109 



bination nearly similar, the sacred serpent of the Egyptians was 

 delineated with the head of a hawk. When we combine these 

 evidences with the antient Rabbinical tradition, that the serpent 

 entered into the composition of the Cherubim, and the fact, that 

 tlie Rabbinical mode of representing the ensign of the tribe of 

 Dan * was an eagle bearing a serpent in his talons ; if also we 

 recollect the words of Jacob, when, speaking of that son, he said, 

 " Dan shall be a serpent by the way ;" we nmst admit that our 

 analogy is strengthened even by the objection adduced against it. 

 The following suggestion, obhgingly communicated to me by the 

 very learned and ingenious Vice Provost f, is very important here_ 

 Nearly over the scorpion in the celestial sphere,, is the serpent ; and 

 as it were in the meridian above it, is the constellation of the eagle— 

 not more distant from it, than might have arisen from the arbitrary 

 delineation of signs, which seem in their establishment so unmean- 

 ing, and in their confines so undefined. 



But still further to assist in support of this construction of the 

 words " them four," it is to be remembered, that Ezekiel speaks 

 directly of the throne of glory among the stars, and only by allu- 

 sion of the Cherubim. These words, therefore, used in their positive 

 sense, seem directly to designate four remarkable stars of the first 

 magnitude, almost the only luminaries of that splendour in the 

 ^odiac ; and which, placed at about 90'' from each other, and 

 near the ecliptic, or at least in the constellations of the belt, mark 



* This has been erroneously dei>icted in Cahnet's Dictionary, as the standard of Reuben. 



f I have here to acknowledge many obligations to this gentleman, not only on several lite- 

 rary occasions, but particularly in respect to this essay, in'completing which I have received 

 important assistance, as well from verbal communications, as from his work upon the prigin o£ 

 the constellations, which is replete with valuable matter. 



