Let me now try to give you, however briefly, some distinct
idea of the several agencies of this great goddess.
31. I. She is the air giving life and health to all animals.
II. She is the air giving vegetative power to the earth.
III. She is the air giving motion to the sea, and rendering
navigation possible.
IV. She is the air nourishing artificial light, torch or lamplight;
as opposed to that of the sun, on one hand, and of consuming*
fire on the other.
V. She is the air conveying vibration of sound.
* Not a scientific, but a very practical and expressive distinction.
I will give you instances of her agency in all these functions.
32. First, and chiefly, she is air as the spirit of life, giving
vitality to the blood. Her psychic relation to the vital force in matter
lies deeper, and we will examine it afterwards; but a great number of the
most interesting passages in Homer regard her as flying over the earth in
local and transitory strength, simply and merely the goddess of fresh
air.
It is curious that the British city which has somewhat saucily styled
itself the Modern Athens is indeed more under her especial tutelage and
favor in this respect than perhaps any other town in the island.
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