First, the natural history of this animal. Can we divest our selves of original prejudice, we must allow the serpent kind, as to their outward _appearance_, among the most beautiful creatures in the world. The poets, those great masters of nature, are luxuriant in their descriptions of them, comparing them to the most glorious appearance in the universe, the rainbow. Thus _Virgil Æneid_ V. _Cæruleæ cui terga notæ, maculosus & auro Squamam incendebat fulgor; ceu nubibus arcus Mille trahit varios, adverso sole colores._ Thus _Lucan_, _Serpitis aurato nitidi fulgore dracones._ ——_cristis præsignis & auro. Igne micant oculi_—— Ovid. Met. 3. Of _Cadmus_’s snake. _Hephæstion_ II. writes concerning the _Hydra_ of _Hercules_, that half his head was of gold. I saw a snake of such exquisite beauty in _Surrey_. The motion and the appearance or bright golden colour, being so like to angelick, seraphick beings; no wonder the ancients conceiv’d so high a regard for the serpent, as to reckon it a most divine animal. There is a kind of them bred in _Arabia_ and _Africa_, of a shining yellow colour, like brass, or burnish’d gold, which in motion reflects the sun-beams with inconceivable lustre. Some of them are said to have wings, called _Seraphs_, _Saraphs_, _Seraphim_, mention’d _Deut._ xii. 15. this is the name given to the brazen serpent. And equally to the angels and celestial messengers, who are described of this appearance, in scripture. So the cherubim that supported the _Shechinah_ in _Ezekiel_ i. 7. “sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.” The divine appearance between the candlesticks in _Apocalypse_ i. 15. “His feet were like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.” Hence his ministers are called a flame of fire. _Psalm_ civ. 4. Secondly, consider the _motion_ of a serpent,’tis wonderful; perform’d without the help of legs, nay incomparably quicker than their kindred of the crocodile and lizard kind, which have four legs: ’tis swift, smooth, wavy, and beautiful. The ancients conceiv’d it to be like the walking of the gods; whence the notion of deify’d heroes, with serpents’ feet. _Pherecydes Syrus_ says, the gods have snakes’ feet: meaning their motion was smooth and sweeping, without the alternate use of legs. _Heliodorus_ III. speaks of the wavy motion of the gods, not by opening their feet, but with a certain aerial force; it was call’d _incessus_. _Non ambulamus, sed incedimus_, says _Seneca_. _Ast ego, quæ divûm_ incedo _regina, Jovisque Et soror & conjunx_—— Virg. Æn. 1. _Et vera_ incessu _patuit dea_.