arose from the parable and proverb being alike enigmatical and somewhat obscure forms of speech, "dark sayings," speaking a part of their meaning and leaving the rest to be inferred. This is evidently true of the parable, and in fact no less so of the proverb. For though such proverbs as have become the heritage of an entire people, and have obtained universal currency, may be, or rather may have become, plain enough, yet in themselves proverbs are most often enigmatical, claiming a quickness in detecting latent affinities, and oftentimes a knowledge which shall enable to catch more or less remote allusions, for their right comprehension. And yet further to explain how the terms should be often indifferently used, the proverb, though not necessarily, is yet very commonly parabolical,‡ that is, it rests upon some comparison either expressed or implied, as for example, 2 Pet. ii. 22. Or again, the proverb is often a concentrated parable, for instance that one above quoted, "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch," might evidently be extended with ease into a parable; and in like manner, not merely many proverbs might thus be beaten out into fables, but they are not unfrequently allusions to or summings up in a single phrase of some well-known fable.§ 4. It only remains to consider wherein the parable differs from the allegory, which it does in form rather than in essence: there being in the allegory, an interpenetration of the thing signifying and the thing signified, the qualities and properties of the first being attributed to the last, and the two thus blended together, instead of being kept quite distinct and placed side by side, as is the case in the parable. Thus, John *So we find our Saviour contrasts the speaking in proverbs and parables (John xvi. 25), with the speaking plainly, rappŋolą (râv §îμα), every word. For instance, to take two common Greek proverbs: Xpúoea xaλkeίwv would require some knowledge of the Homeric narrative, Boûs éπl yλwoons, of Attic moneys. The obscurity that is in proverbs, is sufficiently shown by the fact of such books as the Adagia of Erasmus, in which he brings all his learning to bear on their elucidation, and yet leaves many of them without any satisfactory explanation. And see also the Paramiographi Græci (Oxf. 1836), p. xi.-xvi. It is not necessarily, as some have affirmed, a λóyos éσxnuatioμévos, for instance Εχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα, οι Γλυκὺς ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος, and innumerable others are expressed without figure; but very many are also parabolical, and generally the best, and those which have become most truly popular. Quintilian says, Пapoiuía fabella brevior... Parabola longius res quæ comparentur repetere solet. On the distinction between the rapaßoλh and rapoμía, there are some good remarks in HASE's Thes. Nov. Theol. Philolog., v. 2, p. 503. || Thus LoWTH (De Sac. Poes. Heb., Præl. 10): His denique subjicienda est quasi lex quædam parabolæ, nimirum ut per omnia sibi constet, neque arcessitis propria admista habeat. In quo multùm differt à primâ allegoriæ specie, qua à simplici metaphora paulatim procedens, non semper continuè excludit proprium, à xv. 1-8, "I am the true vine, &c.," is throughout an allegory, as there are two allegories scarcely kept apart from one another, John x. 1-16, the first, in which the Lord sets himself forth as the Door of the sheep, the second, as the good Shepherd. So, "Behold the Lamb of God," is an allegorical, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter," a parabolical expression. The allegory needs not, as the parable, an interpretation to be brought to it from without, since it contains its interpretation within itself, and, as the allegory proceeds, the interpretation proceeds hand in hand with it, or at least never falls far behind it ;† and thus the allegory stands to the metaphor, as the more elaborate and long drawn out composition of the same kind, in the same relation that the parable does to the isolated comparison or simile. And as many proverbs are, as we have seen, concise parables, in like manner many also are brief allegories. For instance the following, which is an Eastern proverb,— "This world is a carcass, and they who gather round it are dogs,"-does in fact interpret itself as it goes along, and needs not therefore that an interpretation be brought to it from without; while it is otherwise with the proverb spoken by our Lord, "Wheresoever the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together," this gives no help to its own interpretation from within, and is a saying, of which the darkness and difficulty have been abundantly witnessed by the many interpretations of it which have been proposed. To sum up all then, the parable differs from the fable, moving as it does in a spiritual world, and