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application of ilit ceremonial appointments of Mofcs totlie 

 C'lirillian inftitulion, in the cpillle to tlii.' Hebrews. But a 

 Ids fobcr and juilicinu!; ufe was made of this kind of lan- 

 pnage by the Cliriltian fathers. This was more efpecially. 

 the cafe withthofe Gentile eonverts who had been educated 

 in the Alevandrian fchool, \vhere, by the help of allegory, 

 the Icvend I'yllems of philolophy were mixed and confounded ; 

 and with thofe Jtwifh Cluillians, wiio, by the fame 

 means, had been inllrudcd in the Cabbalillic dodrines, 

 which, before this time, had fprung up in Egypt, and pafled 

 thence into judia. Several of tliofe fefts of Chriltians, 

 wlio were called heretics, particularly the Valentinian Gnof- 

 tics, made ufe of allegorical language to difguife the utma- 

 tui-al alliance which they liad introduced between the fanciful 

 dogmas of the oriental philofophy arid the fimple doftrine 

 of Chrirt. The orthodox fathers of the church, too, de- 

 fended themftlves with the fame armour, both againft heretics 

 and inlidel?, apph ing, with more ingenuity than judgment, the 

 fymbohcal method of intcrpretatimi to the facrcd fcriptnres. 

 In the fame manner in which Philo and other Alexandrian 

 Jcwj had corrupted the Jewilh church, Clemens Alexan- 

 drhius, Origen, and other difciples of the Alexandrian 

 fchool, in the fecond centuiy, introduced error and corrup- 

 tion into the church of Chrift. Whitby on the interpretation 

 of Scripture, Lond. i744. Brucker's Hill. Philcf. by 

 linfield, vol. ii. p. 272. 



Allegories are dnlinguiilied into divers kinds : as •verLd, 

 retil, Jiinplf, alliiftve, phf/ical, moral, pblil'ical, theological, &c. 



Allegory, /fm/)/f, according to fome writers, is that 

 which' is taken from any kind of natural things. 



Allegory, allufi-ve, is that which relates to other words, 

 or things. 



Allegory, verbal, is a thread, or feries of metaphors ; 

 or a continuation of the fame trope, chiefly metaphor, 

 through many words. Such is that in Virgil : 



" Claudite jam rivos pueri, fat prata biberunt." 



Where the metaphor of watering the ground is carried on 

 to the fhutting of the fluices, &c. 



Allegory, perpeliuil, or conliniieit, is that where the al- 

 legorical thread is pnrfued through all the parts of a con- 

 fiderable difcourfe. Such arc the books of Jonah, of Can- 

 ticles, of Job, not to fey the whole Old Teflament, accord- 

 ing to the hypothefis of fome divines. 



Allegories, pl'ifcal, thole wherein fonie point of na- 

 tural philofopliy is rcprcfented ; fueh in Homer, are Jiuio, 

 who reprefents the air ; Jupiter, the Kther, &:c. 



Allegories, medical, thofe wherein fome fecrtt of phvllc 

 k revealed : fuch is Solomon's defcription of old age, Kcelef. 

 xii. I, &c. wherein, according to certain autliors, the cir- 

 culation of the blood is indicated : fuch alio, according to 

 a modern writer, is the ftory of the labours of Hercules. 

 For an illuitration of Solomon's allegorical defcription of 

 old age, fee Mead's Medica Sacra, chap. vi. 



Allegories, cAfm/'iv//, thofe relating to cliemiflry : fuch, 

 according to Snidas, and many moderns, is the ftory of the 

 Argonautic expedition, wherein the procefs of making gold 

 is exailly dcicribed : fuch alfo, according to Tollius, is the 

 name and title of Bafd, Valentine, Bcnedidine, Monk: under 

 which are concealed the fecrets of the philofophical mercuiy. 



Allegories, moral, thofe whereby fome ufeful moral 

 inftruftion is held forth : fuch, in Homer, is the vittory of 

 Diomede over Venus, or fleflily lufl : fuch alfo are the Py- 

 thagorean metempfychofis, and the flory of thejudgmeiit 

 of Hercules, related by Prodieus. To which may be added, 

 the fdbles of avarice and luxury ; of the grotto of grief, and 



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and othiTs in the Speftators and Tatlcrs. Speclat. N' Jj. 

