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The stars were the first recipients of the homage of mankind; and thus Heaven is the most ancient of the Gods. As the world increased they deified heroes.

The Gods of the ancients were divided into many classes. The principal, or Gods of the first order, amounted to twenty, viz:—Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Ceres, Mercury, Minerva, Vesta, Apollo, Diana, Venus, Mars, Vulcan, Destiny, Saturn, Genius, Pluto, Bacchus, Love, Cybele, and Proserpine. Besides these more important ones, they had others, such as Chaos; which did not belong to any particular class, and which were not the object of any faith.

"Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,

And Heaven's high canopy, that covers all,

One was the face of nature—if a face;

Rather a rude and indigested mass;

A lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed,

Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos named.

No sun was lighted up, the world to view;

No moon did yet her blunted horns renew;

Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky;

Nor poised, did on her own foundations lie;

Nor seas about their shores the arms had thrown;

But earth, and air, and water were in one.

Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,

And waters dark abyss unnavigable.

No certain form on any was imprest;

All were confused, and each disturbed the rest.

For hot and cold were in one body fix'd;

And soft with hard, and light with heavy mix'd.

But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,

To these intestine discords put an end:

Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driven,

And grosser air sunk from ethereal Heaven.

The force of fire ascended first on high,

And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:

Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;

Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.

Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng

Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.

About her coasts unruly waters roar,

And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.

Thus when the God, whatever God was he,

Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree,

That no unequal portions might be found,

He moulded earth into a spacious round:

Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blew;

And bade the congregated waters flow:

He adds the running springs, and standing lakes,

And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.

Some part in earth are swallowed up; the most

In ample oceans disembogued, are lost:

He shades the woods, the valleys he restrains

With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.

And as five zones the ethereal regions bind,

Five, correspondent, are to earth assigned:

The sun with rays, directly darting down,

Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone:

The two beneath the distant poles, complain

Of endless winter, and perpetual rain."

Ovid.

Chaos is often mentioned in the history of the Gods, but seems only to have had a momentary reign. He is the most ancient of all, for he presided over the elements that composed the universe. He is usually represented at the moment that he assigned to each element its place. To create the light of day, he repelled all the dark and thick clouds, and then formed the zodiac, glittering with stars above his head.

The poetic idea of Chaos is found in sacred history, in the creation, as well as in all mythology, where we see the names of Bramah, Vishnu, and Siva.