method of accomplishing their purpose. They made a net of strong ropes, proportioned in size to that of the serpent, so as to hold him if they could but entangle him in it. To accomplish this, they watched a time when he left his cave to seek for prey, and blocked up its mouth with large stones. Then at a little distance, they spread the net over a space of ground, and kept themselves as silent as as they could, till the serpent's return, when he found his abode beset by a host of armed men, horses, and dogs. At first, on discovering this, the monster raised his head to a great height, so as to overlook men, horses and all, uttering frightful hissings. But being intimidated at the great number of his foes, and as the darts and (iron) arrows," shot from steel bows, "assailing him from every quarter, he rushed with violence to the entrance of his cave. But finding this blocked up, and at a loss how to escape from the attack of the hunters, the noise of their trumpets and dogs, he turned to flee, or to fight, when they drew the net around him, in which he became entangled, and soon wearied himself with tremendous efforts to break through, but was subdued, and conveyed to Alexandria, to the great astonishment of the populace, where he was kept in a place fited up for his reception. If the passion of anger and rage, is an evidence of the subtilty of serpents, then have they the pre-eminence over all other creatures, and especially the boa, the anaconda, with the crested basiliscus of India; but we do not know that this circumstance is evidence.

Now a serpent of either of these kinds, but especially the anaconda, as it is the longest of all land serpents, rolling or whirling its folds in a pyramid along the earth, as Milton has supposed, towering on high, glittering in its glory of maculated splendor, would not be an unseemly minister of the arch fiend, whereby to introduce himself to Eve, the queen of the earth, and of the human race, on a business which was to determine the fates of millions, so far as the sufferings of this life was concerned, at least.

To give the reader an idea of the brilliant thought of Milton, respecting the original form and manner of the moving of the serpent, as it existed on the plains of Paradise, we present a plate of the creature, beneath the thick boughs of a tree, around which are entwined the redundant foliage of the grape vine, laden with fruit as large as apples. (See the Plate.)

But as it respects certainty about the foregoing, in identifying the true animal by which Eve was destroyed, the reader will have his own belief; yet the writer of these sheets inclines to the opinion that it was the Orang-outang, because that creature is the most cunning, the most artful, and the most subtil of all the animals of the globe, and approaches nearer to man, both in intellect and form, than any other creature. The female suckles her young at the breast, holding it in her arms, the same

as a woman would do, fondling it with equal delight and endear

ment.

As a powerful evidence that the serpent was the animal which Satan made use of on the occasion of the fall, as thought by many, is the circumstance of the universal terror this creature inspires, when met with by man; imagining that in this fact is fulfilled the word of God, which was addressed to the serpent, at the time he was judged, in the garden with Adam and Eve; which was, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it (Christ) shall bruise thy head, (the devil,) and thou (devil) shalt bruise his (Christ's) heel," in death. Christ is the seed here meant, which was emphatically the seed of the woman, (Mary) and not of man; which cannot be said of any other daughter of Adam's race, as it is from the man that the germinating principle of human existence proceeds. The enmity therefore, which is here alluded to, was to exist between Satan and Christ, and not between the human race and the race of snakes, or any other animal; as it is said in scripture, that Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and to bruise Satan under the feet of the saints, according to the New Testament, and has nothing to do with the shuddering sensations felt when we meet with this reptile. But Universalists believe this enmity consisted in the opposition the heavenly man and the earthly man had to each other in the human breast, when first created. But this idea is exploded, when we recollect that God could never have been the author of two contending powers in the same human soul, as it came first from his hand, the one an enemy to all righteousness, and the other consonant to all holiness; as this would seem to be a conflict, between the powers of the mind and the passions, set on foot by the creator, for no other purpose than man's ruin.

"Thou shalt bruise his heel:-this is understood of Christ, the seed of the woman. His heel means, first his humanity, whereby he trod upon the earth, and which the devil by the instrumentality of wicked men, bruised and killed. Second his people, his members, whom Satan in divers ways bruises, vexes, and afflicts, while they are on earth, but cannot reach either Christ their head in heaven, or themselves, when they shall be advanced thither. In this verse therefore, notice is given of a perpetual quarrel commenced between the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of the devil, among men; war is proclaimed between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, the devil." Rev. xii. 17. Benson's Commentary on Genesis, 3d Chap.

But were we to conclude, that the word of God in the above respect is fulfilled, in the circumstance of the inclination we feel to kill this frightful reptile when met with, and the inclination of serpents to bite whatever comes in their way, we do not perceive,

that by this, any great thing worthy of the divine foresight, or of use to man, is made out; as all snakes will die some how or other, even if this enmity had never existed. It is true nevertheless, that a natural enmity exists between serpents and men, and also, between the serpent tribes and all other animals; but wholly on account of the poison fang of smaller serpents of various kinds, and of the bone breaking power of the larger, which have not the poison teeth; and this is reason enough, without superadding the influence of Satan, to those two qualifications.

Whoever may have contemplated a serpent of the larger kinds, or even the common rattlesnake, and especially its head, will bear witness, that there is assembled all that is necessary to constitute horror, to freeze the blood, to paralize courage, and to cower the fiercest eye, whether of man or beast; as if the audacious spirits, the fallen angels, had taken up their abode in the bodies of serpents. The terrifying form of a serpent's head above that of all other animals, must have been the reason why the son of Sirach, the writer of the book of Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxv. 15, has said, "there is no head above the head of a serpent." Apocrypha.

ture.

