ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, S:c. 113 



T have experienced much pleafure. For to the cuhivators 

 of fcience, the dlfcovery of truth muft, at all times, be a 

 fource of pleafure. This pleafure will even rife to lome- 

 thing like happinefs, when, in addition to the difcovery 

 of truth, we are enabled to draw afide the veil, which, 

 for ages, has curtained fuperftition and credulity. Under 

 the influence of various fpecies of fuperftition, we fall 

 from our dignity, and are often rendered unhappy. It 

 Ihould be one of the principal objects of fcience to rear 

 and prop the dignity of the mind, and to fmooth its way 

 to comforts, and to happinefs. The ills and the infirmi- 

 ties of our earthly ftate of being are numerous enough. 

 It is folly, if not vice, to increafe them. He who ferioufly 

 believes, that an hideous reptile is gifted, from the facred 

 fource of univerfal life and good, with the power of faf- 

 cinating birds, fquirrels, and other animals, will hardly 

 flop here. He may, and probably will, believe much 

 more. He will not, perhaps, think himfelf entirely ex- 

 empted from this wonderful inlluence. He may fup- 

 pofe, that the property belongs to other beings, befides 

 the ferpents ; and he will, perhaps, imagine that it 

 forms a part of a more extenfive plan, the efFefts of 

 which, he will aflert, are prominent, and unequivocal, 

 though its ways, he will confefs, are incomprehenfible 

 to mortal minds. 



HjSTOSIA NATVRALIS NGN BENE DIGESTA ABIT IN FABU- 

 LAM ; PR^JUDICIA VERO ET NIMIA CREDULITAS VeRITA- 



7em, et3i cominus satis cognitam, longissime ali- 

 quando propellunt. 



Jacobus Theodorus Klein. 



X)efcription 



