I indulged this fancy till I was lost in its contemplation.....and insensibly slumbered into a sweet repose, from which I was awakened by melodious tones.........floating above me........and which I found proceeded from the lyre of the God. I was affected by this celestial harmony, which transported my feelings,..........and I felt captivated by sounds excelling all the perfection of human execution......It was such as Apollo......alone.......could breathe...... Apollo.....from whose instruments the spheres are harmonised.........the Gods delighted........and all Olympus wrapt in wonder. My whole soul was absorbed in the individual sense of hearing....it seemed to quit my body.....and soar above the clouds. Suddenly......the music ceased. My mind had sufficient employment for the remainder of the night....Sleep forsook my eyes completely. I communicated this circumstance next day to Theogiton, who heard me with perfect composure.........but after making me repeat the particulars, he agreed that it might possibly be Apollo,.....or one of the Muses. Shall I confess it.....without knowing why, I wished ardently that it might have been one of the divine Sisters, rather than the God.......I repaired every night to the same spot, hoping to hear the lovely Muse again, but was disappointed.......It proved to be Apollo himself. In one of these regular visits....... while I was endeavoring to content myself with the inanimate company of the Cypress Nymphs.........a ray of superior brightness darted full into the grotto...The natural gloom of the place.......thus irradiated......foreboded to my heated fancy.....the celestial anticipation of some extraordinary event. Judge my astonishment!.......when the God of Day.....forsaking the entwining arms of his lovely Thetis...... appeared before me.....giving splendor to the gloom of night. His golden ringlets flowed gracefully adown his shoulders.....a godlike circle of exceeding brightness shone around his forehead........his sky-blue mantle glittered with ten thousand diamonds.....and his left arm supported his melodious lyre. I shrank from the glorious vision.... I did not dare to tempt the lustre of those eyes.....whose brilliant beams illuminate the world;....but my imagination supplied each beauty of the God, which reverence prevented me from gazing upon attentively. The divine Apollo approached me .......condescendingly applauded my zeal, and devotion to celestial objects .....and my contempt for all that was terrestrial. He encouraged me to persevere, and to resign myself to the influence of the immortal powers...... and gave me hopes of being admitted to his cordial patronage. He then disappeared.....and so invisibly.....I could not perceive it. My mind was full of this phenomenon....and so strongly prepossessed....I should have believed equally in the divinity of the vision, even had it been less ably sustained. When I told Theogiton of this theophany........he wished me joy.......and compared me with heroes of old who had been so favored by the Deities..... till they attained the rank of Demigods, with the attendant distinction of their priests....altars....and sacrifices. He recounted such particular anecdotes as he thought best calculated to increase my folly....instructed me how to conduct myself if Apollo should appear a second time before me.....and particularly enforced the system of passive obedience. In fact, he studied so artfully to close my eyes, that his very caution would have unmasked the deception to a less bigotted ideot than myself...nor should I ever have doubted this religious hypocrite, had not accident completely detected his specious fraud. To be concise.......after a variety of disgraceful impositions, I found....to my infinite surprise....that Apollo was no other than Theogiton. Instead of being confused at this discovery.......he instantly changed his tone.....assured me he had devised this apparent artifice purposely to wean my infatuated mind from the indulgence of its darling propensity, which he thought he could not do so well as |