88 The Poets and Nat^tre. 



' Passions among pure thoughts hid 

 Like serpents under flowerets sleeping." 



' Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers, 

 The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing." 



" Oh, in thy truth secure, thy virtue bold, 

 Beware the poison in the cup of gold, 

 The asp among the flowers." 



' ' Distrust 



The vain pretence ; the smiles that harbour grief 

 As lurks the serpent deep in flow'rs enwreath'd." 



"See ! how vain pleasures sting the lips they kiss, 

 How asps are hid beneath the bowers of bliss." 



Thence the idea of treason " Gaunt as a serpent : " 



" Right as a serpent hideth him under floures, 

 'Til he may see his time for to bite," 



says Chaucer, or, as Shenstone puts the same thought : 



"My tend'rest glances but the precious flow'rs 

 That shade the viper while she plots her wound. ' 



And so (as in Churchill) to treason particular : 



"Those vipers to their king, 

 Who smooth their looks and flatter whilst they sing." 



" Thus treason works ere traitors be espied, 

 Who sees the lurking serpent." 



In Shelley the hurricane and lightning are both snakes, 

 and in several poets, flame coiling, wreathing, darting, 

 hissing, fork-tongued is a snake. 



" The hurricane came from the west and passed on 

 By the path of the gate of the eastern sun, 

 Transversely dividing the stream of the storm ; 

 As an arrowy serpent pursuing the form 

 Of an elephant, bursts through the brakes of the waste." 



In Darwin the great sea-worm l is blue : 



' J The sea-snake is fully referred to in later pages. P. R. 



