Even to=day such stuff as the following is put forward by such like literalizers

or " fundamentalists ." " The serpent, when it first appeared to Eve, was
not the writhing reptile, such as we connect with the word serpent to-day .
That condition was the effect of the curse pronounced upon it for lending
itself to atan in order to tempt man. !reviously it may well have been
one of the most graceful and beautiful creatures in the "arden of Eden, second
only to man as the most # subtil # of created animals " $%asil tewart, in The
&itness of the "reat !yramid, p . '(') .