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The contest of Venus for the golden apple of Discord is well known. She gained the prize over Pallas and Juno, and rewarded her impartial judge with the hand of the fairest woman in the world. The worship of Venus was universally established; statues and temples were erected to her in every kingdom, and the ancients were fond of paying homage to a divinity by whose influence alone mankind existed. Victims were seldom offered to her, or her altars stained with blood, though we find Aspasia making repeated sacrifices. No pigs, however, were deemed acceptable. A kitten was once sacrificed to her by a priestess on the 6th October. The Rose, the Myrtle, and the Apple, were sacred to Venus; and among birds, the Dove, the Swan, and the Sparrow, were her favourites; and among fishes, those called the Aphya, and the Lycostomus. The Goddess of Beauty was represented among the ancients in different formas. At Elis she appeared seated on a Goat, with one foot resting on a Tortoise. At Sparta and Cythera, she was represented armed like Minerva, and sometimes wearing chains on her feet. In the temple of Jupiter Olympius, she was represented by Phidias as rising from the sea, received by Love, and crowned by the Goddess of Persuasion. At Cnidos her statue, made by Praxiteles, represented her naked, with one hand hiding what modesty keeps concealed. Her statue at Elephantis was the same, with only a naked Cupid by her side. In Sicyon she held a Poppy in one hand, and in the other an Apple, while on her head she had a crown, which terminated in a point, to intimate the pole. The most beautiful representation of Venus is by Apelles; she is there rising out of the sea, and wringing her tresses on her shoulder. Vide Anadyomene. Cic. de Nat. D. 2. c. 27. l. 3. c. 23. Orpheus Hymn. 54. Hesiod. Theog. Sappho. Homer, Hymn. in Ven. &c. Virg. Aen. 5. v. 800, &c. Ovid. Heroid. 15, 16, 19, &c. Met. 4. fab. 5, &c. Diod. 1 and 5. Hygin. fab. 94, 271. Paus. 2. c. 1. 1. 4. c. 30. 1. 5. c. 18. Martial. 6. ep. 13. Eurip. in Hel. in Iphig. in Troad. Plut. in Erotic. Aelian. V. H. 12. c. 1. Athen. 12, &c. Catullus. Lactant. de falsâ rê. Calaber. 11. Lucian. dial. &c. Strab. 14. Tacit. Ann. 3, &c. Val. Max. 8. c. 11. Plin. 36. Horat. 3. Od. 26. 1. 4. Od. 11, &c.

Some writers consider the Planet Venus as denominated from its being a Planet which, rising as an evening Star, was feigned to be the sign for all lovers to come abroad to serenade their favourites. A Star, therefore, "Quam Venus ante alios astrorum diliget ignes," called by the Greeks Phosphorus, and by the Latins Lucifer, when it rises before

the sun; but when it follows it, Hesperus or Vesper. Cic. de Nat. 2. c. 20. in somn. Scip.

Of Fortuna Virilis, celebrated today, the following account is given by Lemprière. On the 1st of April, which was consecrated to Venus among the Romans, the Italian widows and marriageable virgins assembled in the temple of Virile Fortune, and after burning incense, and stripping themselves of their garments, they intreated the goddess to hide from the eyes of their husbands whatever defects there might be on their bodies. The Goddess of Fortune is represented on ancient monuments with a horn of plenty, and sometimes two, in her hands. She is blindfolded, and generally holds a wheel in her hands, as an emblem of her inconstancy. Sometimes she appears with wings, and treads upon the prow of a ship, holding a rudder in her hands. Dionys. Hal. 4. Ovid. Fast. 6. v. 569. Plut. in fort. Rom. et in Cor. Cic. de Div. 2. Liv. 10. Augustin. de Civ. D. 4. Flor. 1. Val. Max. 1. c. 5. Lucan. 2, &c. Ovid addresses the Roman Ladies to this effect:

You Roman ladies, who with loose attire
Fan amorous thoughts, and kindle soft desire!
Of all your blooming charms display the store;
'Tis Love's enticing goddess you adore.
Take from her ivory neck the golden lace,
And strip her of her ornamental dress.
The washing of the goddess all attend,
And dextrously your kind assistance lend;
Then all her gaudy ornaments restore,
And dress her out, as she was dressed before;
And what the gardens plentiful allow,
Such vernal flowers around her image strow.
You also must be washed, with Myrtle crowned.
The reason learn, for here the reason's found.
As, naked on the beach she combed her hair,
A crowd of wanton satyrs spied her there;
But soon with Myrtles she her beauties veiled,
From whence this annual custom was entailed.
Now, ladies, learn why manly fortune claims
A boon of frankincense from Roman dames,
And why it must be paid near Tiber's streams.

We now come to the consideration of the Rites, Customs, and Superstitions of this day, among the more modern nations of Europe.

ON ALL FOOLS' DAY, APRIL 1.

