XV 



THE SERPENT'S STRANGENESS 



The 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 



153 



