dom. For it was a principle fixed deeply in every breast, that man was not born to his parents only, but to his country. And mark the distinction. He who regards himself as born only to his parents, waits in passive submission for the hour of his natural dissolution. He who considers that he is the child of his country also, volunteers to meet death rather than behold that country reduced to vassalage; and thinks those insults and disgraces which he must endure, in a state enslaved, much more terrible than death. Should I attempt to assert that it was I who inspired you with sentiments worthy of your ancestors, I should meet the just resentment of every hearer. No: it is my point to show that such sentiments are properly your own; that they were the sentiments of my country long before my days. I claim but my share of merit in having acted on such principles in every part of my administration. He then who condemns every part of my administration, he who directs you to treat me with severity, as one who hath involved the state in terrors and dangers, while he labours to deprive me of present honour, robs you of the applause of all posterity. For if you now pronounce, that as my public conduct hath not been right, Ctesiphon must stand condemned, it must be thought that you yourselves have acted wrong, not that you owe your present state to the caprice of fortune.-But it cannot be! No, my countrymen, it cannot be that you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely for the liberty and the safety of all Greece. No! I swear it by the spirits of our sires, who were in the van of peril at Marathon! by those who stood arrayed at Plataa !-by those who fought the sea-fight at Salamis ! - by the men of Artemisium!-- by the others, so many and so brave, who now rest in our public sepulchres ! all of whom their country judged worthy of the same honour; all, I say, Æschines; not those only who prevailed, not those only who were victorious. - And with reason. What was the part of gallant men they all performed: their success was such as the supreme Ruler of the world dispensed to each."

It is not one of the least glories of the Athenian people, that the truth and justice of this noble defence were sanctioned by the approving votes of the very men who were now suffering under the actual results of the policy of Demosthenes, and by the sons and other relatives of those who had marched, at his persuasion, to Chæronea, and had there fallen beneath the Macedonian spears. Yet, a few years afterwards, the Athenians listened to a false and malignant charge against their great orator, of having taken a bribe from Harpalus, a traitorous Macedonian general, who, taking advantage of Alexander's supposed death in India, fled to Greece, carrying with him large treasures from Babylonia. Thirlwall proves conclusively that the story found in Plutarch of Demosthenes having accepted a gold cup from Harpalus, was an idle and unfounded tale. Dinarchus, a bitter enemy of Demosthenes, never mentions the story of the cup; and a still stronger proof of the innocence of Demosthenes is found in the fact, that, after the death of Harpalus, his steward, on being called upon to give an account of all the persons to whom Harpalus had given any kind of bribe, did not mention the name of Demosthenes. No one, indeed, has ever ventured to insinuate that, even if Demosthenes did take the gold of Harpalus, it was given with a view to buy him over to a Macedonian alliance, or to make him forego his old principles of devotion to his country. For a short time, Demosthenes remained in exile, and it is no discredit to him that he feared exile more

than death. He remained in the neighbouring territories, whence he might still obtain a view of the cliffs of his beloved Attica: and when a favourable opportunity offered itself, by the death of Alexander, he was recalled by his countrymen, and succeeded, for the third time, in organizing Southern Greece into a most powerful league against the Macedonian rule. Even before the decree pronouncing his recall had been passed, he had busily and successfully exerted himself in obtaining allies among the neighbouring states; he went from city to city, every where pleading the cause of Greece, and competing successfully with the envoys of Antipater, the Macedonian viceroy.

Everything appeared at first to favour the efforts of the independent Greeks in this war, which Ralegh has truly termed "the last honourable enterprise that ever was undertaken by the great city of Athens." Macedon had been weakened by the very successes of Alexander, and was almost drained of troops and treasure. There were great and increasing dissensions among the Macedonian generals, and Athens had found in the brave and skilful Leosthenes, a military chief worthy of her best days. He gained a brilliant, and as it seemed, a decisive victory over Antipater; but a chance shot deprived Athens of her last hero, while he was besieging the defeated Macedonians in the town of Lamia; and his successors in the command, though not deficient in bravery, were wanting in the genius by which Leosthenes animated and guided the militias of the confederacy against the enemy's regular troops.

At this very crisis, also, it happened that a large body of Alexander's veterans, who had been discharged from service in Upper Asia, approached the Hellespont on their homeward march to their native country. They were promptly led into Europe to the help of Antipater, and the independent Greeks were utterly overthrown. Athens was now compelled to surrender to Antipater absolutely, and without conditions; and Demosthenes well knew from this man's fierce and coarse character, exasperated also by his temporary reverses, that he had no mercy to expect.

