Then let the sun go deeply down, And evening o’er the landscape frown―― My thoughts on wings of hope shall rise To yon fair orbs beyond the skies. And if, awhile, we tread the glade Where clouds and darkness cast their shade, Yet here――e’en here――hope’s wizard wand Shall stud the gloom with stars beyond. [Illustration: MERRY’S MUSEUM. FEBRUARY, 1843. Vol. V. No. 2.] Sources of History. History is a record of past events. _Sacred_ history is the account that is given us in the Bible; this furnishes the only authentic history of the creation of the world and the things that immediately happened. It is the only book that tells us of Adam and Eve; of Cain and Abel; of the tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues; of the flood of waters; of Noah and his family; of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; of David and Solomon; and generally of the Jewish nation, and the way of salvation to man, through a Redeemer. _Profane_ history means that which is written by men, in distinction from sacred history, which is written by the inspiration of God. Profane history, when it would tell us of the early ages of the world, has a great mixture of fable, and is very uncertain in its representations. This is the fact with the history of Greece. It is chiefly furnished by the poets, who picked up stories handed down by tradition, and embellished them with fictions of their own. Thus they heard marvellous tales about a man called Jupiter, that lived in remote ages; and was celebrated alike for his wisdom, for his extensive possessions, and the influence he exercised over the people around him. Well, the poets began to weave up stories about Jupiter: one said he did this, another said he did that. So they went on, each trying to exceed the other, in some wonderful tale of this wonderful man. The people listened eagerly to these stories; and thus encouraged, the poets went on composing songs and ballads, until they had made out Jupiter to be a god who lived in Mount Olympus, manufacturing thunder and lightning, ruling over the land and the sea, controlling the seasons, swaying mankind, and governing the whole troop of gods and goddesses throughout the world. This is the way the fiction of Jupiter was devised and executed, and may serve as a hint at the means by which the whole mythology of Egypt, Greece and Rome, was fabricated.