HINTS TO ADDER-SEEKERS 28 



away into the shadow of the bushes. And, watching 

 it, I became conscious of a change in my mental 

 attitude towards the living things that were so 

 much to me, my chief happiness having always 

 been in observing their ways. The curiosity was 

 not diminished, but the feeling that had gone with 

 it for a very long time past was changed to what 

 it had been when I was sportsman and collector, 

 always killing things. The serpent gliding away 

 before me was nothing but a worm with poison 

 fangs in its head and a dangerous habit of striking 

 at unwary legs — a creature to be crushed with the 

 heel and no more thought about. I had lost 

 something precious, not, I should say, in any 

 ethical sense, seeing that we are in a world where 

 we must kill to live, but valuable in my special 

 case, to me as a field-naturalist. Abstention from 

 killing had made me a better observer and a happier 

 being, on account of the new or different feeling 

 towards animal life which it had engendered. And 

 what was this new feeling — ^wherein did it differ 

 from the old of my shooting and collecting days, 

 seeing that since childhood I had always had the 

 same intense interest in all wild life ? The power, 

 beauty, and grace of the wild creature, its perfect 

 harmony in nature, the exquisite correspondence 

 between organism, form and faculties, and the 

 environment, with the plasticity and intelligence 

 for the readjustment of the vital machinery, daily, 

 hourly, momentarily, to meet all changes in the 

 conditions, all contingencies ; and thus, amidst 



