“The Viper”
Yet another great truth I record in my verse,
That some Vipers are venomous, some the reverse;
A fact you may prove if you try,
By procuring two Vipers and letting them bite;
With the first you are only the worse for a fright,
But after the second you die.
– Hilaire Belloc, collected in Carolyn Wells, The Book of Humorous Verse, 1920
