206 THE SYMBOL. 



"been rejected if offered in an abstract or didactic form ; 

 they insinuate themselves insensibly, while the mind 

 is pleased in tracing the resemblance of the shadow 

 to the substance. It is a very ancient notion, that all 

 things have been created, as it were, in series, each 

 of which is, in all its members, a representation or 

 counterpart of all the rest. Or, as the Platonists 

 expressed it, that " the Creator having conceived in 

 Himself the exemplars of all things, produces them 

 from Him in images." The whole system of Scrip- 

 tural parabolism and typology depends on this analogy, 

 which assuredly exists, though perhaps not to the 

 extent assumed in the above notion. 



Examples of this use of natural objects are num- 

 berless in the Holy Scriptures, and will occur to 

 every thoughtful reader. Often the resemblance is 

 confined to a single point, and is alluded to in a simile 

 or comparison ; as when the effect of a single indis- 

 cretion upon character is likened to a dead fly in a 

 pot of ointment (Eccl. x. 1) ; the state of a sinner 

 wandering from God, to that of a sheep going astray 

 (Isa. liii. 6) ; and the inveterate love of sin, to the 

 incorrigible filthiness of the dog and the swine 

 (2 Peter ii. 22). The Book of Proverbs and the Song 

 of Songs are full of these similes, those of the latter 

 poem often running into the more elaborate allegory. 



Somewhat like this is the adoption of natural 

 objects to form types, emblems, or symbols. These 

 commonly suggest many points of parallelism, though 

 they are not always expressed. The various types 

 of the ritual law illustrate this use ; as do also the 

 extensive series of images employed in the symbolic 



