Back to Methuselah

wonderful new colors. She rears her head slowly from the bed of Johnswort, and speaks into Eve’s ear in a strange seductively musical whisper. The Serpent Eve. Eve Startled. Who is that? The Serpent It is I. I have come to show you my beautiful new hood. See! She spreads a magnificent amethystine hood. Eve Admiring it. Oh! But who taught you to speak? The Serpent You and Adam. I have crept through the grass, and hidden, and listened to you. Eve That was wonderfully clever of you. The Serpent I am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field. Eve Your hood is most lovely. She strokes it and pets the serpent. Pretty thing! Do you love your godmother Eve? The Serpent I adore her. She licks Eve’s neck with her double tongue. Eve Petting her. Eve’s wonderful darling snake. Eve will never be lonely now that her snake can talk to her. The Snake I can talk of many things. I am very wise. It was I who whispered the word to you that you did not know. Dead. Death. Die. Eve Shuddering. Why do you remind me of it? I forgot it when I saw your beautiful hood. You must not remind me of unhappy things. The Serpent Death is not an unhappy thing when you have learnt how to conquer it. Eve How can I conquer it? The Serpent By another thing, called birth. Eve What? Trying to pronounce it. B-birth? The Serpent Yes, birth. Eve What is birth? The Serpent The serpent never dies. Some day you shall see me come out of this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. That is birth. Eve I have seen that. It is wonderful. The Serpent If I can do that, what can I not do? I tell you I am very subtle. When you and Adam talk, I hear you say “Why?” Always “Why?” You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” I made the word dead to describe my old skin that I cast when I am renewed. I call that renewal being born. Eve Born is a beautiful word. The Serpent Why not be born again and again as I am, new and beautiful every time? Eve I! It does not happen: that is why. The Serpent That is how; but it is not why. Why not? Eve But I should not like it. It would be nice to be new again; but my old skin would lie on the ground looking just like me; and Adam would see it shrivel up and⁠— The Serpent No. He need not. There is a second birth. Eve A second birth? The Serpent Listen. I will tell you a great secret. I am very subtle; and I have thought and thought and thought. And I am very wilful, and must have what I want; and I have willed and willed and willed. And I have eaten strange things: stones and apples that you are afraid to eat. Eve You dared! The Serpent I dared everything. And at last I found a way of gathering together a part of the life in my body⁠— Eve What is the life? The Serpent That which makes the difference between the dead fawn and the live one. Eve What a beautiful word! And what a wonderful thing! Life is the loveliest of all the new words. The Serpent Yes: it was by meditating on Life that I gained the power to do miracles. Eve Miracles? Another new word. The Serpent A miracle is an impossible thing that is nevertheless possible. Something that never could happen, and yet does happen. Eve Tell me some miracle that you have done. The Serpent I gathered a part of the life in my body, and shut it into a tiny white case made of the stones I had eaten. Eve And what good was that? The Serpent I showed the little case to the sun, and left it in its warmth. And it burst; and a little snake came out; and it became bigger and bigger from day to day until it was as big as I. That was the second birth. Eve Oh! That is too wonderful. It stirs inside me. It hurts. The Serpent It nearly tore me asunder. Yet I am alive, and can burst my skin and renew myself as before. Soon there will be as many snakes in Eden as there are scales on my body. Then death will not matter: this snake and that snake will die; but the snakes will live. Eve But the rest of us will die sooner or later, like the fawn. And then there will be nothing but snakes, snakes, snakes everywhere. The Serpent That must not be. I worship you, Eve. I must have something to worship. Something quite different to myself, like you. There must be something greater than the snake. Eve Yes: it must not be. Adam must not perish. You are very subtle: tell me what to do. The Serpent Think. Will. Eat the dust. Lick the white stone: bite the apple you dread. The sun will give life. Eve I do not trust the sun. I will give life myself. I will tear another Adam from my body if I tear my body to pieces in the act. The Serpent Do. Dare it. Everything is possible: everything. Listen. I am old. I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. I remember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. I was her darling as I am yours. She was alone: there was no man with her. She saw death as you saw it when the fawn fell; and she knew then that she must find out how to renew herself and cast the skin like me. She had a mighty will: she strove and strove and willed and willed for more moons than there are leaves on all the trees of the garden. Her pangs were terrible: her groans drove sleep from Eden. She said it must never be again: that the burden of renewing life was past