Snakes in Natiire. 49 



blameless physician " carried serpents, the art of ^Esculapius 

 being here symbolised by the creature which " renews its 

 youth," and was supposed to have an instinctive knowledge 

 of the healing virtues of herbs. The brazen serpent of the 

 Mosaic wilderness had, in this restorative and curative 

 significance, been anticipated in the temple courts of 

 Epidaurus. It affords a simile on empiric nostrums. Thus 

 Green, in his poem on The Spleen 



"A corporation, 



The brazen serpent of the nation, 

 Which, when hard accidents distressed, 

 The poor must look at to be blessed." 



But as a rule it is "vengeful;" "pernicious;" "with 

 venom fraught ; " " painted and empoisoned ; " the supreme 

 peril ("you might as safely waken a serpent," is an 

 accepted comparison for the most hazardous enterprises 1 ) ; a 

 creature of secret ways, " more hid than paths of snakes " 

 (Davenant); the uttermost symbol of desolation. "Palmyra's 

 ruins " have no tenant but the hissing serpent " (Moore) ; it 

 sits on the "Rajah's throne" when the lawful dynasty is 

 extinct (Hemans) ; " rolls " through the "deserted market 

 and the pleading-place, Choked with brambles and o'er- 

 grown with grass " (Cowley) : and so in Coleridge : 



" The mighty columns were but sand, 

 And lazy snakes trail o'er the level ruins." 



The movement of the snake, so suggestive at once of 

 subtlety and of strength, so wonderfully elegant and yet 

 awe-inspiring, could not fail to arrest the poet's attention and 

 provoke his admiration 



1 " Pauses ere he wake 

 The slumbering venom of the folded snake : 

 The first may turn, but not avenge the blow, 

 The last expires, but leaves no living foe ; 

 Fast to the doom'd offender's form it clings, 

 And he may crush not conquer still it stings ! " Byron. 



D 



