XV 
THE SERPENT’S STRANGENESS 
Tue following passages from the Queen of the Air, 
which refer to the serpent myth and the serpent’s 
strange appearance and manner of progression, 
have, apart from their exceeding beauty, a very 
special bearing on the subject of this paper. And 
in quoting them I am only following Ruskin’s own 
plan, when, in his lectures on Natural History at 
Oxford, he considered in each case, first, what had 
been “beautifully thought about the creature.” 
It would be hard, I imagine, to find a passage of 
greater beauty on this subject than Ruskin’s own, 
unless it be that famous fragment concerning the 
divine nature of the serpent and the serpent tribe 
from Sanchoniathan the Phoenician, who flourished 
some thirty centuries ago. It is true that among 
the learned some hold that he never flourished at 
all, nor existed; but doctors disagree on that point; 
and, in any case, the fragment exists, and was most 
certainly written by some one. 
Ruskin writes: 
Next, in the serpent we approach the source of a group of 
myths, world-wide, founded on great and common human 
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