Nothing of so high account among the Chinese, as the representation of dragons and serpents, as we see in all their pictures and utensils; nay, the very stamps upon their ink. ’Tis the genial banner of their empire. It means every thing that is sacred among them. In baron Vischer’s elegant book of ancient architecture, Tab. XV. you have the picture of a Chinese triumphal arch (of which there are many in the city of Pekin) twice upon it is pictur’d, in a tablet over the front, a circle and two snakes, as on Egyptian works. They adorn their temples, houses, habits, and every thing with this figure, as a common prophylaxis. I apprehend it was from the beginning a sacred amuletic character. ’Tis carv’d several times on the cornishes of the temple (I take it so to be) of Persepolis, as we see in Sir John Chardin, Le Brun, Kæmfer. Dragons were the Parthian ensigns, from whom the Romans in later times took them, and our saxon ancestors from the Romans. ’Tis a known verse in the satyrist,
Pinge duos angues, sacer est locus.
The Druids had no less a veneration for it, as we find by Abury and by their fondness of snake stone beads and the like, which Pliny calls snakes’ eggs, and discourses on, largely, in relation to our Druids.
TAB. XXIX.
P. 56.
A Group of Barrows on the side of the valley above Beckampton
A Group of Barrows upon Overton hill
Here we see the sacred regard paid to snakes from China to Britain. Still as we before suggested, it appears somewhat strange, when we consider that the patriarchs, of whose age and times we are now chiefly treating, were not ignorant of the evil deriv’d to mankind thro’ this creature.
We may satisfy our selves about this difficulty, by considering, 1. the natural history of the serpent, and 2. the nature of forming of symbols.
First, the natural history of this animal. Can we divest our selves of original prejudice, we must allow the serpent kind, as to their outward appearance, among the most beautiful creatures in the world. The poets, those great masters of nature, are luxuriant in their descriptions of them, comparing them to the most glorious appearance in the universe, the rainbow. Thus Virgil Æneid V.