they deceive and gain influence over men of unsuspicious and innocent dispositions, and so they fall into the greatest calamities. I imagine that the Lawgiver, having in mind such things, would not suffer the punishment due to poisoners to be postponed.” Then, having illustrated the law, and having justified its swiftness, by pointing out, in his own day, a class of persons resembling that against which Moses proceeded with sudden severity, he ends with this venomous comparison: “If we only see snakes