The other statesmen who had promoted the war, took refuge at different shrines, in the vain hope that the sanctity of the temples might for a time protect their lives; but they were pursued, dragged back to Athens, and put to death, with every circumstance of indignity and cruelty. Demosthenes sought shelter in the temple of Neptune, at Calauria; but he was tracked out by a band of Antipater's cut-throats, led on by Archeas, who, after endeavouring to induce him to leave the temple by promises, resorted to threats. Demosthenes seeing that all hope had fled, asked permission to write a letter to his friends, and contrived to bite off a portion of a reed pen, in which he had for some time carried poison; after a short time, during which his head had been bowed, as in thought, his enemies taunted him with cowardice, and he rose to leave the temple, but fell dead before the foot of the altar.

A Christian bishop has truly said of the death of Demosthenes, that "His end would undoubtedly have been more truly heroic, though not in the sight of his own generation, if he had braved the insults and torture which awaited him. But he must not be judged by a view of life which had never been presented to him: according to his own, it must have seemed base to submit to the enemy whom he had hitherto defied, for the sake of a few days more of ignominious wretchedness. And even on the principles of a higher philosophy, he might think, that the gods, who were not able to protect him, had discharged him from their service,

and permitted him to withdraw from a post which he could no longer defend."*

Indeed, even if Antipater had been capable of the clemency of Philip and Alexander, for Demosthenes to have outlived the Lamian war would have only been to him a prolongation of hopeless misery. By perishing when he did, he was spared from seeing his country become the prey of successive soldiers of fortune, and look to a change of masters as the only possible vicissitude of slavery. He was spared also, from what would have agonized his proud and patriotic spirit yet more keenly, from seeing this once powerful and high-minded nation debase herself by the lowest, the most promiscuous adulation; and prostitute her intellectual beauties in favour of every military adventurer who filled her strongholds with his mercenaries, and of every foreign prince, who heaped her granaries with his ostentatious bounty. Demosthenes knew not the depth of the vileness from which he had endeavoured to save Athens. He was denied the good for which he had heroically striven, but he was taken away from the fulness of the triumphant evil.

RATTLESNAKES.

WE believe that we have seen a greater number of these reptiles, in our various journeyings, and been more intensely frightened by them than any other scenery-loving tourist or angler in the country, and hence the idea of our present essay. We shall record our stock of information for the benefit of the general reader, rather than for the learned and scientific, beginning our remarks with what we know of the character of that really beautiful and magnanimous, but most deadly animal, which was adopted as the revolutionary emblem of our country, as the eagle is now the emblem of the republic.

The rattlesnake derives its name from an instrument attached to its tail, consisting of a series of hollow scaly pieces which, when shaken, make a rattling or rustling noise. The number of these pieces or rattles are said to correspond with the number of years which the animal has attained, and some travellers assert that they have been discovered with thirty rattles, though thirteen is a much more common number. It is one of the most venomous of serpents, and yet one that we cannot but respect, since it habitually makes the most honourable use of the singular appendage with which it is gifted. It never strikes a foe without first warning him of his danger. In form it is somewhat corpulent, has a flat heart-shaped head, and is supplied with fangs, varying from a half inch to an inch in length, which lie hidden horizontally in the flesh of the upper jaw, and are capable of being thrown out like the blade of a knife. The venom emitted by it is so deadly, that it has been known to cause the death of a human being in a very few hours, and to destroy a dog or cat in less than twenty minutes, and yet we have met with some half-dozen individuals in our travels who have been bitten by the rattlesnake without being seriously injured. Horses and cattle are known to become ex

* Thirlwall.

ceedingly terrified at its appearance, and, generally speaking, when bitten, die in a short time; and yet we once saw a horse, which was only troubled in consequence of its bite, by a disease resembling the scurvy. The hair dropped from the skin of the quadruped, and he looked horribly, if he did not feel so. As to the effect of this poison upon hogs, it has frequently been proven to be perfectly harmless, and we know it to be the custom in certain portions of the country for farmers to employ their swine for the express purpose of destroying the rattlesnakes infesting their land. The effect of the rattlesnake's bite upon itself is said to be generally fatal. In regard to the antidote of this poison we are acquainted with only one, which is the plant commonly called the rattlesnake weed. Both the leaf and the root are employed, and applied internally as well as externally. This plant grows to the height of six or eight inches, has one stock and a leaf resembling in shape the head of the rattlesnake, and is almost invariably found in those sections of the country where the reptile abounds.

