“Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death
I spy life peering.”
It is a noble comparison, and most suggestive,—but of a flight higher than the usual conceptions of the Emblem writers. Supplied to them they could easily enough work it out into device and picture, but possess scarcely power enough to give it origin.[[151]]
“A snake lies hidden in the grass,” is no unfrequent proverb; and Paradin’s “Devises Heroiqves” (41) set forth both the fact and the application.
Latet anguis in herba.
Paradin, 1562.
En cueillant les Fleurs, & les Fraizes des champs, ſe faut d’autant garder du dangereus Serpent, qu’il nous peut enuenimer, & faire mourir nos corps. Et auſsi en colligeant les belles autoritez, & graues ſentences des liures, faut euiter d’autant les mauuaiſes opinions, qu’elles nous peuuent peruertir, damner, & perdre nos ames.
From the same motto and device Whitney (p. 24) makes the application to flatterers,—