* ASCRIBED TO THE R AtTLE-SNA K^. ^7S 



However, thofe who wifli to examine this part of the fubje6l 

 more fully, will, at leaft, receive fome degree of entertain- 

 ment from the perufal of the many authors who have believed 

 and aflerted, that ferpents poflefs a power of fafcinatirtg other ^ 



animals. 



That the belief in the exiftence of this power (hould have Credulity in the 



been fo general among the uninformed part of a people, ought gj^'^J^Jd-** 



not to be wondered at. The human mind, unenlightened by 



faience, or by confiderable refledion, is a foil rich in the 



weeds of fuperftition, and credulity. It is ever prone to 



believe in the wonderful, even when this belief, as is often 



the cafe, brings with it fears, and cares, and mifery. The 



bondage of the mind in fuperftitious credulity is great and 



heavy. Neither religion ^or virtue can give it its freedom. 



This it obtains from fcience. How important, then, even in 



this point of view, is the enlargement of the mind by fcience! ^"* '^ isftranga 

 r» • • r I r r n • rt i i- that men of 



But it is, lurely, a matter ot tome aitoniinment, that this ability have 



belief (liould have been admitted, in all the fulnefs of its ex- alfo admitted 



travagance, by men of learning, of obfervation, and of genius : 



by thofe who have the book of nature in their hands ; that book 



which will, in fome future and fome happier age, eradicate 



many of the prejudices which disfigure, and which mock the 



dignity of human nature: by claflical fcholars, grown old yji 



thediibeliefof fimilar fables, heightened and embelliflied hy the 



charms of poetry; and alfo by the infidel, who denies the 



authenticity of fcripture-miracles, ^qw of which, even though 



they were not fhown to be truths, a* e more improbable than 



the imaginary fa6l which I am examining. 



I have fought to difcover the original, or fource qf this This notion Is ^ 



belief. I do not find any traces of it among the ancient vVriters "°^ f°^"'^ j" 5^® 

 /••I y-> T-. Ti-1- ni-,1. writings of the 



1)1 either Greece or Rome. 1 think, it is molt likely that no anciems. 



fuch traces can be found. Lucan, had ferpents been thought 



to pofiefs a fafcinating faculty in his age, and in the country 



in which he lived, would, probably, have availed himfelf of 



its exifience, in his beautiful account of the march of Cato's 



army through the Libyan-Defert*; and had fuch a notion 



prevailed in the earlier days of Lacretius, would we not find 



Ibme mention made of it in the poem De Rerwn Natura, one 



of the fined and mod varied produdions of the human mind ? 



Clafiical fcholars may poflibly, however, difcover the dawn 



* Pharfalla, lib. IX. 

 Vol. VII.— April, 1804. T ' ©f 



i 



