raphies and Mythology" we
find it related that Uranos, or Coelus, was the progenitor of all the
Grecian gods. His first children were the Centimanes; his next progeny
were the Cyclops, who were imprisoned in Tartarus because of their great
strength. This so angered their mother, Gaea, that she incited her
next-born children, the Titans, into a rebellion against their father,
Uranos. In the general turmoil that followed Uranos was deposed, and, so
that he would be incapable of begetting any more children, Saturnus, the
youngest of his sons, with a sickle made from a bright diamond,
successfully emasculated poor old Uranos. The records are not clear
whether the operation only included the penis, or the scrotum and
contents, or whether, like the Turkish or Chinese _taille a fleur de
ventre_, Saturnus made a clean sweep of all the genitals; it is
probable that he did, however, as the members fell into the sea, and in
the foam caused by the commotion from their contact with the element
Venus was born. Meanwhile, the blood that dripped from the wounded
surface caused the Giants, the Furies, and the Melian nymphs to spring
into life. Uranos is also represented as being the first king of
Atlantis; so that the first eunuch was a god and a king, more
unfortunate than any of Doran's heroes, in his "Monarchs Retired from
Business," because he was more effectually retired from business than
any monarch that Doran records.

After this the practice seems to have been adopted in a general way; and
the fact that the future proceedings of men and things on earth do not
much interest these unfortunate members of society in any great degree,
interest in worldly affairs and testicles seemingly having been as
intimately connected in those early and remote days as with us of the
present, it very naturally followed that this disinterestedness, as well
as the docility and pliability which emasculation engenders, first
suggested their use as servants or in position of trust, as a eunuch,
having no incentive either to run away or to embezzle, would naturally
be a valued and trusted servant. In the days of eunuchism there were no
defaulting bank, city, or county cashiers,--a circumstance which would
suggest that such a condition should form one of the qualifications for
eligibility to such offices, the very opposition to any such proposal
that the class would make showing in itself the benefits that would
follow such an innovation, as it would sho