AN
ESSAY
TOWARDS A
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
SERPENTS:
IN TWO PARTS.

I. The First exhibits a general View of Serpents, in their various Aspects; such as their Kinds, Bulk, Food, Motion, Propagation, Coverture, Colours. In which is inserted a short Account of Vegetable, Mineral, and Animal Poison, particularly that of the Serpent; and its Cure in various Nations; where also the Serpent is used as Food and Physick.

II. The Second gives a View of most Serpents that are known in the several Parts of the World; described by their various Names, different Countries, and Qualities.

Illustrated with Copper-Plates, Engraved by the Best Hands.

III. To which is added a Third Part; containing Six Dissertations upon the following Articles, as collateral to the Subject.

1. Upon the Primeval Serpent in Paradise.

2. The Fiery Serpents that infested the Camp of Israel.

3. The Brazen Serpent erected by Moses.

4. The Divine Worship given to Serpents by the Nations.

5. The Origin and Reason of that Monstrous Worship.

6. Upon the Adoration of different Kinds of Beasts by the Egyptians, with divers Instances of the same Stupidity in other Nations.

The whole intermix’d with Variety of Entertaining Digressions, Philosophical and Historical.

By CHARLES OWEN D. D.

LONDON:

Printed for the AUTHOR.

Sold by John Gray, at the Cross-Keys in the Poultry, near Cheapside.

M.DCC.XLII.

TO

Sir Hans Sloane Bar^t.

SIR,

The Serpent [Subject of the following Sheets,] being one part of your celebrated and expensive Collection of Rarities, naturally leads me to beg the Honour of your Name to grace its Entrance into the publick World.

I can’t enter into the vanity of thinking, that the Book can be any improvement to one who has been so long and laborious an Enquirer after Truth, and penetrated so far into the Empire of Nature: but as in Divinity, a willing Mind; so in Learning, the best Endeavour will be accepted. And tho’ the Book cannot recommend it self to you, your Name may recommend it to others.

Happy are the Times, when Knowledge is the study of those who have superior Abilities for it: Happy therefore is the present Age, that has you, among many other Learned, so eminent an Encourager of it.

Tho’ elevated Minds direct all their concern to what they should be, and not to any Applause for what they really are; yet, if to delineate their Excellency be offensive to Modesty, the Sincerity with which it is done, will, it is hoped, secure their Pardon.

Now, what is it that makes the great Character, but Knowledge in all its diversity, a Sollicitousness for the Spread of Arts and Sciences, excelling in one’s particular Station of Life, and being divinely forward to all the high Offices of Humanity? This is the Picture of real Worth, and what can forbid to say, that Sir Hans Sloane is the Life?

That you may long continue the Restorer of Health, the Ornament of the Day, and in triumph over all the deadly Power of the Old Serpent, at last possess eternal Health, are the most sincere Wishes of him, who with a just Sense of Obligation, and the greatest Regards, is,

SIR,

Your most humble,

and devoted Servant,

Warrington,

March 1, 1741-2.

Cha. Owen.

TO THE

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

Your Humble Servant.

Directions for the Binder, where to put the Plates,

N. B. In the Story of the Elephant, pag. 86. it is a mistake, to place the Action at Newcastle; the Scene of it being in the East-Indies, according to a Book called Hamilton’s Travels.

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