Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-05-09
Kirke White, who won the laurel1 Of an English Ua
,yersity only to see them 70 cypress on +
brow = II

"Oh what noble heart was then undone,
! When sciences self destroyed her favorite son ;
So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain,
/ No more through rolling clouds soar again,
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart,
And winged the shaft that quiyered in his heart"
Of the copous and interesting volume before /
we shall not undertake to present any summary
preferring to remit every reader to its picturs,
pages themselves for the acquisition of that enjP
ment and instruction which its perusal cannot fl
| to impart ~
i We quote however, few desultory passed.
from the work because of the separate and pecullr
interest which they seem to possess, apart from tie
logical connexion which they hold to the argumeIs
and general reasoning of the writer. In allusiq,
for instance, to the singular fact that the existie
plants and trees of the United States, with noh
few of its fishes and reptiles bear in their forms AID
construction the marks of much greater antiquN
than those of Europe, he dilates as follows
| Let me here remind you, in the passing, that TIT
antiquity of type which characterzes the prod
tions of North America is Of many wonders, notb
solutely geological in themselves but which, fol hS
revelations of geology would have forever remai4
| noted and unknown, which have been pressed q
the last half century, the notice of naturalists
is circumstance quite extraordinary and unexpcck
says Agassiz in his profoundly interesting work Oh
Superior, that the fossil plants of the Tertiary
Oeningen resemble more closely the trees and
which grow at present in the eastern parts of North
rca than those of any other parts of the world thus
lowing us to express correctly the difference between
opposite coasts OF Europe and America hy -
the present Eastern American fora, and, I So 3
fauna also have q more ancient charactef T.
Europe. The plants, especially the tree Il
gro wing in days in the United States, 81 "
old-fashioned; and the characteristics ee1f1 ~
| Chelydra, and the large Salamanders with ~ III
gills, that remind of the fossils of Oeningen q
least equally So they bear the marks of former es
How strange fact Not only are we accustt1 to
speak of the Eastern continents the OLD World
tradisnction to the great continent of the WI tr
speak also of the world before the food the cd Ed
in contradstincon to the post diluvan world viii nc
ceeded it. And yet equally, if We receive The in
either Of its acceptatons, is America tld6 brld
stilan older world than that of the r,fe
an older world, in the fashion and type y y inc
tons, than the world before the flood. FtA III.
! immigrant settler takes amid the deep kfs Il
| lay open for the first time what he deem9 o1ntrr
/ the great trees that fall before him; thez Aftha
he lops away with sweep Of his tool /; GZ 2ui]j =
herbs which he tramples under foot fh-li{
reptile that scarce strs out of his path aa I'D
the neighboring creek to drink the de{( |0rl1
tortoise, with the large limbs and saal 81 IA IL
sees watching among the reeds for fsk r - -
j he reaches the water, and the little IL Ynd II
without TAIL that he startles by the W. lttts5by
the antqueness of the mould In which they hast low
old country the seemingly really isl sour,
vastly older in type least than that Of the
vians and the pariarchs and only to be compar with
that which ourished on the eastern side of
long the appearance of and the remainf who's.
perished productions we find locked up in t loes. a
the Rhine or amid the lignites Of Nassau. Asrica il
I, emphatically the Old World -
i In treating on the ophidian or serpes BIZ u
creation, an order of being which nsshs the
degradation 4of animal fife, and which, neve heess
figures largely IN every SCnemu .r.ie hor
rowed doubtless through traditional channels IN
divine revelation) meet representation of ma l
great enemy, the Evil One the author alludeErt
the remarkable fact that this order of reptiles mae
its first appearance only as the great tribe to whbi
it belonged in the geologic eras began to sink rte
humiliation and insignifcance until at last as nov
it occupies very subordinate place in creation:l
"And here let again pause for moment to remark
how strangely these irascibe repulsive repes-srea
lures heightened out far beyond the proportions Of the
other members of their class by mere vegetaye repe
tons of the yertebre; condemned to derive vorm-ke
their ability of progressive motion from the ringks
scutes of the abdomen venomous in many off their spe
cies formidable in others to the noblef animals
from their fascinating powers and their great craft with
fore hinder limbs without thoracic evic arch
es the very types and exemplars four highst natural
lists being the judges) of the extreme of an degrade
tion-let us say, remark how strangely tsr history
has been mixed up with that of man and of rsgon in al
the older mythologies and in that Divine Revelation
whence the older mythologies derived 1t was ons
of the ancient Of the Phnican fables the
antagonist OF the gods was gigantic serpe1 that had
one time been their subject but reyolted 6ainst then
and became their enemy. 1t was mons GUS serpent
that assailed and strove to destroy the mor of Apollo
yet the birth OF the god but which, lo AFTER ApoL
/ 10 IN turn assaulted and slew 1t was a5yeat serpent
that watched the apples of the Hespees and tha
Hercules, he could possess himself of e fruit had
to combat and kill 1t frghtful serpet that guard
ed the golden fleece from JASON and whiche hero had
to destroy in the first instance and next extermnate
the strange brood of armed that spra up from its
Irc fboor -
full of the serpent those ancient Ru;c obelisks
our country, whose endless knots al complicated
frework are formed throughout Of the -teracngs Of
snakes Let us however, accept repres of this
nnumerabe class of legends the classical tory render
ed yet classical by the profound and everend
| ment given by Bacon in his Wisdom Of Ae Ancients
Jupiter and the other gods, says the Philosopher in his
Eersion of the tradition confernlI upon men
most acGeNable and desirable boon-th, lift of pcrpe
tqal youth fat men, foolshly overjoi1 hereat laid
this present of the godsuPon ass, in returning
back with it, being extremely thirsty, al coming to
fountain the serpent who was guardiashereof would
not suffer him to drink but upon conJihn of receiving
the burden he carried, whatever it shou be- The sy
ass complied; and thus the perpetual rh.ewal of youth
was for sup of water transferred from the race
of serpents That this gift of perpeti youth should
pass from to serpents continues Bson seems add
ed, by way of ornament and illustrat . to the fable
And it certainly has much the appearace of an after
thought But how very striking the rdemblance borne
by the story, whole to that narrab in the opening
page of human history which exhibits M first parents Of
the yielding up to the emptatI Of the serpent
the gift of Immortality; and further how remarkable
the fact that the reptile selected typical here of the
great fallen spirit that kept his fr should be
at once the reptile Of latest appearing in creation and
the selected by philosophical natu as represen-
tatve of reversed process in the course of being-of
downward, sinking career from the vfebrate anetype
towards greatly lower types in thefnvertebrate dvi
sions The fallen spirit is represen in revelation by
what we are now taught to recognsen science de-
graded reptile"
The following citation seems to claim place
or oo,all Co. l,rxo