Note 3 — Chapter XII · The Wisdom of Solomon.

M. Didron (Christian Iconography, Bohn’s ed., i., p. 464) mentions a picture of the thirteenth century in which the dove moving over the face of the waters (Gen. 1) is black, God not having yet created light. It may be, however, that the mediæval idea was that the Holy Ghost, as a heavenly spy, was supposed to assume the color of the night in order to detect the deeds done in darkness without itself being seen. In later centuries this dark dove was shown at the ear of magicians and idols, the inspirer of prophets and saints being the white dove.