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The beautiful Endymion, grandchild of Jupiter, having dared to offer his
guilty love to Juno, he was condemned to live for ever in the infernal
regions. However, smitten with his charms, as Diana saw him sleeping on the
mountain of Latmos, she snatched him from the power of Pluto, and placed
him in a grotto, where she came down from Heaven every night to enjoy his
society.
[Illustration]
----------"Crescented Dian, who
'Tis said once wandered from the wastes of blue,
And all for love; filling a shepherd's dreams
With beauty and delight. He slept, he slept,
And on his eyelids white, the huntress wept
Till morning, and looked thro', on nights like this
His lashes dark, and left her dewy kiss;
But never more upon the Latmos hill
May she descend to kiss that forest boy,
And give--receive, gentle and innocent joy
When clouds are distant far and winds are still:
Her bound is circumscribed, and curbed her will.
Those were immortal stories: are they gone?
The pale queen is dethroned--Endymion
Hath vanished--; and the worship of this earth
Is vowed to golden gods of vulgar birth!"