 Tail. N-^ 97. 



Allegories, ^Of//W, thofe wherein fome maxim of good 

 government is artfully wrapped up ; fuch is that celebrated 

 one of Mcnenlus Agrippa, whereby he prevailed on the Roman 

 jKople, who had witiuhawn in diicontent at the magiltrates, 

 to return into the city ; to which purpofe he related to them 

 the parable of a war railed by the le.eral parts of the human 

 body againll the flonia'^h. 



Allegories, theological, ihefe wherein fome truth re- 

 lating to the nature and attributes of God is couched. 



Allegory is aifo ufed for the drawing of fome words, 

 plainly and literally intended at firll, from their natural and 

 proper meaning, to a foreign fenfe ; for the better inllruCting 

 of our minds in fome point of faith or manners. This co- 

 incides with what is otherwifc called .V-'commodation. 



Allegory, in Painting, is ufed as in poeti-v, and 

 fometimes too licentioufly, by painters, who, while they 

 enrich their piftures by allegories, offend the fpedator, 

 efpecially" in reprefentations of modern hiftwy. Rubens, 

 whofe works are full of great and noble ideas, cannot be 

 juflified in the licentious treatment of allegoi")- in his famous 

 piftures reprefenting the hiftory of Mary of Medicis, and 

 in feveral others of that great mailer's works which coukl 

 be mentioned. In the Luxemburg gallery Rubens has fo 

 united t!ie Chrillian ceremonies with heathen mythology as 

 greatly to offend the eye of the intelligent Ipedator, not- 

 withllanding the grandeur of the compcfition and richnefs 

 of the colouring, which are produced by this veiy means. 

 A great general has been reprefented crofiing a river with 

 his troops by an armed warrior llriding over a ftreara of wa- 

 ter flowing from an urn held by a river god ; which would, 

 it is appreliended, have been exprefTed with greater propriety 

 by the general holding his truncheon, while the troops, at 

 a dillance, were reprefcjited as fording a river. Allegory 

 feems better employed in poetical fubjeifls than in hiilorical 

 reprefentations. See more upon this fubjeCt under the 

 article Painting. 



ALLEGRI, Gregorio, in Biography, an eminent mu- 

 fical compoler of the 1 7th century, was a native of Rome, 

 and by profeflion an ecclefiaflie. He was a dii'ciple of Na- 

 nini, who was contemporan' with Paleflrina, and his inti- 

 mate friend. His abilities as a finger were ineonfiderable, 

 and yet he was accounted an admirable mailer of harmony ; 

 and fo much was he epjeemed by all the mufical profeffors of 

 his time, that the pope, in order to appropriate him to his 

 fcrvice, appointed him to be one of the fingers of his cha- 

 pel in i6ig. To his extraordinarv merit as a compofer of 

 church mufic he joined a devout and benevolent difpontion, 

 and an excellent moral charac^fer ; for he not only aiTifted 

 the poor, by whom his door was ufually cro«-ded, to the 

 utmoll of his power, but daily vifited the prilons of Rome, 

 in order to bellow his alms on the moll deferving and dif- 

 trelTed objecls he could find in them. He let many parts of 

 the church fcrvice with fuch divine fimplicity and purity of 

 harmony, that ti.^ iofs of him was much felt and fincerely 

 lamented by the whole college of lingers in the papal fcr- 

 vice. He died Feb. i8th, 1652 ; and was buried in the 

 Ciiiefa Nuova, before the chapel of S. Filippo Neri, near 

 the altar of annunciation, where is a vault for the reception 

 of deceafed fingers belonging to the pope's chapel. 



Among his works preferved, that are Hill in ufe, is the 

 famous MijWere, which, for upwards of 170 years, has 

 been annually performed at the ])ope's chapel in Rome on 

 Wedncfday and Good FViday in Paflion week, and which in 

 appearance is io iimple as to make thofe who li-^ve only feen it 



on 



