snake, then to the stone I had cast away, I endeavoured to convey
to her that in the future I would for her sake be a friend to all
venomous reptiles, and that I wished her to have the same kindly
feelings towards me as towards these creatures. Whether or not
she understood me, she showed no disposition to go into hiding
again, and continued silently regarding me with a look that
seemed to express pleasure at finding herself at last thus
suddenly brought face to face with me. Flattered at this, I
gradually drew nearer until at the last I was standing at her
side, gazing down with the utmost delight into that face which so
greatly surpassed in loveliness all human faces I had ever seen
or imagined.

And yet to you, my friend, it probably will not seem that she was
so beautiful, since I have, alas! only the words we all use to
paint commoner, coarser things, and no means to represent all the
exquisite details, all the delicate lights, and shades, and swift
changes of colour and expression. Moreover, is it not a fact
that the strange or unheard of can never appear beautiful in a
mere description, because that which is most novel in it attracts
too much attention and is given undue prominence in the picture,
and we miss that which would have taken away the effect of
strangeness--the perfect balance of the parts and harmony of the
whole? For instance, the blue eyes of the northerner would, when
first described to the black-eyed inhabitants of warm regions,
seem unbeautiful and a monstrosity, because they would vividly
see with the mental vision that unheard-of blueness, but not in
the same vivid way the accompanying flesh and hair tints with
which it harmonizes.