Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/33

 the heavenly bodies under and above the motionless disk of the earth with the stars rolling round in long-drawn notes of celestial sweetness audible only to the gods.

The ancient people imagined that before the earth was smoothed out flat in its present attractive form, the whole world was tumbled together in great confusion,—land, air, sea, sky, hot, cold, soft, hard, light and heavy all mixed and melting in a desolate mass presided over by the god Chaos. Chaos was dethroned by the God of Darkness, who in turn was dethroned by Light and Day. Light and Day, being orderly, industriously sorted the earth from the sea and extracted the heavens from both. The fiery part was cast into the sky where it splintered into stars, while the earth, "a lifeless lump, unfashion'd and unfram'd," was heaped in a big, broad mound with a deep and terrifying stream of waters flowing around it. Then Uranus, the Heavens, noting his superior position, took the scepter away from Light and Day and became the first ruler of the created world. Love was then born and the Earth, entranced, hemmed in her valleys and extended her plains, made paths for the rivers and beds for the lakes. The seeds, relieved of weight, burst their coverings, and the hills became green with foliage and the meadows brilliant with flowers. The world was now beautiful, and Heaven looked down on the colorful earth, and Earth looked up into the starry eyes of Heaven, and love grew, and the Earth became the Heaven's bride.

In the course of time, Uranus began to seriously consider his numerous and somewhat fearful progeny, for the huge Titans, the one-eyed Cyclops and the hundred-handed giants were here and there and everywhere about the land. Foreseeing that his sovereignty might eventually become imperiled, he picked up the Cyclops and Hecatońcheires and thrust them out of sight into the Pit of Darkness.

Such heartless conduct on the part of her husband aroused the