There is no animal which will fight more obstinately than the serpent, with any creature which attacks it. There is nothing which can inspire equal terror with the anaconda and great li-boa; a whole town or neighborhood, in the countries where they are found, is thrown into the utmost consternation, if it is but announced that an animal of this sort has been seen anywhere near, none daring to stir abroad till the creature's deparIn certain districts of both Africa and South America, the serpents have so multiplied, of all sorts, as that they have obtained exclusive possession, frightening away every other creature, even animals of the most ferocious description. Regulus, a Roman general, nearly three hundred years B. C., while leading his army along the banks of the river Bagrada, in Africa, met with a serpent, which disputed his passage across, destroying great numbers of his men, which he however killed, with his battering rams and catapulta, machines formed for the purpose of heaving large stones with force and precision. Pliny, the most learned of the Roman historians who flourished in the first century, states that he had seen the skin of this serpent, and that it was one hundred and twenty feet in length.

Though we have indulged our thoughts at some length on the subject of serpents, yet we cannot well forbear to give an account which respects the power of serpents to charm or fascinate such creatures as venture to gaze steadfastly upon its eyes. But whether such a power, if it cxists, is the result of subtilty and cunning, or is the mere force of instinct, in the animal, is the question, which, as yet is not decided, and ma ny doubt it altogether. Few human beings so far as we have

heard, have tried by experiment, whether they have this power or not; one, however, as related by a pioneer settler and hunter in the early times of Vermont, states the following respecting himself.

"In one of my hunting excursions, on a fine morning, accompanied by my wife, (as we were but just married,) the sun was shining warm and sultry, while all above was clear and bright. I had left my companion at a certain place, beneath the shade of a young pine, for a short time, in pursuit of game, which drew up a steep, ledgy hill, and while struggling to ascend, I was startled by a quick grating rattle very near me; when looking eagerly about, I discovered a short space before me, on a smooth rock which lay fair to the sun, a large rattlesnake, coiling himself, to make the deadly spring. The serpent was within a few feet of me, and I paused for a moment, ere I should kill it, to survey it. But while doing so, yet I know not why, a strange feeling of curiosity came over me, which unaccountably fixed my attention. Suddenly the snake unwound his coil, as if relenting from its purpose of hostility, and raising his head he fixed his bright eyes directly upon my own. A chilling and incredible sensation, totally different from any thing I had ever before experienced, followed this movemement of the serpent. Yet I stood still and gazed steadily and earnestly, for at that moment there was a visible change in the reptile: his form seemed to grow larger and his colors brighter. His body now seemed to move with a slow and almost imperceptible motion toward me, while there came a low hum of music from him, or at least it sounded in my ear, a strange sweet melody, faint as from the throat of the humming bird. Then the tints of his body deepened, and changed, and glowed with green, purple, scarlet, and gold, until I lost sight of the serpent entirely, seeing only wild and curiously woven circles of various colors, quivering around me like an atmosphere of rainbows. I seemed in the centre of a great prison,a world of mysterious colors: the tints varied, and darkened, and lighted up again, around me, and the low music went on without ceasing, until my brain reeled, and fear now for the first, came like a shadow over me. This sensation gained upon me rapidly, and I could feel the cold sweat gushing from my brow. I had no certainty of danger in my mind-no definite ideas of peril-all was vague and clouded like the unaccountable terrors of a dream; and yet my limbs shook and I fancied I could feel the blood stiffening with cold as it passed along my veins. I would have given worlds to have been able to tear myself from the spot; I even attempted to do so, or thought I did: but the body obeyed not the impulse of the mind-not a muscle moved, I yet stood still, as if my feet had grown to the solid rock, with the infernal music of the tempter in my ear, and the baleful colorings of enchantment around me. Suddenly a new sound

came on my ear-it was a human voice; but it seemed strange, and awful-again-again-but I stirred not-and then a white form stood beside me, and grasped my arm; it was my wife. With her touch the horrible spell was broken-the strange colors passed away from my vision. The rattlesnake was coiling at my feet, with burning eyes, reckless of danger; when with a quick stamp of one foot-having on shoes of hard leather-I crushed its head to powder-and thus I escaped."

But whether the larger kinds, as the boa, anaconda, &c. have this power is unknown, yet it is supposed they have not, as there appears no necessity of its being thus endowed; their agility and strength being equal to all their necessities. The steady unvarying glare of the rattlesnake, is aided by its never winking, as nature has covered their eyes with a transparent shining substance, which protects it from injury, and answers a better purpose as they burrow in the earth-than eyelids, like other animals.

Adaptation appears to characterize all the works of God, as well as first principles, starting points, and data. Man, therefore, is the starting point of all animal creation, as he stands at their head in the perfection of limbs, and intellect, and power of improvement and expression by speech. From this data, we therefore judge, that as animals approach in their forms, to that of man, that also their intellect conforms to the same rule. If this be so, we at once perceive that the Orang-outang is the creature marked by Moses, as the instrument of the devil in the ruin of man; because the shape of that creature is more like man than any other; while that of a serpent is farther removed from that form than the whole creation besides being nothing more than a congeries of long muscles, like a rope made from the fibres of hemp, having a head at one end and a tail at the other, without legs arms or wings, and is next in grade on the descending scale to the very worms of the dust, and could never therefore, have been the animal of the text of Moses, as it is not the subtilest beast of all the field; while the Orang-outang, in our opinion, most certainly is, and was therefore the identical animal. But as conclusive on this subject, the identity of the kind of animal in question, we are able to give the evidence of an accredited writer of great celebrity, who lived a thousand years before the time of Christ, that whatever animal it was; it was not a snake, and that the snake was not considered, in his time, as a beast of as much subtilty as the other animals of creation. This writer was the famous Solomon, of the Scriptures, whose wisdom has been celebrated in all ages and countries, since his time. Respecting his opinion about the subtilty of snakes, see Book of Wisdom, chap. xi. 15, where, speaking of the worship of the Egyptians in the time of Moses, he says, that from "the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived, they wor