Wounded and bleeding, a hind prances painfully in the fourth emblem of Peacham's Minerva Britannica, titled Nusquam tuta. This emblem is a condensation of a passage from King James' Basilicon Doron, which discusses how one must protect his conscience, a "light of knowledge that God hath planted in man." Peacham's emblem includes an illustration of a hind whose flank has been pierced by the arrow of a Shepard and two verses that explain the picture. The background of this picture is bare--only two trees stand to the left and right side of the stag--revealing that this naïve stag, "while nought mistrusting did at safetie goe," (Peacham 2) emerged stupidly from the thick groves to meet death. Now in pain, the hind can no longer rest in ease, but can only anxiously, "runne about with arrow in her side." (Peacham 6)

Peacham's moral, which he has taken from King James, is that men with bad conscience are "pierced" with an internal wound and therefore, "seeke their ease by shifting ground." (Peacham 10) Peacham uses the hind as a metaphor for conscience--it being a symbol of innocence and natural tranquility, but when wounded by the arrow it lives no longer in a peaceful state. Besides this inherent symbolism the hind also carries religious representation. As many animals during the Medieval Ages, the deer was attributed with a mythological characteristic--it was described as an enemy of snakes and an animal which sniffed and hunted snakes out of their lairs and ate them. After gorging down the snake, the deer proceeded to drink from a clear, fresh spring, which cleansed its palate of the bad taste. Various authors interpreted this strange myth to teach a religious lesson. The snake became a symbol of sin, the spring, of confession, and the deer, of man. The myth taught that as the deer cleansed itself of the snake, man should also cleanse himself of sin and confess. When deciding how to represent King James' passage pictorially, Peacham probably searched for an animal that could represent an innocent conscience and at the same time hold religious symbolism. The hind's purpose was more apparent during Peacham's lifetime as the myth of the deer was assumingly a general sort of knowledge. Understanding the key line, " The meane neglecting which might heale the sinne," (Peacham 11) depends on knowing what the deer represents. The mean, which heals the sin, is, in fact, prayer and confession. In knowing this myth, the purpose of the hind's presence in Peacham's emblem is no longer ambiguous.

The passage in Basilicon Doron delves deeper into explaining the conscience-- King James begins by defining what the conscience is, "the light of knowledge that God hath planted in man, which ever watching over all his actions, as it beareth him a joyfull testimonie when he does right, so choppeth it him with a feeling that hee hath done wrong, when ever he commiteth any sinne." (James 16) Having been given the advantage to realize when one has committed sin, man can then make amends. On the other hand, Peacham's hind can do nothing about the arrow that punctures her side.

Peacham does not explain how to protect one's conscience nor how to mend it from sin, he merely points out that men with bad conscience cannot attain a state of tranquility. King James' passage is detailed and describes different diseases of the conscience, two of which he names "Leaprosie" and "Superstition." Leaprosie, which he calls the "mother of atheisme," results in a sleeping conscience and a false sense of security. Superstition, "the mother of heresie," involves restraining oneself to the rules of another, therefore forsaking a true allegiance to God. While knowledge of these disease is not necessary to understand Peacham's emblem, it becomes clear that Peacham is really trying to express only the answer to the "question," not a long and detailed commentary.

It was characteristic of Peacham to omit various sections from his sources in order to create an emblem that was uncomplicated enough to stick in the minds of his audience. Peacham's images create a "riddle," which he answers in his verse--he is not sympathetic to fine details and explanations of allusions--his emblems are, and were meant to be only, concise and memorable moral lessons.

--Naomi Cookson

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