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plated singly and apart from all other ideas. Hence the admixture of foreign elements is avoided in every well-constructed allegory. The more purely allegorical the language is the better. The literal language employed in it is commonly separable with ease and exactness. It generally strikes the mind with obviousness as being of the nature of machinery for connecting the allegory or ornament for adorning it.

2d. That it is the tendency of an allegory to be long. In every allegory the mind is called upon to contemplate a single representation developing one train of ideas. The mind is summoned away to pursue one line of thought. It naturally appears unfitting to exact this sacrifice from it for a short allegory. At the same time, both in the construction and apprehension of an allegory, the mind being confined to one line of thought and being in itself unresting, naturally runs on spontaneously in the extension of the allegory. It is the natural tendency of an allegory to lengthen itself.

3d. That all allegories are problems to be solved by the understanding, and that at the conclusion of every one the question must arise, to be answered, What does this signify? If this question has been answered, that is, if it has been developed, the allegory is no longer such, strictly so called, but it is a figure. It is such, at least, so far as the development of the second sense is concerned. In every allegory the mind is called upon to look at a single pictorial representation, and to contemplate this apart from every thing else, even from the application itself. It

ought to be so delivered, that the application is an act of the mind, second and distinct, which follows, and is not contemporaneous with the first representation.

4th. That the allegory, from the circumstance of its withholding the second representation, is free from that absurdity of statement which always marks the figure. It is perfectly rational in its statement; it draws a first representation, and permits a second to be developed therefrom and its sense discovered. But it does not state that the one representation is the other, which is an absurdity, and which the figure does; at least it is not its principle to do this.

5th. That allegories are not addressed in the first instance, at least, to the feelings; they are designed solely to exercise and inform the understanding. Whatever is intended to make its way to the heart and to excite the emotions, is necessarily conveyed and applied with rapidity. The very circumstance of calling a halt is adverse to emotional excitement. But every allegory does this; it brings the mind to a stand-still for the time being, and summons it to pause, to look at and contemplate the representation, and, more than this, to contemplate it apart from all other associations, except those purely intellectual ones which its solution demands. It calls upon the mind to divest itself of its feelings, and to contemplate the one representation made, that it may understand it. It leads the mind then, for the time being, into the region of pure contemplation.

For the reason last mentioned, the allegory is em

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ployed with great effect to convey truths of an unpalatable nature to the mind which it might not receive except in this form. Salutary medicine may be conveyed into the system under its wise disguise. It is also serviceable for conveying truths in an elemental form, and partially to the mind when it is not capable of bearing them in all their fulness. With a beneficent regard at once to the obstinacy of his enemies and the spiritual deficiencies of his disciples, the Saviour of the world frequently had recourse to this mode of instruction. He often succeeded by an allegory in impressing on the minds of the Jews truths which, except under this form, might have aroused their worst prejudices and passions. will listen patiently to an allegory simply for the reason that they do not understand its real meaning. The truth then steals in unperceived with its armor wrapped under the mantle of the allegory, and it is in the heart of the citadel before its presence is detected, when it displays itself with power and sometimes in an appalling manner. Thus David was smote with a full apprehension of his guilt through the allegory delivered to him by the prophet Nathan. The Hebrew king calmly and unconsciously contemplated his iniquity in the form of an allegory, and it was only when the words came to him, as they did with irresistible power, "Thou art the man," that he perceived that he had passed sentence on himself with the cool deliberation and integrity of an unbiassed judge. When the Roman populace were roused to fury for want of bread, Shakespeare repre

sents the orator setting before their minds the folly of their measures, and conveying to them instruction on a profound political problem under the form of the allegory of "the stomach and the members of the body." To this the infuriated multitude listened patiently, because they did not perceive the drift

of it.

On the other hand it is to be noted:

1st. That in the expression of a figure there is as much admixture of language to be taken literally as is compatible with the preservation of it. The reason of this is obvious. The discovery of the second representation-the application is here the main object, and as it is language taken literally that effects this, its presence is necessary. The more there is of language to be taken literally, consistently with the preservation of the figure, the more developed and the more perfect the figure becomes.

2d. That it is the tendency of a figure to be short. In the figure it is the application which is mainly sought after. But every extension of the figurative language has a certain tendency to withdraw the mind from the application; there is consequently a natural desire to shorten it. While the law of selfpreservation leads an allegory to be long, for it is by its extension that it lives, the same law leads a figure to be short. By every expansion the figure incurs the risk of ceasing its existence as a figure and of becoming an allegory. By the extension, the mind is withdrawn from the second representation, which is the stronghold of the figure, to the first representa

tion, which is the stronghold of the allegory. If the extension is permitted to go on to too great a length, there is danger that the mind may become entirely occupied by the first representation-to all intents and purposes, therefore, possessed by the allegory to the exclusion of the figure. As an allegory avoids shortness as a cause of dissolution, for at its termination the application comes and it ceases, a figure for the same reason avoids length. By over-shortness the allegory practically becomes a figure, and by over-length the figure practically becomes an allegory. If short, the mind engages itself with the double representation and the figure lives. If long, the mind is carried away with the first representation, and the allegory lives. The excellence of an allegory cæteris paribus lies in its length; that of a figure in its shortness. The former is all the higher if it fills a book; the latter is restricted to a condition of brevity, and may be expressed in a word.

3d. That figures are not intended to undergo any process of solution, but to be instinctively and instantaneously apprehended. There is no second representation to be divined. In every figure there are two pictures placed before the mind at once, the second of which thoroughly explains the first.

4th. That it is an invariable mark of a figure, that it makes a statement of an absurdity; it asserts that the one representation, although different, is the other. Thus it asserts, that Christ is "a door," or is "a vine," which is absurd. This it does through its

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