This is mere poetry to us, and very fine it is; but to him it was poetry, and religion, and beauty, and gravity and hushing awe, and a path as from one world to another.” […] To this nymph succeeded the chaste Castalia, whom he pursued to the very foot of Parnassus, where the Gods metamorphosed her into a fountain. […] Vulcan fixed his desires on Minerva; the Goddess of Wisdom, however, laughed his suit to scorn, and Vulcan is represented as having been very violent at his rejection. […] The statues and portraits of Mars, as the God of War, and consequently the winner of victory, have been very numerous. […] art hath nought like this, the very air Breatheth of beauty, banishing despair.”