The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-10-07
OUR FRIEND TIE SNAKE
He is Not A Bad Fellow And Has
Many Redeeminu Qualities.

he Is MOT Bad FeiloW AHo 1aa
Many Redeeminp Qualities.
Exceptional love Of music would re-
dound to the credit Of any other liv-
ing creature as indicative of refined
taste, but in the maligned snake even
this artistic attribute is a mark of de-
rogation. Our own Quakers, for ex-
ample, take up and indorse the dia-
tribe of Epiphanius against the flute
players. "Observe the figure that the
player makes in blowing. Does he
not bend himself up and down to the
right hand and the left, like unto the
serpent? These forms hath the devil
used to manifest his blasphemy
against things heavenly, to destroy
things upon earth, to encompass the
world, capturing right and left such
as lend an ear to his seductions." And
so on. But not word do we hear in
condemnation of the unregenerate
birds that carol heedlessly even while
the minister is painting the horrors
of an uncomfortable place.
The fact that some snakes eject
poison against their enemies is held
to justify their indiscriminate extinc-
ton. We fail to see how. They did
not have the choice of their means
of defenses they necessarily took
what the Lord gave them and they act
as instinct directs. Clearly reason is
not their guide, else they would not
notify an intended victim, but would
strike in silence. 1t is pleasing to
think that in this they are actuated
by a high sense Of honor and fairness,
but we do not venture so much as
supposition that they possess an at
tribute so fine. 1t is more likely, as
Darwin maintains, that the rattle
snake uses its rattle, the cobra ex-
pands its frill and the puff adder
swells and Kisses in order to alarm
the many birds and beasts which are
known to attack the most venomous
species, acting on the same principle
which impels hen to ruffle its feath-
ers when a dog approaches its chick
ems. In any case, none of the tradi-
tional shrewdness or cunning is mani
fest in It's performance.
1t is a matter Of qualification nat
uralIy, that our snake was considered
to be as intelligent as his predcces-
sors; but there was really no need of
exceptional acumen to enable him to
play his part successfully. If the Few
IL took possession of his body in or
der to accomplish a nefarious pur-
pose, it was the Devil, not the snake.
who framed the enticing argument for
the unsuspecting Eve. If, again, it
was Lilith who seized an opportunity
to advance the cause of woman suff-
rage. clearly twas her keen appre-
citation of the power of curiosity that
led to the fall. In either case the
snake was mere dupe used by one
more cunning than himself to further
a project in which he had no personal
interest and whose method of accom-
plishment was foreign to his shy in
Clinations. If he had been as crafty as
he has been reputed, can one suppose
for moment that he would have as
sumed role which was certain to
win the everlasting hatred of man
kind? No; there have been and are
good snakes and bad snakes just as
there have been good Eyes, like God
iva, or Good-eva, of Coventry, and
there are bad Ewes, some of whom
we know; but there is no real ground
for the common belief that snakes are
endowed with peculiar sapience.