THE SERPENT IN LITERATURE 207 
in harmony with the conception of Elsie, of a being 
in whom the human and serpentine natures were 
indissolubly joined; and no accident, not assuredly 
that “dull ache of passion,” could have killed the 
one without destroying the other. 
The author was himself conscious of the in- 
adequacy of the reason he gave for the change 
and deliverance. He no doubt asked himself the 
following question: ‘‘ Will the reader believe that 
a fit of dumb passion, however intense, was sufficient 
to cause one of Elsie’s splendid physique and 
vitality to droop and wither into the grave like 
any frail consumptive schoolgirl who loves and 
whose love is not requited?”” He recognises and 
is led to apologise for its weakness; and, finally, 
still unsatisfied, advances an alternative theory, 
which is subtle and physiological—a sop thrown to 
those among his readers who, unlike the proverbial 
ass engaged in chewing hay, meditate on what they 
are taking in. The alternative theory is, that an 
animal’s life is of short duration compared with 
man’s; that the serpent in Elsie, having arrived at 
the end of its natural term, died out of the human 
life with which it had been intervolved, leaving her 
still in the flower of youth and wholly human; 
but that this decay and death in her affected her 
with so great a shock that her own death followed 
immediately on her deliverance. 
If the first explanation was weak the second will 
not bear looking at. Some animals have compara- 
tively short lives, as, for instance, the earthworm, 
