in stone work, so omitted them. The Egyptians called this figure, Hemptha; the Greeks, in abbreviated writing used it for Daimon, or the good genius; the Brachmans, in the East Indies use it; the Chinese, the ancient Persians, with whom it still remains at Persepolis; the Americans, our Britons; this shews it was extremely ancient: but of all nations, our ancestors have had the greatest veneration for it, that they have expanded it in so laborious a picture, three miles long."*

The most potent symbol or amulet of Druidism was the Anguinum or Glain-neidr, which derived its sole efficacy from its connection with the Serpent. It was attended by a serpent, which had entwined itself round the centre of the amulet, as the conservation of its virtues; and signified the superintending care which an eternal Being affords to his creatures. The anguinum was said to be produced from the saliva of a large ball of Serpents closely interwoven together; and being impelled into the air by the hissing of the serpents, was received by a horseman in a pure white cloth, who was obliged to retire precipitately from the spot, to escape the fury of the serpents, who usually pursued the fugitive until they were impeded by a river which they were unable to cross.t

The Serpent with its tail in its mouth, was an emblem of Eternity with the Druids; and it read

* Letter from Dr. Stukeley to Mr. Gale, Stamford, June 25, 1730. + Vid. Antiq. of Masonry. p. 122. note.

to the initiated a striking lesson on the certainty of death; teaching them the universal fiat of nature, that every one who is born into the world must return to the place from whence he came, and be resolved into his original dust.

The reason to be assigned for the general worship of the Serpent, may, with some probability, be as follows. Man, having brought himself under the domination of Satan, not only by listening to his suggestions in the garden, but by a subsequent renunciation of the primitive worship; and feeling himself accursed without possessing in himself the means of restoration to the divine favour, was willing to propitiate the being to whom all his misery was to be attributed, and who was hence esteemed the arbiter of his fate, by offering for his acceptance, the rites of divine worship. Hence we find that in every system of idolatry, the chief deities were said to have taken up their abode in the bodies of serpents; and a serpent attached to the statue of a god in any part of the world, was considered an unequivocal mark of his divinity; from which belief, the devil, in holy Scripture, is usually denominated a Serpent or Dragon.*

The antiquity of serpent worship cannot be safely asserted; but it might commence very soon after the institution of idolatry, for Taut or Thoth was esteemed by the Phoenicians as the first person who introduced the worship of serpents amongst

* Rev. xii. 9. xiii. 4.

mankind;* and Thoth or Pathrusim was the great grandson of Noah. It may be reasonably conjectured however, that the veneration of this animal might date its original even from Paradise; for it is an ancient opinion,† that the angels of heaven who conversed with Adam before his unhappy fall, assumed the bright form of winged serpents. On any other principle, it will be difficult to conceive, how our great mother should so familiarly admit the approaches of an animal, which, she would otherwise be certain, could neither speak nor act rationally. But if the angels associated with Adam in this specific form, the difficulty vanishes, for our grand adversary, by assuming a shape which would elude suspicion, might reasonably expect to succeed in accomplishing his perfidious purposes. And hence it should appear that this animal, which, from the splendour of its colours, and the geometrical exactness of the figures which nature has painted on the outer surface of its skin, is possessed of great external beauty, was, before the fall, an object of unmixed admiration and delight, unequalled by any other created animal. It was subsequently to that melancholy deviation from God's commands, that the serpent became an object of horror and loathing to mankind, and was unquestionably worshipped by the first idolaters in the way of propitiation.

It must here be observed, that in the mythology Euseb. præp. evan. 1. i. c. 10. + Vid. Tenison's Idolatry. c. 14.

of heathen nations, two kinds of serpents were introduced, endowed with different and contrary attributes. The one was malignant, a symbol of the evil principle, and accounted instrumental in producing the universal deluge; the other beneficent, and supposed to possess every good and estimable quality. And these powers are repreşented as engaged in acts of continued hostility.

In the ages immediately subsequent to the flood, the sons of Noah would propagate amongst their posterity, the fact, that the knowledge of good and evil was acquired by the original parents of mankind, through the intervention of a Serpent, endowed with Speech, Wisdom, and Foresight. Such a representation, proceeding from authority, would naturally induce a high degree of respect and veneration for an animal possessing these extraordinary attributes; which would soon degenerate into actual worship, when the true God was entirely forsaken. This may be assumed as the true cause of Serpent worship; and it is highly probable that both Jews and Christians, as well as acknowledged idolaters, have adored this animal on precisely the same principle.

Amongst the nations contiguous to the Jews, it might have a further reference to the Seraphim or ministering Angels of that people; for Saraph signifies equally a fiery Serpent,* and an Angel.† And the miraculous cures effected by the Brazen

Serpent, would give an additional impulse to the practice; particularly when we consider that at a subsequent period, the Israelites themselves elevated this very symbol into an object of idolatrous worship. And I may add, with a learned mythologist, often quoted, that "since the fiery and flitting appearance of the Seraphim stationed before the garden of Eden, would bear a considerable resemblance to that of the fiery flying Serpent; and since the very same appellation was employed to designate each of them, it was not unnatural to conclude, that the form of the flying Serpent entered into the composition of the Seraphic or Cherubic emblems. We have no warrant indeed from scripture to suppose that this was really the case; yet the notion itself, however erroneous, seems to have been of very great antiquity; and the existence of such a notion would obviously cause the serpent, particularly the winged serpent to be viewed as a fit symbol of the Agatho-dæmon."t

Before I conclude this account of serpent worship, I cannot omit to lay before you a very curious and extraordinary account of the same superstition, as practised by a sect of christians who were denominated Ophitæ, " both from the veneration they had for the Serpent that tempted Eve, and the worship they paid to a real Serpent. They pretended that the Serpent was Jesus Christ, and that he taught men the knowledge of good and

2 Kings xviii. 4.

+ Fab. Pag. Idol. b. ii. c. 7.