312 ESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS. 



The Snail in Poetry. 



The snail has been but rarely the subject of poetical 

 treatment. Minor poets would be afraid of touching it ; 

 and even in the hands of those great masters to whom 

 it has been given to interpret the deeper harmonies of 

 the universe^ it is only upon rare occasions that this 

 little animal could fittingly present itself as a link in 

 the chain of their conceptions. One would naturally 

 first look for it in those descriptive poems which deal 

 with agriculture and gardening. But neither Cowper 

 in his ^ Garden ^ nor Virgil in his ' Georgics ' appear to 

 have honoured it with their notice. Nor does it enter, 

 I believe, into the pious yet discursive meditations of 

 George Herbert. Nor does Milton make it the subject 

 of any special reference in his magnificent description 

 of the six days' work, and varied wonders of creation. 

 It is not the snail, but the worm, which is there taken 

 as the type of that lower region of animal life. Indeed 

 there appears no great congeniality between the tribes 

 of the " Helicidae ^' and the atmosphere which has been 

 deemed suitable for epic or for serious poetry; they 

 do not readily live and flourish on Parnassus. Never- 

 theless their cause, as judged at the tribunal of the 

 Muses, is not to be pronounced hopeless; it must be 

 stated, on the contrary, that their humble pleadings 

 have been listened to, and that they have been admitted 

 into the realms of song. They have certainly been 

 neglected by the smaller fry ' of poets ; but they have 

 not been overlooked by the very greatest masters of the 

 art. It is instructive to observe the manner in which 

 the snail has been treated by Homer, Shakspere, and 

 Goethe ; from Avhom, in default of other instances, our 

 examples must needs be drawn. We shall there find 



