69. Hence the continual change in the interpretation put upon it in
various religions. As the worm of corruption, it is the mightiest of all
adversaries of the gods--the special adversary of their light and
creative power--Python against Apollo. As the power of the earth against
the air, the giants are serpent-bodied in the Gigantomachia; but as the
power of the earth upon the seed--consuming it into new life ("that which
thou sowest is not quickened except it die")--serpents sustain the
chariot of the spirit of agriculture.

70. Yet on the other hand, there is a power in the earth to take away
corruption, and to purify (hence the very fact of burial, and many uses
of earth, only lately known): and in this sense the serpent is a healing
spirit,--the representative of AEsculapius, and of Hygieia; and is a
sacred earth-type in the temple of the native earth of Athens; so that
its departure from the temple was a sign to the Athenians that they were
to leave their homes. And then, lastly, as there is a strength and
healing in the earth, no less than the strength of air, so there is
conceived to be a wisdom of earth no less than a wisdom of the spirit;
and when its deadly power is killed, its guiding power becomes true; so
that the Python serpent is killed at Delphi, where yet the oracle is from
the breath of the earth.

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, m