XVI 



THE BRUISED SERPENT 



Some hold that our abhorrence of the serpent 

 tribe, the undiscriminating feeling which involves 

 the innocent with the harmful, is instinctive in 

 man. Many primitive, purely animal promptings 

 and impulses survive in us, of which, they argue, 

 this may be one. It is common knowledge that 

 the sight of a serpent affects many persons, especially 

 Europeans, in a sudden violent manner, with a 

 tremor and tingling of the nerves, like a million 

 messages of startling import flying from the centre 

 of intelligence to all outlying parts of the bodily 

 kingdom ; and these sensations of alarm, horror, 

 and disgust are, in most cases, accompanied or 

 instantly followed by an access of fury, a powerful 

 impulse to crush the offensive reptile to death. 

 The commonness of the feeling and its violence, 

 so utterly out of proportion to the danger to be 

 apprehended, do certainly give it the appearance 

 of a true instinctive impulse ; nevertheless, such 

 appearance may be deceptive. Fear, however it 

 may originate, is of all emotions the least rational ; 

 and the actions of a person greatly excited by 



172 



