E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
White Bird (The).
Conscience, or the soul of man. The Mahometans have preserved the old Roman idea in the doctrine that the souls of the just lie under the throne of God, like white birds, till the resurrection morn.
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“A white bird, she told him once … he must carry on his bosom across a crowded public place—his own soul was like that.”—Pater: Marius the Epicurean. chap. ii.
