abroad in India. The Brahmins were the first who gave a history of my adventures. And I doubt not but one day or other the poets of the North will make them the subject of an extravagant epic poem, for in truth it is all that can be made of them. Yet I am not so much fallen but that I have left in this globe a very extensive dominion. I might venture to assert that the whole earth belongs to me.
Princess.—I believe it, for they tell me that your powers of persuasion are irresistible, and to please is to reign.
Serpent.—I feel, mademoiselle, while I behold and listen to you, that you have over me the same power which you ascribe to me over so many others.
Princess.—You are, I believe, an amiable conqueror. It is said that your conquests among the fair sex have been numerous, and that you began with our common mother, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten.
Serpent.—They do me injustice. She honored me with her confidence, and I gave her the best advice. I desired that she and her husband should eat heartily of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. I imagined in doing this that I should please the Ruler of all things. It seemed to me that a tree so necessary to the human race was not planted to be entirely useless. Would the Supreme Being have wished to have been served by fools and idiots? Is not the mind formed for the acquisition of knowl-
