_Anguibus exuitur tenui cum pelle vetustas._ Tibullus.
A fit emblem of his resurrection from the dead, and of returning to an immortal life.
No wonder then, from such reasons as these, and others as obvious, the ancients concluded this to be the most divine of all animals, and thought it the aptest symbol of the Νους ἑτερος, the other, or second mind of _Plato_, whom they affirmed to be the creator of the world. I know not whether this notion of theirs did not farther contribute to it; they thought these animals brought forth by the mouth. They have too no limbs, or members for action, but exert their mighty power by the mouth only; whence _Horus Apollo_ says, “a serpent is the symbol of the mouth.” This well represents the omnific WORD, which _Suidas_ speaks of from _Trismegistus_, all perfect, fruitful, the workman, creator of the world.
_The second sort of temples called_ Dracontia, _like that of_ Abury, _have been built frequently in old times. The traces of them pursued. Part of the history of_ Phut, _third son of_ Cham. _A genealogy of the most ancient sacred and heathen families._ Phut _had a fleet of ships upon the_ Mediterranean. _The_ Typhon, Typhis, Python _of antiquity, called_ Apollo Pythius _after death. He was a builder of these serpentine temples. Like the emperor_ Augustus _in countenance. He erected the first patriarchal temple at_ Delphos, _a_ Dracontium. Parnassus _originally_ Larnassus, _which is no other than our_ Hakpen _of_ Abury. _The sabbath observed there originally._ Ææas, _a son of_ Phut’_s, built the_ Dracontium _at_ Colchis. Perseus, _another son of his, bore the sacred hierogram, the circle, snake, and wings, in his shield; whence the_ Medusa’_s head._
_Zoroaster Magus, in Euseb. p. e._ II. 7. _Plato_, _Porphyry_, and others of the old philosophers, define God to be every where and no where, who fills all space, and is contain’d in none; “from whom came all things that are, and which are not yet; eternal, immutable, omnipresent, incomprehensible, immaterial, without parts, beginning or end.” If we put this definition into a geometrical figure, in order to form a symbol, we cannot possibly do it better than by describing the circle. A circle then in hieroglyphics means, divine; but particularly, as it is the most perfect and comprehensive of all geometrical figures, they design’d it for the symbol of the first and supreme being; whose resemblance we cannot find, whose center is every where, and circumference no where. It well pictur’d out, as _Abenephi_ the _Arabian_ and others assert, the divine nature of God.