And tells how,—
“Alphonsus the wise and good king of Naples, with his own honoured hand painted a Pelican which with its sharp beak was laying open its breast so as with its own blood to save the lives of its young. Thus for people, for law, it is right that a king should die and by his own death restore life to the nations. As by his own death Christ did restore life to the just, and with life peace and righteousness.”
He adds this personification of the Pelican,—
“For people and for sanctioned law heart’s life a king will pour;
So from this blood of mine do I life to my young restore.”
The other motto, which Hadrian Junius and Geffrey Whitney select, opens out another idea, Quod in te est, prome,—“Bring forth what is in thee.” It suggests that of the soul’s wealth we should impart to others.
Junius (Emb. 7) thus addresses the bird he has chosen,—
“By often striking, O Pelican, thou layest open the deep recesses of thy breast and givest life to thy offspring. Search into thine own mind (my friend), seek what is hidden within, and bring forth into the light the seeds of thine inner powers.”
And very admirably does Whitney (p. 87) apply the sentiment to one of the most eminent of divines in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,—namely, to Dr. Alexander Nowell, the celebrated Dean of St. Paul’s, illustrious both for his learning and his example,—
“The Pellican, for to reuiue her younge,