70 



A NATURAL HISTORY 



Aptilelus^ and others. And feeing the infpired Apoflle gives them 

 that Name (^Magicians) not as a Mark of Infamy, but a Title of 

 Honour, therefore does the EugHPi Tranllation llile them Wife- 

 men^ fuch as the old Greeks called o-o^^jj, Sages of theit^ ^ime^. 

 How, and how far this Art is degenerated, I refer to the Judgment 

 of the Learned: We fee there are Revolutions in Words, as well 

 as in Families and Kingdoms j a Magiciafi being formerly a IVife- 

 inan^ as well as a Knave an honeft one. Sed tempora mutantur. 



I Shall only add to the Afpick SubjeB^ the Tribute of Ve- 

 neration paid to this poifonous Animal in the Land of Egypt. 

 The Hiftorian fpeaks of a certain Perfon, who in digging, hap- 

 pened unawares to cut an Afp with his Spade, and went mad up- 

 on it,— -was taken into the Houfe of Serat)is^ an Egyptian Idol, — 

 the Relatives of the Patient praying the Spe^rian of that Serpent 



might be deftroyed, which being accordingly done by Magick 



Art, the Man was cured. By this we fee, how highly Afps 



were venerated among the Egyptians^ who not only fuffer'd them 



to live, but to live in their Houfes, where they were carefully fed, 



as Favourites of the Family '\. And Queen Cleopatra^ Cafe was 



not fingular, for the Perfian Kings kept an exquifite Poifon by 



them, made of the Dung of an Indian Bird, which would kill v^ 



without putting them to pain, that they might ufe it themfelves 



in cafe of any Difafter J. 



DEMOSTHENES, who flew his Soldier, when he was 

 afleep, was a merciful Executioner; a kind of PuniQmient the 

 Mildnefs of no Law has yet invented. It is ftrange that Lucau 

 and Seneca made no difcovery of it. 



Sleep is a kind of Death, ^ by which we may literally be 

 laid to die daily i and in this Senfe, Adam may be faid to die be- 

 fore his final Exit. 



VIII. I NOW proceed to the Serpent Scytale-y the Name is 

 borrowed from the Greek Word o-Ji-jraAn, a Staff, or any thing like 

 a Cylinder, of a long fmooth round Form; the Body of this Ser- 

 pent being in (hape equally round, like a Rolling-Stone, with very 

 little Variation in the Extremities of it. 



It 



* 5(?d'r^i7(7w"'s New Theory, p. 211. 



f Cicurantur cibo, cum infantibus vivunt, & crep'itum dighorum vocata ex cavi 

 prodcimt. Jonflonus, p. 16. % Atlas ^ Jfiei. 



