i ball . Miscellaneous ff ntelligence. 
“The idea of the special degradation of the serpent to its actual form, 
derived from interpreting the sentence upon it asa literal statement of 
fact, has been so prevalent as to have affected some of the coulbaie® : 
author, treating of the food of those reptiles, writes,—‘t That dust was 
_ not the original food of the serpent seems evident from. the sentence ; 
~~ passed upon the Paradisaic ie: but the necessary consequence of 4 
the change made in the manner of its motion, i. €:, the prone posture 
of its body, by which it is iiecicid to live ieee food intermixety with 
earth.” 
Dr. Adam Clark, commenting more recently spar ‘ha ets in its i 
literal sense, seeks to elude the difficulties which thence arise, by con- : 
tending that the Hebrew ‘t Nachash,” may be translated “ A e,” as at 
well as “Serpent.” But when we find him reduced to the necessity : 
of glossing the text by such expositions, as that to go on the belly, 
means ‘on all fours;” and by affirming, of the arboreal fnegincies 
four-handed monkeys, that ‘* they are obliged to gather their food from 
the ground,” we havea lively instance of ‘the straits to which the com- 
mentator is reduced who attempts to penetrate — than the Word 
warrants, into the nature of that mysterious beginning of crim e and 
Prana by the dim light of an imperfect and came hand Lodiele 
of the divine works. 
ai indeed, the laws of the science of Animated Nature formed part 
of the preliminary studies _ the theologist, the futility of such attempts 
to expound the third chapter of Genesis, viewed as a simple ‘narration 
of facts, would be better appnveiead by him; and if he should still be 
prompted to append his thoughts, as so many lamps by the side of the 
second text, he would most probably restrict himself toe ae seeencahr’ 
elucidate its erin ag signification. 
hat zoology and anatomy have unfolded of the nature i serpent 
in regard to their present condition, amounts to this:—that their parts - 
are as SISA adjusted to the form of their whole, vie to fe habits 
and sphere of life, as is the organization of any animal which, in the.» 
terms of absolute comparison, we call superior to them. It is true, the - — 
Retinal 
“all these creatures fall its pre The serpent has neither hands not 
talons, yet it can outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger ih the em- 
race of its ponderous overlapping folds ar from licking up its food 
as it glides along, the serpent lifts up its ‘erushed prey, and presents: ity 
eemiel in the ie- coil as in the hand, to the gaping atime drone ee 
uth, 
au is truly” ecudetfil to see tHeceork-of auies feet, fins, perfo: 
ae a a simple ‘modification of the eres pits 6 ina Bern Nee: 
= joints, with mobility of its ribs. But the vertebrae are specially 
, as I have already described, to fewer by the ‘st ne 
:Ahete individual articulations, for the weakness of their manifold ep 
“tion and of  Seananiaget gerne of the slender fol 
he 
ae “ 
