And as they turn, revolving Time is spun,
Whose motions all things upon earth ordain,
Whence revolutions date their fickle reign.
These robed in white, at equal distance throned,
Sit o'er the spheres, and twirl the spindle round,
On each of which a syren loudly sings,
As from the wheel the fatal thread she flings;
The Parcæ answer, in the choir agree
And all those voices make one harmony."
The worship of the Parcæ was well established in some parts of Greece, and though mankind knew they were inexorable, and that