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    and more intelligent than any other creature , man alone excepted . Being obliged now to walk on all fours , and gather their food from the ground ^ they are literally obliged to eat the dust ; and though exceedingly cunning , and careful in a variety of instances to separate that part which' is wholesome and proper for food , from that which is not so , in the article of cleanliness , they are lost to all sense of propriety ; and though they have every

    mean in their power , of cleansing the aliments they gather off the ground , and from among the dust ,, yet they never , in their savage state , make use * of any . Add to this , their utter aversion

    to walk upright ; it requires the utmost discipline to bring them to it , and scarcely any thing offends or irritates them more than to tye obliged to do it . Long observa * tjon on these animals enables me to state these facts .

    ~ Should any person who may read this note , ; object against my conclusions , because apparently derived from , an , Arabic word , which is not exactly similar to the Hobrew , though to those who

    understand both languages , the similarity will be striking : yet , as ^ , clo not insist on the identity of the terms , though important consequences have been derived ^ from less , likely etymologies ,- he is welcome to throw the whole of

    this , out of the account . . He may then take up tk Hebrew root only , which signifies to gaze , to view attentively 9 pry into , enquire nanrowlyj Sft . and consider the

    passage that appears to compare the nachash to the babbler , Eccles . x . il , tand lae will soon find , if he T ^ v ^ Aqy . acquaintance vri th , cjear * tures of this genus , that for carnc&t ,

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    attentive watchingf looking , 4 * c , and for chattering or- babbling -they Rave no fellows in the ariiraal world . Indeed , the ability and propensity to chatter is all they have left of their original gift of speech , of which they appeal to have been deprived at the fall , as a part of their punishment . I have spent the longer time on this subject , 1 . because it is exceedingly obscure ; 2 . becauseno interpretation hitherto given' o £ it , has afforded me the smallest

    satisfaction ; 3 . because I think the above mode of accounting . for every part of the whole transaction , is consistent and satisfactory ; and in my opinion , removes all embarrassment and solves every difficulty . It can be no solid 6 h-

    jection to the above mode of solution , that Satan in different parts of the New Testament , is called the serpent , the serpent that de ^ ceived Eve by his subtlety , th £ old serpent , tyc . for we have already seen that the New Testament writers have borrowed the word

    from the Septuagint , and that the Septuagint themselves use it in 31 vast variety and latitude oi rneaih ing ; and surely the ouran out ang is as likely to be the animal in question , as nachash , and op his are likely to mean at once , a snake 9

    a crocodile , a hippopotamus , form nicatiuh i a chain , a pair offett ^ rs ^ a piece of brass , a A piece of steely and a cotyuror ; for we have seea . above that all these are acceptations of the original word . Besides * the Hew Testament writers seeoo . to lose sight of the animal or inr strument used on the occasion an 4 speak on ; ly of Satan himself , ag the c ^ use of ihe transgressiop , an 4 the ^ Astrumejit of al > ^ viJ . . J / # however , any person should choo **

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    Dr . Adam Clarke , on the Nature of the Serpent , Gtn . iii . 1 . 19

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/19/