CHAPTER XVII.

THE CONSTELLATIONS NOT YET MENTIONED IN

THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.

If you will find Mons Mænalus, we will proceed regularly round the sphere.

Well, mamma, you have not chosen a very large constellation to begin with, and I can scarcely see any stars in it.

There are, however, eleven stars to be seen. From what distinguished individual have these stars derived their name?

From Mænalus, son of Lycaon, a king of Arcadia. The same name is also appropriated to a mountain of Arcadia in the Peloponnesus, in Greece, sacred to the god Pan. Since you are dissatisfied with the size of this constellation, we will proceed to one of more consequence; but you recollect the restriction, that you proceed regularly.

Here then is the Serpent.

A constellation of commanding importance. In addition to the observations, that I made, when speaking of Draco, and in some degree to confirm those observations, I will give you the words of Maurice. "Serpents," he says, "have ever been divided into two distinct classes according to their qualities, the noxious and the

innoxious. They have been immemorially considered throughout all Asia as sacred animals, and as having something prophetical in their nature. Their bodies have been selected as the usual and favoured abode of the Deity, and all the statues of Indian deities in the Elephanta caverns, are, therefore, enveloped with serpents, to mark their divinity." Having made these remarks, he adds, "The Indians, who universally believe in the agency of good and evil spirits, by no means conceive any thing absurd in the supposition, that one of the numerous and subtile spirits, that tenant the vast regions of the ethereal kingdom, should, by the permission of the supreme Governor of the universe, for wise, but to man inscrutable reasons, have entered into the beautiful and resplendent form of that peculiar serpent of eastern and southern climes, whose body glitters like flames, and, instead of crawling upon the ground like the common reptile of that name, mounts upon wings of burnished gold, like the flying serpent mentioned in Isaiah, the 14th chapter and 29th verse; and might, therefore, well be conceived to have been an angel of light by Eve; and it is more than probable, that the very general belief in this part of Asia, that brute animals in the most distant eras of the world, were not only gifted with speech, but also possessed the faculty of discoursing rationally, originated in

some mutilated tradition concerning the serpent's accosting Eve on this fatal occasion in the human account."

And are you anxious, that I should believe this peculiarity in the Mosaic narrative?

Yes, indeed I am; for there is no medium; the whole is allegory, or the whole is literal. What must not be the importance of that point, upon which we can place our finger, and say, If this be fable, the whole fabric of our natural religion, the whole religion of the Bible, is false? For, if the record of Moses be not all simplicity and purity, the contents of the Bible itself are but the corruption of astronomical truth. But, while the whole mass of misery we see in the world, evinces, that man is a fallen, ruined, degraded creature, the peculiar degradation to which one half of the human species has been subject, appears to be the punishment entailed on them, because Eve was the first, and the more prominent person in the transgression: and any observations that intimate inferiority of intellect before the successful temptation, are certainly inconsistent with the Mosaic record. What a dignified answer she gives to the first inquiry proposed to her by the serpent* ! and what do we afterwards read; but that, "when she saw the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit." Her intellect was, previously to this event, clear, * Gen. iii. 2, 3.

and pure, and heavenly; now, indeed, it is debased, but is not this the result of her subjugation, and does not this flow from the malediction pronounced on her *? Yes: the sentence is executed in all its force, till the Restorer to a better paradise appears. Where He is known, or, in those countries where only the semblance of His blessed communications. is observed, females are restored to their original station. Whenever the idea that the Mosaic record is a fable, strikes the mind, this fact should be remembered.

But, mamma, is it not difficult, and almost impossible, to separate Serpens and Serpentarius? See how they are entwined together.

Nor would you wish, my dear, to separate the antidote, from the malady; the physician from the disease.

Certainly not; but how do these remarks apply to the union of these two characters ?

It is very satisfactory to know, that in the Persian, and it is scarcely less so to see in the Grecian, system of astronomical theology, that to the hands of Serpentarius himself they have elevated their evil genius.

Who then is Serpentarius ?

He is a personification of the good principle; and the union appears to be founded upon some tradition respecting Him, who should bind, and mitigate, and finally destroy the power of Satan;

* Gen. iii. 16.

for, in this delineation, the inventors doubtless followed the popular and established opinion. When, in addition to this, I see the foot of this illustrious personage, planted firmly on the back of Scorpio, my mind is irresistibly led to Him, who hath spoiled principalities and powers, to Him of whom it was of old declared, that his enemies should become his footstool.

Will you have the goodness to tell me, under what fable the Greeks have shrouded these truths?

Serpentarius, they say, is Esculapius, the god of physic, whose skill was so great, that Pluto complained to Jupiter, that he depopulated the infernal regions. By the Grecians, this was a beautiful metaphorical compliment to some eminent practitioner in the art of medicine; but, as it descended to them from some ancient nation, it appears allusive to that Physician by whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.

Why did the Greeks place the Serpent in the hands of Serpentarius?

As an emblem of the remedies employed by Esculapius; for some of the serpent tribe were formerly much used in medicine.

Here then the analogy varies.

I would rather say, here it exists under another form; for, it is remarkable, that, among the few symbolical references in our noble sys