3. When the Serpent is assaulted, its chief Care is to secure its Head: ’Tis attested by many Writers, that to save the Head, it will expose the whole Body to Danger[342]. Footnote 342: Ὁ οφις φυλαττει κεφαλην. Isiodor. Pelusiot. lib. i. p. 126. 4. When it goes to drink, it vomits up all its Poison, for fear of poisoning itself. Some have defended this, but without any Colour of Reason[343]. Footnote 343: _Calmet’s Diction. of the H. Bible_, vol. iii. out of _Epiphanius_. They relate other Instances of the Serpent’s Wisdom, as stopping its Ears, that it may not hear the Voice of the Charmer or Inchanter; of which the _Psalmist_ takes notice. ’Tis said, it applies one of its Ears hard to the Ground, and stops up the other with the end of its Tail, _Psal._ lviii. 4. Others say, its Wisdom consists in Acuteness of Sight; therefore among the _Greeks_, a Serpent’s Eye was a proverbial Speech for one of a quick Understanding[344]. These are some of the common Reasons assigned for the Wisdom of the Serpent. Footnote 344: Οφεως ομμα. I Now proceed to an Illustration of the Debate between the Woman and Serpent in Paradise, under three Heads. I. _WHY may not we suppose, that in the Infancy of Mankind there was an open Intercourse between the angelick and human World, and that Angels might appear to our first Parents in some visible Form, as afterwards they did to the Patriarchs?_ If this be not granted, I would ask how a fallen Angel came to know there was a Paradise, and a certain Tree whose Fruit was forbidden, and where that Tree was situated in the Garden? When a certain Province of Angels rebelled, they were doom’d to the wide Space contiguous to our Globe, and by their daily Rovings from Place to Place, they might indeed discover that little Spot of Earth, called _Paradise_; but how came they to be acquainted with the Laws of that Country, and that there was a forbidden Tree, and where it grew? How, I say, could they know all this without Revelation, or previous Conversation with the Inhabitants of the Place? II. _IF there had been no former Acquaintance between Angels and our first Parents, how came the Woman to converse so freely with a Stranger she had never seen before, one of another Country, and of a different Species?_ ’Tis therefore probable, that when the Devil addrest the Woman, and that in her own Language, he might assume the Form of a good Angel, that Form in which Angels had discoursed with our first Parents before the Fall.