Even among Vegetables are found Enemies to Serpents; as the _Dittany_ of _Virginia_, or the _wild Penny-royal_; the Leaves of which, says my Author, being bruised, we tied in the Cleft of a long Stick, and held them to the Nose of the _Rattle-Snake_, who by turning and wriggling, laboured hard to avoid it, and in half an hour’s time was kill’d by it: This was done _July_ 1657, at which Season those Creatures are computed to be in the greatest Vigour of their Poison; it is also remarkable, that in those Places where the _wild Penny-royal_ grows, no Rattle-Snakes are observed to come[16]. Footnote 16: _Philos. Transact._ abridg’d by _Lowthorp_, p. 811. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION IV. That _Dust_ was not the original Food of the Serpent, seems evident from the Sentence passed upon the Paradisaic Serpent, but the necessary Consequence of the Change made in the manner of its Motion, _i. e._ the prone Posture of its Body, by which it’s doomed to live upon Food intermix’d with Earth, dried to a Powder; _Dust shalt thou eat_, is one part of the Curse. It’s true, Serpents eat Flesh, Birds, Frogs, Fish, Fruits, Grass, but as they continually creep on the Earth, ’tis impossible but their Food must be often defiled with Dirt; some of them may eat Earth out of Necessity, or at least Earth-Worms, which they cannot swallow without some Dirt with them. No Animal but has its proper Food; even the most minute Insects; those that seemingly feed upon Dust, in reality feed only upon some nutritive Particles therein. Insects have been seen through a Microscope to eat some Particles of Dust, and reject many others, having accurate Organs of Sight, Smelling, and Feeling, as well accommodated to Dust, as the Organs of Ducks and Hogs are to find their Food in Dirt. And here it may be observed, that what the Serpent does through a Necessity from the Divine Sentence, the earthly Man does from his own Will; the Serpent only by the Will of another, Man eats it from his own Inclination to it; the Serpent would have better Food if it could, Man might have better and will not: This shews that Man has a mind to be Companion with the Serpent, and to carry on the Acquaintance, that was begun in Paradise; the Serpent licks the Dust materially, the earthly Person licks it morally; the one has its Tongue upon it, the other has his Heart. The earthly Man is only a Man in shape, but a Serpent in Practice: What is the Punishment of the Serpent, is made the Happiness of the earthly Mind.