52 THE COMPLETE ANQLEE. [PART I- 



This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much more 

 might be said. My next shall be of birds of political use ; 

 I think 'tis not to be doubted that swallows have been 

 taught to carry letters between two armies. But 'tis certain 

 that when the Turks besieged Malta or Rhodes, I now 

 remember not which it was, pigeons are then related to carry 

 and recarry letters ; and Mr. G. Sandys, 1 in his " Travels," 

 relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo and Babylon. But if 

 that be disbelieved, it is not to be doubted that the dove 

 was sent out of the ark by Noah, to give him notice of land, 

 when to him all appeared to be sea, and the dove proved a 

 faithful and comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices 

 of the law, a pair of turtle-doves, or young pigeons, were as 

 well accepted as costly bulls and rams. And when God 

 would feed the prophet Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 46, after a kind 

 of miraculous manner, he did it by ravens, who brought him 

 meat morning and evening. Lastly, the Holy Ghost, when 

 he descended visibly upon our Saviour, did it by assuming 

 the shape of a dove. 2 And, to conclude this part of my dis- 

 course, pray remember these wonders were done by birds of 

 the air, the element in which they, and I, take so much 

 pleasure. 



There is also a little contemptible winged creature, an 

 inhabitant of my aerial element, namely, the laborious bee, 

 of whose prudence, policy, and regular government of their 

 own commonwealth I might say much, as also of their 



1 Mr. George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gentleman, 

 was the youngest son of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York. He pub- 

 lished his "Travels to the Holy Land, Egypt," in folio, 1615 (frequently 

 reprinted), and made an excellent Paraphrase on the Psalms, Canticles, 

 and Ecclesiastes, inverse; and also translated Ovid's "Metamorphosis," 

 Grotius's "Tragedy of Christ's Passion," 12mo. 1640, &c. He died in 

 1642. H. 



3 Walton here mistakes the sense of two passages in Scripture, viz. 

 Matt. iii. 16, and Luke iii. 22, in which the baptism of our Lord is related. 

 The meaning of both is, that the Holy Spirit descended as a dove uses to 

 descend upon anything, hovering and overshadowing it. Vide Whitby on 

 Luke iii. 22 ; Dr. Hammond on the passage; and Bishop Taylor's "Ductor 

 Dubitantium," p. 254. H. [Commentators are agreed that this passage 

 means the manner of the Holy Spirit descending "like a dove, with a 

 fluttering gentle motion," and not in the shape of a dove. Dr. Doddridge 

 defines it to be "a lambant flame falling from heaven with a dove-like 

 motion." ED.] 



