread.

Another gem shows Lachesis leaning against a pillar in a quiet posture, carelessly holding a distaff in her left hand, and playing as it were with the thread of destiny. This quiet attitude in which the sublime goddess of destiny looks down upon the far extended designs of men, is an extremely beautiful idea of the ancient artist. For while gods exert all their power, and mortals all their strength to bring their plans and views to bear, this goddess, smiling, playfully holds the thread on which depend the limits of all things, even the proudest projects of gods and men.

In vain, for instance, does Jupiter endeavor to preserve the life of his son, Sarpedon, in the battle of Troy, against the will of Fate. "Wo's me," he exclaims, "that my son, Sarpedon, must fall under the hand of Patroclos, according to the doom of Fate." And although he would gladly rescue his son, yet his power must yield before that of the inexorable goddess, Nothing is left to his own will, but to deliver the body to his messengers, Death and sweet