World-Knowledge.
| MISCELLANEA | [244] |
| PREDICTIONS OF SUCCESS | [247] |
Conclusion.
| EASE OF MIND | [250] |
| THE LIFE OF MAN | [251] |
| THE GOOD MAN’S LIFE | [253] |
| PREDICTIONS OF FLOWERS | [255] |
| THE WORLD’S CYCLES | [256] |
| DEATH ALL-ELOQUENT | [256] |
THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED.
Time.
The conventional personification of Time, with which every one is familiar, is the figure of Saturn, god of Time, represented as an old man, holding a scythe in his hand, and a serpent with its tail in its mouth, emblematical of the revolutions of the year: sometimes he carries an hour-glass, occasionally winged; to him is attributed the invention of the scythe. He is bald, except a lock on the forehead; hence Swift says: “Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby that we must take him (as we say) by the forelock; for when it is once passed, there is no recalling it.”
The scythe occurs in Shirley’s lines, written early in the seventeenth century: