128 



CERES CERUSE. 



emperors formerly used the term thou in addressing 

 other princes. The we, by which monarchs style 

 themselves, is used either from an assumption of state, 

 or from a feeling of modesty, on the supposition that 

 / would sound despotical, wiiile we seems to include 

 the whole administration, &c.; but the first reason is 

 the more probable. 



CERES (with the Greeks, Demeter, or Deo.) She 

 is particularly the goddess of the earth, or the pro- 

 ductive and fruitful earth. She was distinguished, 

 especially, as the inventress of agriculture (hence 

 her attributes of blades und ears of corn), and also as 

 the founder of civil society, who fixed the wandering 

 savages to the soil, and thus softened their manners, 

 gave them the rights of property, the protection of 

 laws, (hence her name Thesmophoros), and with these 

 a love of country. These ideas are suitably expressed 

 in tlie works of art. She was the daughter of Saturn 

 and Rhea, born near Enna, hi Sicily, which refers to 

 the fruitfulness of tliat island. By Jupiter, her brother, 

 she was mother of Proserpine. When her daughter 

 was afterwards carried off by Pluto, Ceres resqlved 

 to wander over the whole earth, in the human shape, 

 in search of her. She lighted her torch at the fires 

 of . K t ii;i , and mounted her chariot, drawn by drag- 

 ons. But her endeavours were fruitless. Hecate 

 merely informed her that she liad heard the cries of 

 the ravished maid. She arrived, at last, at Eleusis, 

 where the hospitable Celeus received her. When 

 she departed from his house, she permitted him to 

 consecrate to her, in that place, an altar and temple, 

 gave to his son Triptolemus her chariot drawn by 

 dragons, and taught him the cultivation of wheat, 

 that he might spread it over the whole earth, and 

 distribute among men the gifts of the goddess. At 

 length, the all-seeing eyes of the god of day dis- 

 covered to her the residence of her beloved daughter, 

 and, filled with anger, she demanded of Jupiter her 

 restoration from hell. Jupiter granted her petition 

 on condition that Proserpine had eaten nothing in 

 Pluto's realms. But she had, in fact, eaten part of 

 a pomegranate. Ceres, therefore, obtained her re- 

 quest only so for as this, that her daughter was 

 allowed to remain half the year in the upper world. 

 After finding Proserpine, she revoked the curse which 

 she had pronounced upon the earth, and restored to 

 it life and fertility. Jasion, to whom was attri- 

 buted the introduction of agriculture into Crete, 

 was, by her, the father of Plutus, the god of riches. 

 Jupiter, inflamed with jealousy, slew Jasion with 

 a thunderbolt. All these circumstances refer to 

 the invention and extending of agriculture. " Ceres 

 has," says Hirt, " in the representations of her, the 

 same lofty stature and the same matronly appearance 

 as Juno ; yet there is something milder in her aspect 

 than in that of the queen of the gods ; her eye is less 

 widely opened, and softer, her forehead lower, and, 

 instead of the high diadem, her hair is bound with a 

 light wreath or a simple band." She has in her hand 

 a torch, often a sickle, a horn of plenty, or a wreath. 

 Her festivals in Rome were called the Cerealian ; in 

 Greece, Thesmophorian and Eleusinian. (See Egyp- 

 tian Mythology.) Concerning the planet of this name, 

 see Planets. 



CEREUS, NIGHT-BLOOMING. See Cactu*. 



CERIGO (anciently Cythera), an island in the 

 Mediterranean, separated from the Morea by a nar- 

 row strait, and belonging to the Ionian republic of 

 the Seven Islands ; Ion. 23 E. ; lat. 36" 28' N. ; po- 

 pulation, 8 or 10,000 ; sq. m. 95. It is dry and moun- 

 tainous, and produces neither corn, wine, nor oil, 

 sufficient for the inhabitants ; yet some of the valleys 

 are fertile : sheep, hares, quails, turtles, and falcons 

 are abundant. It was anciently sacred to Venus. 



CERIGO or KUPSULI (anciently Cytkera), a 



town on the. west coast of the island of Cerigo, de- 

 fended by acastle, situated on ;i sharp rock, surround- 

 ed by the sea, with a small harbour ; Ion. 22 54' 

 E. ; lat. 30 28' N. ; population 1,200. It is the see 

 of a Greek bishop. 



CERINTHUS. See Gnostics &i\d Millennium. 



CERIUM, a rare metal, was discovered in 1803, 

 by M. M. Hisinger and Berzelius, in a Swedish min- 

 eral, known by the name of cerite. Dr Thomson lias 

 since found it, to the extent of 34 percent., in a 

 mineral from Greenland, called allanite. The pro- 

 perties of-cerium are, in a great measure, unkno\\i. 

 It is a brittle, wliite metal, wliich resists the action ot 

 nitric, but is dissolved by nitro-muriatic acid. 



CERQUOZ/I, MICHAEL ANCJELO ; a Roman paint 

 er of the seventeenth century, who received the sur- 

 name delle battaglie (battle painter), and at a later 

 period, that of delle bombocciate, because, in imitation 

 of Peter Laar, he painted ludicrous scenes taken from 

 low life. In the palace Spada, at Rome, is a picture 

 representing Masaniello among the Lazzaroni, paint- 

 ed by him. He was born at Rome, in 1602, and died 

 in 1660. 



CERTIORARI, in law; a writ, the purport of 

 which is to remove convictions, orders or proceed- 

 ings before magistrates, indictments, and records in 

 civil actions before judgment, and, under special cir- 

 cumstances, after judgment, from inferior courts into 

 the courts above, with a view that the party may 

 have justice done to him, or that the superior court 

 may see whether the justices or court below, before 

 which the proceedings have taken place previously 

 to the certiorari being obtained, have kept within the 

 limits of their jurisdiction. This writ, from the mo- 

 ment of its delivery to the judges of the court below 

 or magistrate, suspends their power, and any subse- 

 quent proceedings by them are void and coram non 

 judice. Although the writ of certiorari removes the 

 record from the inferior court into the court above, 

 yet the court above does not take up the cause where 

 the proceedings stopped, but begins de novo. 



CERUSE, or white lead, is an oxyde of lead, satu- 

 rated with carbonic acid, and is prepared as an article 

 of commerce, by the action of acetic acid on the me 

 tal. Plates of lead, being exposed to the vapours 

 arising from boiling vinegar, are oxydized by the ac- 

 tion of the air and the affinity of the acid. To obtain 

 it in large quantities^ plates of lead, about three feet 

 long, six inches broad, and one line thick, are rolled 

 up in such a manner, that a space of half an inch or 

 an inch is left between each roll. These rolls are 

 fixed, perpendicularly, in earthen vessels, which, at 

 the bottom, contain strong vinegar. The latter, 

 however, must not touch the plates ; and, to prevent 

 this, some little bars are placed over it, in the form 

 of a cross. The vessels are then covered with plates 

 of lead, and, being placed horizontally in tan or horse- 

 dung, are exposed to a gentle heat. The vinegar 

 now rises in vapours, which settle on the surfaces of 

 the lead plates, penetrate them, and dissolve a great 

 portion of the metal. In the space of from three to 

 six weeks, the vapours of the acetic acid become satu- 

 rated with lead, and change the latter into a whitish 

 substance, which, after some time, is scraped off the 

 plates, unrolled for this purpose. The plates are 

 then rolled up again, and the same process is repeat- 

 ed. Ceruse is extensively used in the manufacture 

 of oil' paints, and, for this purpose, it is reduced to a 

 fine powder. The pounding and bruising, however, 

 are extremely injurious to the health. The dust, if 

 swallowed, causes a dangerous disease, called the 

 painter's colic. Mr Ward, an Englishman, invented 

 a machine to guard against its pernicious effects. 

 Much of the ceruse which is sold in the shops is adul- 

 terated by a mixture of chalk. 



