71. You must remember, however, that in this, as in every other
instance, I take the myth at its central time. This is only the meaning
of the serpent to the Greek mind which could conceive an Athena. Its
first meaning to the nascent eyes of men, and its continued influence
over degraded races, are subjects of the most fearful mystery. Mr.
Fergusson has just collected the principal evidence bearing on the matter
in a work of very great value, and if you read his opening chapters, they
will put you in possession of the circumstances needing chiefly to be
considered. I cannot touch upon any of them here, except only to point
out that, though the doctrine of the so-called "corruption of human
nature," asserting that there is nothing but evil in humanity, is just
as blasphemous and false as a doctrine of the corruption of physical
nature would be, asserting there was nothing but evil in the earth,--
there is yet the clearest evidence of a disease, plague, or cretinous
imperfection of development, hitherto allowed to prevail against the
greater part of the races of men; and this in monstrous ways, more full
of mystery than the serpent-being itself.
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