68 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



(first to the restless conscience of man, and secondly to his 

 physical life), is not hard to understand. 



Neither is it difficult to guess the reason why the Dove 

 descended in bodily form over the waters of Baptism. 



Surely, also, some of the bird's earliest symbolism 

 lingers in the quotation given from the Golden Legend, 

 " My mother ! My dove ! " 



But this is not the place for research. Here we deal 

 only with the influence which the dove, as a symbol of 

 promise and peace and purity has had on the mind of 

 mankind. 



It is infinite, surely. 



The thoughts to which it gives rise are inextricably 

 mixed up with the noblest part of our lives ; and it is not 

 too much to say that every time one weary wayfarer in this 

 transient world holds out the olive branch — even the trivial 

 one of balm to suit a trivial irritation — to a fellow way- 

 farer, he thinks of, he is biased by memory of the dove. 



And the mission of that memory is not yet ended. 

 The thought of the Universal Genetrix has not yet brought 

 universal peace to the Body of Brotherhood, neither has the 

 Spirit which breathes through the chaos of this mundane 

 world taught us not only to know with Thomas a Kempis, 

 that if we wish " to gain peace we must quit desire," but 

 also to see that desire dies when we give up the limitations 

 of personality and "strike a league with destiny." 



