IV. ALLEGORY.

1. The Nature of Allegory.
Allegory is commonly defined as "a continued metaphor," or a metaphor developed so as to include a number of details. This definition does not express the whole truth, since it takes a species for a genus. An allegory may consist of a single metaphor expanded, or of several cognate metaphors. In the following beautiful passage by Longfellow, the original metaphor, representing the state under the figure of a ship, is steadily kept in view to the end, without a digression to mar its consistent development :
" Thou too, sail on, 0 ship of state! Sail on, 0 Union, strong and great Humanity, with all its fears, With all its hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat ; In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock¬'Tis of the wave and not the rock ;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale In spite of rock and tempest roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the seal
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee ; Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, are all with thee."
Many of the finest allegories do not consist in the development of a single metaphor, but in the combina¬tion of several cognate metaphors. In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," the fundamental metaphor is the representation of a Christian by a pilgrim, but in the course of its development several cognate meta¬phors are introduced, and likewise developed. The same is true in Spenser's "Faery Queen," in which personified vices and virtues are made to perform their part in a series of allegoric adventures.
2 Allegory Distinguished from Allied
Forms.
Great confusion has resulted from a failure to die.
tinguish the allegory from other forms of expression somewhat similar, such as the myth, the fable, and the parable. By some writers they are treated as almost synonymous, by others they are variously distin¬guished. Properly considered, they are widely differ¬ent. The myth involves the blending of the inner meaning and the outward symbol, presenting itself not as the vehicle of truth, but as truth. Thus the myth of the labors of Hercules does not pretend to be the shadowing forth of some deeper meaning, such as the passage of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac, but literal fact. The myth is, therefore, an unconscious allegory.* The allegory proper, the fable, and the parable, agree in not claiming to be the truth, but merely vehicles of the truth. The fable and the parable are distinguished chiefly by this difference : the fable recounts what is impossible if literally interpreted; the parable is generally literally possible. This dis¬tinction does not hold with those who use the words without discrimination.
8. Laws of Allegory.
As the allegory is composed of metaphors, the principles laid down as governing them separately, apply when they are used in combination. Two prin¬ciples need to be more carefully observed.
(1) Development of the Baclioal Metaphor.—The
radical metaphor mast be strictly developed, without any blending of plain and figurative expressions, or
* For the myth of Hercules, see Anthon's Classical Die. &nary, art. Hercule& For the explanation of the unconscious growth of myths, see Max Mailer's Chips, Vol. IL, and Person' fication in this book.
mixing of metaphors. The substitution of " girl " for " rose " in the following, illustrates the confusion that would result from neglecting this law :
"You took her up a tender little flower,
Just sprouted on a bank, which the next frost Had nipped ; and, with a careful loving hand Transplanted her into your own fair garden,
Where the sun always shines ; there long she flourished, Grew sweet to sense and lovely to the eye,
Till, at the last, a cruel spoiler came,
Crept this fair rose, and rifled all its sweetness, Then cast it like a loathsome weed away."
(2) The Analogy Evident—It is not leas import¬ant that the analogy be evident. Since the resemblance is one of ratios, if the radical metaphor is obscure, its development will render it more so, and interpreting power will not be economized. The allegory and the enigma differ only in degree ; the difference being, that in an enigma the meaning of the metaphorical terms is so obscure as to be unintelligible. An alle¬gorical writer may easily become a Sphinx.