1493. reading memorandums. 144 
tolook at their mouths, when lo all their poisonous fangs 
had been pulled out, and the little poison that was 
in their mouths was of a whitifh colour and harmlefs, 
from the milk diet the snakes had been fed on, instead 
of that high red colour it is of when in their native 
state. The fellow then confefsed, when we threaten- 
ed to kill all his snakes as dangerous, that he had 
deposited most of them in different parts where he 
thought it was likely I fhould go. Some wild ones 
however he caught that were not of a poisonous na~ 
ture ; but that is easily done, for if a snake is seen, 
by siezing it by the tail with one hand, and running 
the other close.to the head, they can secure the most 
dangerous with safety. Now the opinion of fith be- 
_ing charmed by music is very ancient, and as much 
believed as that of fith falling from the heavens. 
Aan Be 
READING MEMORANDUMS. > 
Ler us pay an absolute submifsion to the will of 
God, in all the dispensations of his providence, and to 
all the rules of natural and revealed religion, without 
endeavouring vainly to discover the reasons of his 
determinations, or prying into final causes, most of 
_ which, to our limited capacity, are inscrutable. It is 
our businefs to live virtuously and happily in the 
world, and not to attempt the discovery of how or 
when it was formed into its present situation. This 
is a tree of forbidden knowledge, the.search after 
which has discovered the nakednefs of all our phile. 
gophers. 
VoL. xvii, Zz 