Of the remote origin of this title, there seem some doubts; but most agree in explaining it Old or Auld Fools' Day, which, in the old Catholic Romish Calendar, was transferred to the first of January. The following passage on this day occurs in an Essay to retrieve the Ancient

Celtic:-"There is nothing hardly that will bear a clearer' demonstration than that the primitive Christians, by way of conciliating the Pagans to a better worship, humoured their prejudices by yielding to a conformity of names, and even of customs, where they did not essentially interfere with the fundamentals of the Gospel doctrine. This was done in order to quiet their possession, and to secure their tenure: an admirable expedient, and extremely fit, in those barbarous times, to prevent the people from returning to their old religion. Among these, in imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, was the Festum Fatuorum, when part of the jollity of the season was a burlesque election of a mock Pope, mock Cardinals, and mock Bishops, attended by a thousand absurd ceremonies, gambols, and anticks."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine also, vol. liii. for July 1783, p. 578, conjectures that "the custom of imposing upon and ridiculing people on the first of April, may have an allusion to the mockery of the Saviour of the World by the Jews. Something like this, which we call making April Fools, is practised also abroad in Catholic countries on Innocents' Day, on which occasion people run through all the rooms, making a pretended search in and under the beds, in memory, I believe, of the search made by Herod for the discovery and destruction of the child Jesus, and his having been imposed upon and deceived by the Wise Men, who, contrary to his orders and expectation, ' returned to their own country another way.""

The French have their All Fools' Day, and call the person imposed upon Poisson d'Avril, whom we term an April Fool. Bellingen, in his Etymology of French Proverbs, gives us the following explanation of this custom. The word Poisson, he contends, is corrupted through the ignorance of the people from Passion; and length of time has almost totally defaced the original intention, which was as follows: that, as the Passion of our Saviour took place about this time of the year, and as the Jews sent Christ backwards and forwards to mock and torment him, i. e. from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, this ridiculous, or rather impious custom, took its rise from thence, by which we send about, from one place to another, such persons as we think proper objects of our ridicule. Such is Bellingen's explanation.

Calling this "All Fools' Day" seems to be the same day as the Feast of Fools, which was held on the 1st of January, of which a very particular description may be found in Du Cange's Glossary, under the word Kalendae.

The following curious passage, communicated by W. Walter, of Christ's College, Cambridge, is inserted in Brand's Popular Antiquities, edited by Ellis: - Δια τι τα Κυριναλια ΜΩΡΩΝ ΕΟΡΤΗΝ ονομαζουσιν; η οτι την ημεραν ταυτην απεδεδωκεσαν (ως Ιωβας φησι) τοις τας αυτων φατρίας αγνοουσιν" η τοις μη θυσασιν, ώσπες οι λοιποι, κατα φυλας εν τοις φουρνακαλίοις, δι ασχολια η αποδη μιαν η αγνοιαν εδόθη τη ημέρα ταύτη την εορτην εκείνην απολαβειν. That is," Why do they call the Quirinalia the Feast of Fools? Either, because they allowed this day (as Juba tells us) to those who could not ascertain their own tribes, or because they permitted those who had missed the celebration of the Fornacalia in their proper tribes, along with the rest of the people, either out of negligence, absence, or ignorance, to hold their festival apart on this day."-Plu. Quaest. Rom. Opera, cum Xylandri Notis, fol. Franc. 1599, tom. ii. p. 285.

At present All Fools' Day is universally considered to be April the first, and its former connexion with the eleventh of the kalends of March, that is February 19, makes no difference in our identification of the feasts.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the popular customs which formerly took place, and many of which still prevail on this day, is to subjoin some of the best known poetical selections on the subject.

In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1760 is a metrical description of the modern fooleries on the 1st of April, as follows:

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves, do know.

But on this day are people sent

On purpose for pure merriment;

And though the day is known before,

Yet frequently there is great store

Of these Forgetfuls to be found,

Who 're sent to dance Moll Dixon's round;

And having tried each shop and stall,

And disappointed at them all,

At last some tells them of the cheat;

Then they return from the pursuit,

And straightway home with shame they run,

And others laugh at what is done.

But 'tis a thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest Fool reputed,
The Man that innocently went,
Or he that him designedly sent.

In "The First of April, or Triumphs of Folly," 4to. Lond. 1777, we also find:

'Twas on the morn when April doth appear,

And wets the Primrose with her maiden tear;

'Twas on the morn when laughing Folly rules,
And calls her sons around, and dubs them Fools,
Bids them be bold, some untryed path explore,
And do such deeds as Fools ne'er did before.

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Brand says, that "in the North of England persons thus imposed upon are called April Gowks.' A Gouk or Gowk is properly a Cuckoo, and is used here, metaphorically, in vulgar language, for a Fool. The Cuckoo is, indeed, every where a name of contempt. Gauch, in the Teutonic, is rendered stultus, fool; whence also our Northern word, a Goke, or a Gawky."

In Scotland, on April Day, they have a custom of hunting the Gowk, as it is termed. This is done by sending silly people upon fools' errands, from place to place, by means of a letter, in which is written :

On the first day of Aprile

Hunt the Gowk another mile.

The following elegant verses on this light subject are taken from "Julia, or Last Follies," 4to. 1798, p. 37:

To a Lady who threatened to make the Author an April Fool.
Why strive, dear Girl, to make a Fool

Of one not wise before;

Yet, having scaped from Folly's School,
Would fain go there no more?

Ah! if I must to school again,
Wilt thou my teacher be?
I'm sure no lesson will be vain
Which thou canst give to me?
One of thy kind and gentle looks,
Thy smiles devoid of art,
Avail, beyond all crabbed books,
To regulate my heart.

Thou need'st not call some fairy elf,

On any April Day,

To make thy bard forget himself,

Or wander from his way.

One thing he never can forget,
Whatever change may be,

The sacred hour when first he met
And fondly gazed on thee.

A seed then fell into his breast;
Thy spirit placed it there:
Need 1, my Julia, tell the rest?

Thou see'st the blossoms here.

The following is extracted from the Public Advertiser, April 13, 1789:

66

Humorous Jewish Origin of the Custom of making Fools on the First of April.-This is said to have begun from the

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