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The Scientific Library; Or, Repository of Useful and Polite Literature (1818)
The Scientific Library Or Repository of Useful and Polite Literature - 1818 Author:Thomas Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: manner, and earnestly begged leave to qucr ber thirst; bufthey remained inexorable, ami even leaped into the water to muddy the stream. This barbarous treatment ... more »exasperated her so much that she exclaimed, " "May ye always live in this water." Accordingly they were turned into frogs, and passed the remainder of their days in the muddy stream. CHAPTER IV. Of the Terrestrial Gods. OF SATURN. SATURN is generally represented as an old man, bowed down with age and infirmity; his checks arc. thin and hollow, his forehead full of furrows, and his eyes sunk. He holds a scythe in his right hand, with a serpent whii-l seems biting his own tail, and in his left bam! he holds a child, which he raises up, as if preparing to devour it. He was the son of Crelus or Uranus, by Terra or Thea. After cruelly mutilating his father, he obtained the kingdom, by the consent of his elder brother, provideiH lie did not bring up any male children. In con-' M'|iri'M';r- of this agreement, Saturn always . voured his sons as soon as they were born, til! his wife concealed the birth of Jupiter, Kep. lane and Pluto, imd instead nf the children. gave him stones to devour. Some time afterwards he was dethroned anil imprisoned by the Titans, but Jupiter effected his liberation. Regardless of this kindness, however, he conspired against the life of Jupiter, and on that account was deposed and driven into exile. He then fled to Janus, king of Italy, who received him courteously, and even made him his partner on the throne. Saturn now applied himself to the most beneficial avocations; civilizing the barbarous manners of the inhabitants of Italy, and instructing them in the noble art of agriculture. His reign, also, was so mild and beneficent, that the ancient poets have called it the golden age, to express...« less