Innocent as a dove you will harm no one, but wise as a serpent no one will harm you.

Innocent as a dove you will harm no one, but wise as a serpent no one will harm you.

Hence, bashful cunning,
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

Hence, bashful cunning,
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.

O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.

O God, keep me innocent; make others great!
[Fr., O mon Dieu, conserve-moi innocente, donne la grandeur aux
read more

O God, keep me innocent; make others great!
[Fr., O mon Dieu, conserve-moi innocente, donne la grandeur aux
autres.]

What narrow innocence it is for one to be good only according to
the law.
[Lat., Quam angusta read more

What narrow innocence it is for one to be good only according to
the law.
[Lat., Quam angusta innocentia est, ad legem bonum esse.]

An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.

An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.

Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of read more

Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

O, white innocence,
That thou shouldst wear the mask of guilt to hide
Thine awful and serenest read more

O, white innocence,
That thou shouldst wear the mask of guilt to hide
Thine awful and serenest countenance
From those who know thee not!