READER.
The Divine Wisdom so variously displayed in the Works of Nature, even the lowest Order of them, entertains the human Eye with Prospects exquisitely beautiful and pleasurable: As our Knowledge is defective, we are at a loss how to account perfectly for the particular Ends of their Formation, and Manner of their Subserviency to the Whole of the Eternal Design.
However, by Observation and Improvements in Natural Philosophy, we are assured thus far; that as the Almighty Creator made nothing in vain, so all his Works are good, and admirably fitted to answer the Purposes of his Will, and that his Wisdom, like his tender Mercies, shines through all the Systems of his Creatures.
That there is not a wise Purpose in every thing that is made, because we do not understand it, is as absurd as for a Man to say, there is no such thing as Light, because he is blind, and has no Eyes to see it.
For the Illustration of this, we may take a short View of Creatures, in vulgar account too diminutive and despicable a Species, to deserve a close Attention: And among these, if we consider the Noxious, we shall find, if not an Argument why they should be made, yet we shall be able to discern no Reason why they should not, because their Noxiousness is not so unavoidable, but that we may, and almost every one does avoid it.
General Histories of these Kinds we have been furnished with in the Writings of the Learned: Here I apply myself to the Discussion of one particular Species, viz. the Serpent: in which I don’t pretend to new Discoveries, but only to collect, and bring into one View, what has been said by different Persons, which is not to be found by any without many Books, and much Time; and which, without the present English Dress, would not be understood by others at all.
In accounting for some things relative to the Subject, I have always chosen the Words of the Learned in the Physical Profession. The Subject being like Dust, the Food of the Serpent, very dry, I have endeavoured to give it some Agreeableness, by a Variety of Passages from History, and Reflections of many kinds; which, though they may not always naturally arise from the Subject, yet being intended for the Reader’s Entertainment and Instruction (as he goes along in the principal Design of the Book) I hope they will find a favourable Judgment.
Give me leave, upon this occasion, to adopt Sir William Temple’s Words, viz. “It is not perhaps amiss, says he, to relieve or enliven a busy Scene sometimes with such Digressions, whether to the Purpose or no.”[[1]]
[1]. Temple’s Memoirs from 1672 to 1679. Second Editn. p. 57, 58, 59.
I shall only add, that in cultivating this Subject, I have attempted to give a short Display of the Divine Perfections, which, as they appear eminent in the System of the Creation in general, so in the Serpent they may be seen in particular; and if it produces in the Reader a more exquisite Perception of God in all his Works, I have my End; who am