THE SERPENT IN LITERATURE 187 



indexing of notes, would be exceeded by the task 

 of selection to follow — selection and compression 

 — since " The Book of the Serpent " would be in 

 one volume and not in half-a-dozen. And after 

 selection, or let us say deglutition, there would 

 ensue the dilatory process of digestion and assimila- 

 tion. If properly assimilated, the personal impres- 

 sions of a hundred independent observers, field- " 

 naturalists and travellers, and of a hundred in- 

 dependent students of ophiology, would be fused, 

 as it were, and run ipto one along with the author's 

 personal observations and his dejiuctions. 



Now, even if all this could have been done, and 

 the best form hit upon, and the work eloquently 

 written, it would still fall far short of the ideal 

 " Book of the Serpent " on account of insufficient 

 knowledge of a particular kind — I don't mean 

 anatomy. And had I been a person of means I 

 should, before beginning my work — getting a pale, 

 wan face through poring over miserable books- 

 have gone away on a five or ten years' serpent 

 quest to get that particular kind of knowledge by 

 becoming acquainted personally with all the most 

 distinguished ophidians on the globe. The first 

 sight of a thing, the shock of emotion, the vivid 

 and ineffaceable image registered in the brain, is 

 worth more than all the knowledge acquired by 

 reading, and this applies to the serpent above all 

 creatures. There is indeed but little difference 

 between this creature dead and in confinement. 

 It was the serpent in motion on the rock that was 



