The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long and arduous.

For Mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

The other classes of which society was composed were, first, freemen, owners of small portions of land, independent, though they sometimes voluntarily became the vassals of their more opulent neighbors, whose power was necessary for their protection.

If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation.

The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long and arduous.

The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean.