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VERSTEGAN alleges that this Idol "repres sented both seres, as well man as woman, Ec. In her right hand she held a drawwe sword, and in her left a bow; signifying thereby that women, as well as men, should in time of need be ready to fight. Some has noured her for a God, and some for a Goddesse, but she was ordinarily taken rather for a Goddesse than a God, and was reputed the giver of peace and plenty, as also the causer and maker of love and amity.”

The Romans dedicated this day to VENUS, whence its name among them of Dies Veneris, feria sexta; and that goddess having possessed many of the attributes for which FRIGA was most celebrated, several authors have supposed them originally to have been the same divinity. It is, however, to be remarked, that an attendant upon FRIGA, called by the Northern nations Freya, agrees best in her alleged attributes with the Roman Venus; for although by degrees the whole of the powers and qualities of the two Saxon idols became concentrated in Friga, her attendant was originally worshipped "as the Goddess of Love," and "as the kind and liberal Goddess;" while Friga herself was adored as "the queen of the Gods," and consequently more resembled the Roman Juno than their Venus.

Saturday,

SEATER DÆG, Saxon; the seventh or last day in the week, received its name from the idol Sea ter, or Crodo, worshipped by our Saxon forefathers: the latter title, however, is seldom to be found in any other author than VERSTEGAN, from whom is extracted the following emblem and description of his attributes:

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"He was leane of visage, having long haire, and a long beard; and was bare-headed and bare-footed. In his left-hand he held up a wheele, and in his right he carried a paile of water, wherein were flowers and fruites. -is long coate was girded unto him with a towel of white linnen. His standing on the sharpe finns of a fish (the pearch) was to signifie, that the Sarons, for their serving him, should passe stedfastly, and without harme in dangerous and difficult places.—Bp the wheele was betokened the knit unity and conjoined concord of the Saxons, and their concurring together in the running one course.—Bp the girdle, which with the wind streamed from him, was signiffed the Sarons' freedom. -By the paile with the flowers and fruits, was declared, that, with kindly raine he would nourish the earth, tą bring forth such fruites and flowers.”

The seventh day was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn, and called, in honour of him, "Dies Saturni, feria septima," from which cause the Saxon Seater, and the Roman Saturn, have been considered by many as the same Deity; but whethér such conclusion be correct, or that "Seater, alias Crodo, was mistaken for Saturnus, not in regard of any saturnicall quality, but because his name sounded somewhat neere it, and his festivall day fell jump with that of Saturne," must remain in doubt; the arguments upon either side, are founded upon apparently equal and plausible reasoning; and at this remote distance from the first introduction of such heathenish idolatry, it is not probable that any further information will be obtained, to reconcile these different opinions.

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The two first days in the week, were indisputably dedicated, by both the Romans, and the Saxons, to the worship of the same orbs, which they regarded as gods, varying merely in name from the difference of their orthography; though nothing conclusive can be deduced from that coincidence, as to the idols of the other five days. The sun and moon are in their appearance preeminently conspicuous; and they became from that cause the principal objects of adoration, among most of the untaught nations, as well as among the antient Romans and Germans. Even to this time, those glorious luminaries are held in peculiar veneration, wherever mankind have been discovered in a savage state, though neither the Southern nor the Northern mythologies can possibly be known to them. The Romans, ambitious of dignifying their deities as much as possible, would fain have considered them as the source from whence arose the German idols; and the close affinity there appears to subsist between some of the alleged attributes of each, might seem, in some degree, to warrant such assumption, which "perhaps some of the Germans, for their idoll's more honour, were afterwards content to allow;" but nothing of a definitive nature can be adduced from such near similarity of powers; both nations were peculiarly addicted to warfare, licentious as to females, and swayed by superstition; both were alike conscious of the benefits derived to mankind from the influence of the seasons; and

both equally sensible of the tremendous effects of storms, and other elementary operations of nature. From these causes they might each reason❤ ably be expected to bestow upon their idols, powers and influences of the like tendency; yet although the idols of each, have had assigned to them nearly a similar superintending controul, they not only differ in their names, and in one instance in the day allotted to their worship, but our forefathers have transmitted to us the Saxon appellations of the days of the week, in preference to those of the Romans, notwithstanding they continued the Roman titles of the planets in our sphere, by which the Roman days received their

names.

Hour.

AN HOUR is that portion of duration, which consists usually of a twenty-fourth part of a mean natural day; though a day is sometimes reckoned, in this country, by two divisions of twelve parts, or hours each: one of these divisions is called equal, from its being an exact twenty-fourth part of the time, or the twenty-four hours occupied by the earth in its diurnal rotation, as shewn by well-regulated clocks or watches; the other division does not perfectly accord with the former

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