“I shall now instruct you in regard to the serpent. I shall give you, spike and a sledge. You will drive the spike through the head of the serpent, and clinch it in a rock. The serpent is the adversary of reform. It is the deceiver of mind. Its path is secluded and vile. It loathes progress. It wishes the old den for its habitation. It lurks among rocks, and secludes itself in crevices. It wants nothing new, and bites to destroy. The spike is truth. Take it; use it; for that which is evil, it is good to control. The evil is in mind. The serpent lives only where evil reigns. Where evil reigns fix your weapon. The evil is opposition to holiness; it is opposition to good; and when you fix your weapon of truth in the head of error and wrong, let the mighty power of wisdom drive the spike through the head of the serpent, that it may die a death without mourning. “The serpent is an emblem of earthly folly. It is deceptive and vile. It shuns the path of the wise and good. It crawls noiselessly into the mind. It bites the good of the soul. It induces despair and shame. It wins minds from rectitude and confidence. It is not mind, but the deceiver of mind. Its deceptions are practiced, where its influence prevails. Its influence prevails where evils exist. It is evil. It is nothing but evil. You will wrong no one by destroying it. To destroy evil, you will use the wisdom of this circle. You will overcome the evils of ignorance. But ignorance will war against the truth. All the machinery of war will be brought against it. The work will commence in a day of darkness, and the morning light will dissipate the gloom of doubt. The sadness of despair will vanish before the joy of eternal wisdom. “The rudimental world is afflicted with great evils. These evils are in all the conditions of human society. They enter into the composition of all human governments, the religious institutions, all classes of mind; and science and philosophy, as understood, have not the power to correct them. Science and philosophy are corrupted with the errors and wrongs of ignorance. The wisdom of this circle must displace those wrongs. It must eradicate the woes, and harmonize the antagonisms of mind. The old forms of government must give place to new. The new must give order and beauty, purity and justice to universal mind. It must correct the unhealthy current of wrong. It must vitalize the soul of humanity with good. It must remove the poison of the serpent from the hearts of men. It must satisfy the wants of nature with nature’s blessings. It must overcome the wrongs of society with the rights of mankind. These lights must be asserted and proclaimed, until they shall be understood and appreciated, obeyed and adopted, as the rule of happiness.