1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described / Adapted to Private Schools, High Schools and Academies

Transcriber's Note
The front cover has been created by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader. The front cover is released into the public domain.
For ease of searching, names with a syllabic accent mark have been included initially without that accent, and all ligatures have been expanded (e.g. æ has become ae). Further, proper nouns in the main body of the text (but not in the quoted material) have been made consistent where there was either a definite typographic error or there was a clear prevalence of one form over another. A list of these changes may be found at the end of the text.
There were some instances of valid variable spellings which have been preserved as printed in each case. These include: Adrastaea, Adrasteia; Dionysus, Dionysius; Galatea, Galataea; Nemean, Nemaean; Perithous, Pirithous. The book also uses some archaic spelling, and this is also preserved as printed.
ADAPTED TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS, HIGH SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD S. ELLIS, M.A. Author of “The Young People’s Standard History of the United States” and “Common Errors in Writing and Speaking.”
———— COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY THE WOOLFALL COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HINDS & NOBLE ————
HINDS, HAYDEN & ELDREDGE, Inc. NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO
Diana

There are many expressions which, though simple in themselves, must forever remain beyond the grasp of human comprehension. Eternity, that which has neither end nor beginning, baffles the most profound human thought. It is impossible to think of a point beyond which there is absolutely nothing, or to imagine the passing of a million years without bringing us one day or one minute nearer to their close. Suppose that one could fix upon the terminal point, we would still fancy something beyond that, and then some period still more remote would present itself, and so on ad infinitum .
The same insurmountable difficulty confronts us when we seek to imagine a First Cause. God was the beginning, and yet it seems to our finite minds, that something must have brought Him into existence, and we conclude that back again of that creating Power must have been another originating cause, and perhaps still another, and so on without limitation.