They have indeed a ready Help against its venemous Wounds, which is made of the Filings of Copper, tempered with _Vinegar_ and _Honey_, which proves a speedy Cure; but if neglected, the Patient is in danger of his Life. This, says the Historian, I presume, has been first found out by the antipathetick Quality, which seems to be between _Scorpions_ and _Copper_; for not far from the City is the Copper-Mine, where, as before, if one of these Animals be brought, it dies immediately. _Q. Whether this be not_ Herbert_’s_ Parthian? Yea, to render a future State terrible to Mortals, the Heathens, speaking of departed Souls, feigned, that at their Descent from _Charon_’s Boat (who was the Ferryman of Hell) they met _Cerberus_, a monstrous Dog, with three Heads, who was covered all over with _Serpents_, instead of Hair. There was the Monster _Chimæra_ that vomited Fire, her Head like a _Lion_, Middle like a _Goat_, and her Tail like a furious _Dragon_; so sings the Poet: ——Cerberus, _who soon began to rear His crested Snakes—he gapes with three enormous Mouths_. Dryden’s Virgil. So another: _For as the_ Pope _that keeps the Gate Of Heaven, wears three Crowns of State; So he, that keeps the Gates of Hell, Proud_ Cerberus, _wears three Heads as well. And, if the World have any Troth, Some have been canoniz’d in both_. Hudibras. But further, we may observe, that besides this frightful Appearance of Serpents to salute their Entrance into Hell, there was Variety of Punishments for them when there. Thus the _Danaides_ were condemned to _Tartarus_ by the Poets, to be continually employed in filling a Cask perforated at the bottom; _Phlegas_, condemned by _Apollo_ to Hell, where he sat upon a rolling Stone, in constant danger of falling into a Pit of greater Misery; _Tityus_, adjudged to Hell, where a Vultur feeds on his Liver, and the Liver always grows with the Moon: Nay, such were the horrible Preparations in Hell, that _Virgil_[98], after a Survey of it, declares, that had he a hundred Mouths and Tongues, they would not suffice to recount all the Plagues of the Tortured: so that it is no wonder to see them represent the infernal Prison in Figures the most frightful. Footnote 98: _Æneid._ lib. vi. ver. 638. And as the Heathen had their terrible Place for bad Men, so, to prompt them to Virtue, they had their _Elysium_, i. e. a Place of Pleasure in _Hades_, furnished with most pleasant Fields, agreeable Woods, Groves, Shades, Rivers; whither the Souls of good People were supposed to go after this Life. These are finely described by the Poet: ——_locos lætos & amœna virenta Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas_. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] A