Snakes in Tradition. 57 



Kalinak, the black death ; or Ahi, the throttler ? Jason and 

 Perseus, Feridun and Odin, claim triumph over the snake 

 as the chiefest of their glories, and it would be tedious to 

 recapitulate the multitude of myths through which ' the dire 

 worm ' has come down to our own time dignified and made 

 awful by the honours and fears of the past." 



Foremost of all the reptiles of tradition is that " spirited 

 sly snake," " the enemy of mankind," that " unparadised the 



world." 



" Say first what cause 



Mov'd our grand parents, in that happy state, 

 Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off 

 From their Creator, and' transgress His will 

 For one restraint, lords of the world besides ? 

 Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt ? 

 TK infernal Serpent '." 



In " Paradise Lost," the Satanic vehicle is always of great 

 dignity, and however seriously it may be denounced is 

 treated with severe respect. In some other poets it is 

 scarcely so important a personage. Cowper, indeed, makes 

 it ridiculous. Marvell has this quaint fancy 



1 ' When our first parents Paradise did grace, 

 The serpent was the prelate of the place ; 

 Fond Eve did, for this subtle tempter's sake, 

 From the forbidden tree the pippin take ; 

 His God and Lord this preacher did betray, 

 To have the weaker vessel made his prey." 



And Cowley this 



" Oh Solitude ! first state of human kind, 

 Which blessed remained till man did find 

 Eve his own help and company ; 

 As soon as two, alas ! together joined, 

 The serpent made up three." 



But with Milton my only fault is that he sat down to write 

 of the Temptation unfairly prejudiced against the snake. 

 He is fanatically, Puritanically, inflexible : refuses to give it, 

 as he does King Charles, the benefit of a generous doubt. 

 Neither the one nor the other was without compulsion in 



