168 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



existence of serpents of vast size and supernatural 

 powers; in many cases the daemons or guardian 

 spirits of rivers, lakes, and mountains. Given the 

 profound veneration for the natural serpent, and 

 the mental condition in which the mythical faculty 

 is very strong, men would scarcely fail to see such 

 monsters in certain aspects of Nature coinciding 

 with certain mental moods; and that which any 

 person saw, and gave an account of, as he would 

 have done of a singular tree, rock, or cloud which 

 he had seen, the others would believe in; and 

 believing, they would expect to see it also; and 

 with this expectation exciting them, when the 

 right mood and aspect came they probably would 

 see it. 



Even to our purged and purified vision Nature 

 is full of suggestions of the serpent that is, to 

 those who are familiar with the serpent's form and 

 have been strongly impressed with its strangeness. 

 Ruskin has called the serpent a " living wave," and 

 compares it in motion to a "wave without wind." 

 In many of its aspects the sea is serpent-like; 

 never more so than when the tide rises on a calm 

 day, when wave succeeds to wave, lifting itself up 

 serpentwise, gliding noiselessly and mysteriously 

 shorewards, to break in foam on the low beach and 

 withdraw with a prolonged hissing sound to the 

 deep. Again, he has compared the serpent in 

 motion to a " current without a fall." Before I 

 had read of Ruskin, or knew his name, the swift 

 current of a shallow stream had reminded me on 



