ASCRIBED TO TKK RATTLE-SNAKE, Le. 77 



formed ; or, more properly fpeaking, of the condu£k, 

 or behaviour, of the enchanting and enchanted animals. 

 But between thefe accounts, there is hardly a fpecifick 

 dift'erence. There is confiderable unity in all the re- 

 lations that 1 have heard, or read. However, thofe who 

 wilh to examine this part of the fubjedl more fully, will, 

 at leaft, receive fome degree of entertainment from the 

 perufal of the many authors who have believed and af- 

 ferted, that ferpents poflefs a power of fafcinating other 

 animals. 



That the belief in the exigence of this power fliould 

 have been fo general among the uninformed part of a 

 people, ought not to be wondered at. The human 

 mind, unenlightened by fcience, or by confiderable re- 

 fledion, 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 re- 

 ligion nor 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 ! 



But it is, furely, a matter of fome aftonifhment, that 

 this belief fliould have been admitted, in all the fulnefs 

 of its extravagance, 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 na- 

 ture : by claflical fcholars, grown old in the difbelief of 

 fimilar fables, heightened and embellifhed by the charms 

 of poetry; and alfo by the infidel, who denies the au- 

 thenticity of fcripture-miracles, few of which, even 

 though they were not iTiown to be truths, are more impro- 

 bable than the imaginary fad; which I am examining. 



L I have 



