end of its tail, in the act of conversing with a woman, by vibrating its forked tongue. Upon the supposition of the animal having been a snake, Milton, the prince of poets, has beautifully told the story, in blank verse, in his Paradise Lost, which we will here briefly repeat, in prose. From this writer's views, it appears, that after the fall of the angels,--who kept not their first estate, and had seconded the rebellion of Lucifer, and had been cast down from heaven to hell, with their great chief: that he made his escape from this prison,-which is situated somewhere in space, far beyond the bounds of the rest of creation, and found his way to the Sun, where he seems to have halted awhile in his flight, for the purpose of observation. From so conspicuous a place, he viewed the several planets, or worlds, which roll in their orbits around the sun. And now remembering an ancient prophecy once rumored among the angels of heaven, before his fall, that a certain world was to be created, which should be inhabited by a race of beings, extremely singular, who were to be endowed with corporeal bodies, of a peculiar shape, and with minds, but little inferior to themselves, and were to be beloved by the Creator, in a very tender degree. But which of the worlds, then in view, was the one, he could not make out: or whether it belonged to the family of the sun, on which he then stood, as there were others in sight, rolling through the vast ocean of space. But from this dilemma of uncertainty, respecting the exact globe which contained the singular race called man, he was relieved by the sudden appearance of a youthful angel, who came flying on the easy pinions of excursive discovery, among the works of God. Of this youthful angel, Satan was resolved to enquire: but first, in a twinkling of light, before he should be discovered by the journeying seraph, he changed his shape and habiliments, from those of a thunder-scarred, and hell-burnt fugitive, with shorn and sooty wings, to those of a stripling angel, clothed with the bright and happy rays of heaven. (See the Plate.) This done, Satan by a flutter of his wings, attracted the ear of the heavenly traveller, who in a moment, from celestial courtsey, let fall his gorgeous wings-which from his shoulders to his feet, clad him round with a starry brightness, and bowed him low, as heavenly spirits are wont to do, when they meet. But Satan, not a whit behind in good manners, being thus compelled by his own duplicity, also bowed in return. Compliments being ended, Satan, with submissive voice, as became his seeming youth, enquired which of all the worlds in sight, was the abode of man, as much he said, he wished to see and to admire this late display of creative power and wisdom. The angel which he here fell in with, was according to Milton, Uriel, one of the seven swift winged ministers of the throne of God, who were ever ready to bear the commands of the Eternal to all worlds; who stood in waiting, in an attitude of heavenly condescension, to the enquiring seraph, as in a moment he pointed out our globe; when each waving a hand in token of departure, they spread their wings aloft; Uriel onward shot, as from his pinions there went forth a sweet perfume, filling a wide circuit of the sky; while Satan, plunged him headlong down to the ecliptic, nor stayed his rapid flight till his feet stood on the summit of a blooming mountain, in the very circuit of Paradise. He now betook himself to the task of ascertaining the habitation of those singular beings: whom he soon descried in a beautiful bower, laden with fruit, and that they were male and female, a condition to Satan, wholly till now, unknown. He now disappeared, or became invisible, and stood beside them unseen, and listened to their conversation: by which he learned their moral condition, and that they were under restraint in one-and but one particular, and this was respecting a certain tree, and its fruit, which he found was forbidden them, and was meant as a test of love and obedience, while all things else beneath the whole heaven was theirs to enjoy. On the forehead of the man, and on his limbs, was seen and known the stamp of God-like work, though formed of matter, a thing till now never conceived of by this sining angel. But most of all, there burned the mild. fires of heavenly origin in the eyes of Adam, beaming forth in serene, but commanding majesty, the very image of the invisible God, as it was there he met the heaven-abashing power of high and holy intelligence in its brilliancy, though connected with unthinking matter. There was also the companion of Adam, a female glowing in holy beauty, fearful to look upon, so bright and fulgent were the glories of her person, which was shaded to the feet, with shining golden locks, full and redundant, as the rays of a morning sun, which played in the softly moving winds, like the very fibres of life, in joyous assemblage. She also was formed as man, but more soft and tenderly made, in every limb and feature, while in her eyes, there was the heaven of mildness, pouring forth their beams, as the fountains of life, beneath the sapphire throne of bliss. He heard them commune of joys: while each turned on the other looks of sweetness, beyond compare; this moved his malice and hatred, which as a hell of moulten iron within his heart, raged a tempest; when Satan resolved their ruin, and straightway put in requisition all his wiles, as he knew they could not be destroyed, except by being induced to disobey that one only law, or prohibition, of the tree and its fruit. Wherefore, it was not long ere he discovered the Serpent, or snake to be the subtilist beast of all the field, or animals of the earth, and having found one of a prodigious size, and withal exceedingly beautiful, being covered with green and gold, striped and spotted with every shade and hue of the rain |