SATIRE, in literature, a species of writing, generally poetical, the object of which is always castigation. It presup poses nut merely much natural wit, hut also acute observation, and much variety of life and manners to call this wit into exercise. Satire, in the literary sense of the word, as designating a species of composition, is usually confined to a spe cies of poetry ; but prose works, of which the contents a-re of a satirical character, are often comprehended under the same appellation. Dramatic writings, also, are not satires in the stricter sense of the word, although their contents be of a satirical character. According to their subjects, satires are divided into political and moral, awl these again severally subdivided into personal and general. Political satires, in almost every lan guage, have been nearly confined to prose; the moral satire alone has found its a ppropriate vehicle in verse. The only Greek satirist of whom any frag ments hare reached us was Archilochus, and his tittacks were evidently directed against individuals. Aristophanes pos sessed a vein of satirical power, both in the indignant and ludicrous strain, which has never been surpassed ; and his dra mas contain not only sarcasms on indi viduals, but also political and ethical les sons of the highest value. But the moral satire, properly so called, was invented by the Romans, not only in form, but in substance also, and by them carried to perfection; and it is reinarkable that the only species of Roman poetry which has any degree of originality is that which would seem to have accorded the least with the grave and austere turn of the genuine Roman character. In the liter ature of the modern nations, the fate of satire has been similar to that which has befallen many other species of composi tion. The name and form of the ancient
satire have been preserved by many wri ters, who have produced, for the most part, little besides cold or exaggerated imitations of antiquity. But the true spirit of satire, in its moral beauty, its humor, and its delicate irony, has been inherited by others, who had too much originality of thought to tie down their genius to an antiquated form of writing. SATTRDAY, the last day of the week. The Scandinavians, and from them the Saxons, had a deity named Seater, from whom the English name of the dies Sa turnii of the Romans may be derived; but the subject is by no means clear. SATURN, an Italian deity having many points of similarity with the Grecian Kronos, with whom he is, ac cordingly, frequently identified. He seems to have been originally the god of earth, (of which his wife Tellus, Ops, or Rhea was the goddess,) and presided over tillage, of which the sickle he car ried was the symbol. The treasury at Rome was in his temple. The Grecian Kronos was the youngest son of Heaven and. Earth, and the fatter of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, and Pluto. He usurped the sovereignty, and was in his turn de posed and imprisoned by Jupiter. His reign was celebrated by the ancient poets as the golden age. The whole history of this deity is probably allegorical. The name itself, with a slight variation signi fies time, and his attribute of the sickle, together with the account of his being the son of Heaven, by whose himinaries time is measured, and the husband of Rhea (flowing,) and of his devouring his own progeny, are corroborative of this conjec ture.