This symbol of the snake and circle, which is the picture of the temple of _Abury_, we see on innumerable _Egyptian_ monuments. Always it holds the uppermost, the first and chief place; which shews its high dignity. Mr. Selden, upon the _Arundel marbles_, p. 132, says, “this figure in abbreviated writing, among the _Greeks_, signifies Δαιμων, the _deity_.” [symbol] And Kircher, in his third tome, affirms the like of the _Brachmans_ of the _East-Indies_. I can by no means admit it to be an _Egyptian invention_. The _Egyptians_ took this, and hieroglyphic writing in general, from the common ancestors of mankind. This is sufficiently prov’d from the universality of the thing, reaching from _China_ in the east, to _Britain_ in the west, nay, and into _America_ too. Nothing of so high account among the _Chinese_, as the representation of dragons and serpents, as we see in all their pictures and utensils; nay, the very stamps upon their ink. ’Tis the genial banner of their empire. It means every thing that is sacred among them. In baron _Vischer_’s elegant book of ancient architecture, Tab. XV. you have the picture of a _Chinese_ triumphal arch (of which there are many in the city of _Pekin_) twice upon it is pictur’d, in a tablet over the front, a circle and two snakes, as on _Egyptian_ works. They adorn their temples, houses, habits, and every thing with this figure, as a common _prophylaxis_. I apprehend it was from the beginning a sacred amuletic character. ’Tis carv’d several times on the cornishes of the temple (I take it so to be) of _Persepolis_, as we see in Sir _John Chardin_, _Le Brun_, _Kæmfer_. Dragons were the _Parthian_ ensigns, from whom the _Romans_ in later times took them, and our _saxon_ ancestors from the _Romans_. ’Tis a known verse in the satyrist, _Pinge duos angues, sacer est locus._ The Druids had no less a veneration for it, as we find by _Abury_ and by their fondness of snake stone beads and the like, which _Pliny_ calls snakes’ eggs, and discourses on, largely, in relation to our Druids. [Illustration: TAB. XXIX. _A Group of Barrows on the side of the valley above Beckampton_ _A Group of Barrows upon Overton hill_] Here we see the sacred regard paid to snakes from _China_ to _Britain_. Still as we before suggested, it appears somewhat strange, when we consider that the patriarchs, of whose age and times we are now chiefly treating, were not ignorant of the evil deriv’d to mankind thro’ this creature. We may satisfy our selves about this difficulty, by considering, 1. the natural history of the serpent, and 2. the nature of forming of symbols.