The courage of the rattlesnake is by no means remarkable, and it is but seldom that they will dispute the right of way with a man who is not afraid of them. They are sluggish in their movements, and accomplish the most of their travelling during the nocturnal hours. They feed upon almost every variety of living creature which they can overpower. They are not partial to water, but when compelled to cross a river or lake, they perform the feat in a most beautiful manner, holding their heads about one foot from the surface, and gliding along at a rapid rate. They are affectionate creatures, and it is alleged that when their offspring are very young, and they are disturbed by the presence of man, the mothers swallow their little ones until the danger is past, and then disgorge them alive and writhing.

Another of their peculiarities consists in the fact, that they may be entirely disarmed by brandishing over their heads the leaves of the white ash, which are so obnoxious to their nervous system as to produce the most painful contortions of the body. When travelling at night in search of food, or for purposes of recreation, as it may be, they have a fashion of visiting the encampments of hunters, and it has been ascertained that the only way of keeping them at a respectful distance is to encircle the camp with a rope, over which they are afraid to crawl;-and it has frequently happened to hunters, in a snake country, that on awaking after a night of repose, they have discovered on the outside of their magic circle as many as a dozen of the charming creatures, carefully coiled up, and sound asleep. It is also related of this snake that it has the power of throwing off or suppressing a disagreeable effluvium, which is quite sickening to those who come within its range. If this be true, it occurs chiefly in the month of August, when the weather is sultry, and the snake is particularly fat. That this snake has the power of charming, as some writers maintain, may be true, but we know not of an authenticated instance. That it may have a very quiet way of stealing upon its prey seems to us much more plausible-but upon this fact we are non-committal. As to their power of hissing-that, also, is an undecided question. In regard to their manner of biting we can speak with more confidence. They never attack a man without first coiling themselves in a graceful manner, and instead of jumping they merely extend their bodies, with the quickness of thought, towards their mark, and if they do not

reach it, they have to coil themselves again for a second effort, and when they hit a man at all, it is generally on his heel, for the bruising of which they have the authority of the Scriptures.

The rattlesnake is peculiar to the American continent. Four varieties alone are known to naturalists, three of which are found in the United States, and one in South America. In the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico they attain the length of seven and eight feet and a diameter of three to four inches-the males having four fangs, and the females only two. These are characterised by a kind of diamond figure on the skin, and are partial to the low or bottom lands of the country. Those found in the Middle and Northern States are called the common or banded rattlesnakes, and are altogether the most abundant in the Union. They vary in length from two and a half to four feet, and are partial to mountainous and rocky districts. There is also a very small, but most dangerous variety, called the ground rattlesnakes, which are found on the sterile and sandy prairies of the West, and to a limited extent in the barren districts of the South. In Canada they are almost unknown, and even in the more thickly settled states of the Union they are rapidly becoming extinct. As to their value, it may be stated that their oil and gall are highly prized in all sections of the Union for medicinal purposes, and by the Indians and slave population of the South, their flesh is frequently employed as an article of food, and really considered sweet and nourishing.

The attachment of the aborigines to this famous reptile is proverbial: among nearly all the tribes, even at the present day, it is seldom disturbed, but is designated by the endearing epithet of grandfather. It is recorded, however, by the early historians, that when one tribe desired to challenge another to combat, they were in the habit of sending into the midst of their enemy the skin of a rattlesnake, whereby it would appear to have been employed as an emblem of revenge. And as to the origin of the rattlesnake, the old men among the Cherokees relate a legend to the following effect, which, the reader will notice, bears a striking analogy to the history of our Saviour. A very beautiful young man, with a white face, and wrapped in a white robe, once made his appearance in their nation, and commanded them to abandon all their old customs and festivals, and to adopt a new religion. He made use of the softest language, and everything that he did proved him to be a good man. It so happened, however, that he could make no friends among them, and the medicine men of the nation conspired to take away his life. In many ways did they try to do this by lashing him with serpents, and by giving him poison, but were always unsuccessful. But, in process of time, the deed was accomplished, and in the following manner. It was known that the good stranger was in the habit of daily visiting a certain spring for the purpose of quenching his thirst, and bathing his body. In view of this fact, the magicians made a very beautiful war-club, inlaid with bone and shells, and decorated with rattles, and this club they offered to the Great Spirit, with the prayer that he would teach them how to destroy the stranger. In answer to the prayer, a venomous snake was created and carefully hidden under a leaf by the side of the spring. The stranger, as usual, came there to drink, was bitten by the snake, and perished. The Cherokee nation then fell in love with the snake, and having asked the Great Spirit to distinguish it, by some peculiar mark, from all the other snakes in the world, he complied by transferring to