past, or future, for it is timeless; hence it is the ghost of memory and prophecy. But the body is now gross matter—dead and subject to the manipulations of alchemy. With the development of personification and differentiation in theory between ghost and body there comes a development of similitude into something else; this we must now set forth.
The similitude is now elaborated into the foundation of an allegory upon which is erected an edifice of doctrine, or, if you will allow another illustration, the similitude becomes a warp into which a woof is woven with patterns which constitute a tapestry of doctrine.
I know of no better way of setting forth the nature of allegory than by directing the attention of the reader to Spenser’s Faerie Queene, in which he will find an allegory of allegories—a grand allegory made up of many adjuvant allegories. Six books of one allegory are composed, every one, of twelve allegories. The principal characters of the grand allegory are personified qualities. In the first book holiness is personified as “St. John the Red Crosse Knight”; in the second book temperance is personified as Sir Guyon; in the third book chastity is personified as Britomartis; in the fourth book friendship is personified in Cambel and Triamond; in the fifth book justice is personified in Artegall; in the sixth book courtesy is personified in Calidore; and throughout the poems many other qualities of good and evil are personified. These personifications are the heroes of a succession of necromantic tales relieved by many wild adventures.
The literature of romance and poetry alike which belongs to this stage of culture is very abundant, and I need but mention another instance or two to make it clear to the reader. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost are excellent examples.
Trope—In the fourth stage of culture chemistry has supplanted alchemy, medicine has supplanted sorcery, astronomy has supplanted astrology, and science has supplanted cosmology.
