the place which, according to the ancient poets, the souls of the blessed inhabited. By Homer it was placed in the vicinity of Oceanus, and on the extreme con- fines of the earth. Here Nature produced her most deli- cious fruits without assistance from the hand of man. No winter storm ever obscured the brilliancy of the atmosphere; but cooling zephyrs refreshed the air, and waited on their wings the most delightful perfumes. Admission into this realm of pleasure and repose was a favour which could only be purchased by an irreproachable life, or by brilliant ex- ploits. The souls of the dead had to appear before the awful tribunal of the infernal judges, Aecus, Minos, and Rhadamantus, who decided without appeal upon their claims, and either allowed them to pass into Elysium or con- demned them to the torments of Tartarus. This part of the myth has evidently allusion to an Egyptian custom, accord- ing to which one could only obtain the right of burial in certain privileged cemeteries after undergoing a severe scrutiny of his life and conduct. It is curious to observe the various changes of position in respect to the Elysian Fields, as a more intimate acquaintance with geography successively dispelled the erroneous impressions derived from the foolish statements of travellers. The Greeks in the earlier ages placed them in the district of Thes- protia, where they also found the Acheron, Cocytus, and Avernus; and it was to this elysium that Homer tells us Mercury conducted the souls of the suitors of Penelope, after they had been slain by Ulysses. But they afterwards transported the Elysian Fields and Avernus to the vicinity of Baiae in Campania.

Largior hic campos sather et lumine vestit Purpureo; sollemneque summ, tua siserna norunt.

It was not till later times that these imaginary abodes were fixed at the extremity of Iberia, where they found the Lethe, "that slow and silent stream, the river of oblivion," now called Guadalete, as well as another of the same name in Lusitania.