it was impossible to mitigate their decrees, yet they evinced a respect for their divinity, by raising statues to them.
N I G H T.
Nox, one of the most ancient deities among the heathens, was the daughter of Chaos. From her union with her brother Erebus, she gave birth to day and light: she is called by some of the poets, the mother of all things, of gods no less than of men, and was worshipped with great solemnity by the ancients, who erected to her a famous statue in Diana's temple at Ephesus. The cock was offered to her, as the bird which proclaims the coming of the day. She is drawn mounted on a chariot, and covered with a veil bespangled with stars, and the constellations preceded her as her messengers.
Sometimes she is seen holding two children under her arms, one of which is dark like night, and the other light like day.
"Night, when like perfumes that have slept
All day within the wild flower's heart,
Steal out the thoughts the soul has kept
In silence and apart: