Ages of the World

The Greek and Roman poets made four ages, named after the metals, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. The first pa ed in peace and plenty under the mild rule of Cronos (Saturn); the others became each worse than the preceding, till the present, the Iron Age, is one of fraud and toil and suffering. When it set in, Astraea went back to heaven, and Zeus destroyed the race by a flood in order to begin anew. Lucretius makes three ages, of stone, bronze, and iron, according to the material of which tools were succe ively made. American Aloe ( Agave american a ).