The god and goddess of light were the glorious twin brother and sister, Phœbus Apollo and Diana or Artemis.  They were born in the isle of Delos, which was caused to rise out of the sea to save their mother, Latona, from the horrid serpent, Python, who wanted to devour her.  Gods were born strong and mighty; and the first thing Apollo did was to slay the serpent at Delphi with his arrows.  Here was a dim remembrance of the promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, and also a thought of the way Light slays the dragon of darkness with his beams.  Apollo was lord of the day, and Diana queen of the night.  They were as bright and pure as the thought of man could make them, and always young.  The beams or rays were their arrows, and so Diana was a huntress, always in the woods with her nymphs; and she was so modest, that once, when an unfortunate wanderer, named Actæon, came on her with her nymphs by chance when they were bathing in a stream, she splashed some water in his face and turned him into a stag, so that his own dogs gave chase to him and killed him.  I am afraid Apollo and Diana were rather cruel; but the darting rays of the sun and moon kill sometimes as well as bless; and so they were the senders of all sharp, sudden strokes.  There was a queen called Niobe, who had six sons and daughters so bright and fair that she boasted that they were equal to Apollo and Diana, which made Latona so angry, that she sent her son and daughter to slay them all with their darts.  The unhappy Niobe, thus punished for her impiety, wept a river of tears till she was turned into stone.