Of course
ACTAEON'S conduct cannot be defended, but then his punishment was
altogether too severe. There is every reason to suppose that DIANA
wanted some one to accidentally notice her proficiency in swimming, else
why should she have chosen a place of popular resort for her bath? And
then the simple nudity in which she was surprised was not nearly as
suggestive as the peculiar costumes in which our fashionable ladies
now-a-days enter the surf in the presence of admiring crowds. However,
ideas change with successive ages, and what we now consider perfectly
proper would probably have brought any quantity of blushes to the cheek
of the young person of Athens or Rome. Among the Olympians DIANA was a
common scold, and made herself as disagreeable to the goddesses as to
the gods. Since she ceased to be openly worshipped she has been in a
measure forgotten among men, but the strong-minded women still regard
her with love and reverence, and it is understood that her statue,
together with a painting representing her in the act of setting the
dogs on ACTAEON, are among the most prominent decorations of the Sorosis
Club-room and the _Revolution_ office.
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