450

SUMMARY.

hope of making good his hypothesis, that theEgyptian philosopher, or Phoenician merchant,or Assyrian conqueror, instructed in the sameworship the grovelling Whidanese, the erraticSarmatian, or the inaccessible Briton ?

The inland progress of the sacred serpentmight have been conducted by Chaldtean colo-nies into some of the neighbouring districts ; butin ages when the exploits of a single travellerfurnished matter for fables as numerous as theywere marvellous, it is not at all likely that aChaldaean colony would penetrate on the oneside beyond the Oural , or on the other beyondthe Himaleh mountains, in sufficient force torevolutionize the religion of those regions. Andyet in remote China, and secluded Scandinavia ,the same serpent holds his dominion in thesea, and his reign upon the land ! But if tothese distant dwellings of the sacred dragonwe add his immemorial habitation in Peru andMexico , the improbability that Ophiolatreiawas a Chaldsean invention increases with ad-ditional force : and if Chaldsea be deprived ofthe sceptre of universal proselytism, whereis the nation that can contend for the dis-tinction ?