never transgressing the actual order of things natural, from the mythus, there being in the latter an uncon propriis in translata paulatim illapsa, nec minus leniter ex translatis in propria per gradus quosdam se recipiens. * Thus, Isai. v. 1-6 is a parable, of which the explanation is separately given, ver. 7; while on the other hand, Ps. lxxx. 8-16, resting on the same image, is an allegory; since, for instance, the casting out of the heathen, that the vine might be planted, is an intermingling of the thing signifying and that signified, wherein the note that distinguishes the allegory from the parable consists, as Quintilian (Inst. viii. 3, 77) observes; for having defined the allegory, he proceeds: In omni autem Tapaßoλ aut præcedit similitudo, res sequitur, aut præcedit res, similitudo sequitur; sed interim libera et separata est. The allegory then is translatio, the parable collatio. Since writing the above I find that Bishop Lowth (De Sac. Poes. Hab., Pral. 10) has adduced these same examples from Isaiah and the Psalmist to illustrate the distinction. Of all this the Pilgrim's Progress affords ample illustration, "Interpreter" appearing there as one of the persons of the allegory. Mr. Hallam (Liter. of Europe, v. 4, p. 553) mentions this as a certain drawback upon the book, that, "in his language, Bunyan sometimes mingles the signification too much with the fable; we might be perplexed between the imaginary and the real Christian:" but is not this of the very nature, of the allegorical fable? scious blending of the deeper meaning with the outward symbol, the two remaining separate and separable in the parable,-from the proverb, inasmuch as it is longer carried out, and not merely accidentally and occasionally, but necessarily figurative, from the allegory, comparing as it does one thing with another, at the same time preserving them apart as an inner and an outer, not transferring, as does the allegory, the properties and qualities and relations of one to the other. CHAPTER II. ON TEACHING BY PARABLES. HOWEVER Our Lord may on one or more occasions have made use of this manner of teaching by parables, with the intention of withdrawing from certain of his hearers the knowledge of truths, which they were unworthy or unfit to receive;* yet we may assume as certain that his * Macrobius (Somn. Scip., 1. i. c. 2): Figuris defendentibus à vilitate secretum. No one can deny that this was sometimes the Lord's purpose, who is not prepared to do great violence to his words, as recorded by the three first Evangelists. (Matt. xiii. 10-15; Mark iv. 11, 12; Luke viii. 9, 10.) When we examine the words themselves, we find them in St. Mark to wear their strongest and severest aspect. There and in St. Luke, the, purpose of speaking in parables is said to be that (lva, which can be nothing else than TEXIKŵs) seeing they might not see; while in St. Matthew he speaks in parables, because (871) they seeing see not. In Matthew and Mark it is said to be so done, lest (μýñore) at any time they should see with their eyes; while in Luke this part of the sentence is entirely wanting. The attempt has been made to evacuate iva and μýroтe of their strength, these being clearly the key-words; thus va=öri, and μhоT← ElπOTE, "if perchance;" to justify which last use, reference is made to 2 Tim. ii. 25, μhnoтe dún avтoîs d Oeds μeτάνοιαν, "if God peradventure will give them repentance;" so that thus we should get back to the old meaning, that the aim of his teaching by parables was, because they could not understand in any other way, and if perchance the Lord would give them repentance. Now there is no question that such might be the sense given to μhore, but even if the or could be as successfully dealt with, which it certainly cannot, there is still the passage of Isaiah in the way. Where would then be the fulfilment of his prophecy? There can be no doubt that the Prophet there speaks of a penal blindness, as even Gesenius allows, a punishment of the foregoing sins of his people, and namely, this punishment, that they should be unable to recognize what was divine in his mission and character; which prophecy had its ultimate and crowning fulfilment, when the Jewish people were so darkened by previous carnal thoughts and works, that they could see no glory and no beauty in Christ, could recognize nothing of divine in the teaching or person of him who was God manifest in the flesh. It is not that by the command, "Make the heart of this people fat" (Isai. vi. 10), we need understand as though any peculiar hardening then passed upon them, but that the Lord having constituted as the righteous law of his moral government, that sin should produce darkness of heart and moral insensibility, declared that he would allow the law in their case to take its course, general aim was not different from that of others who have used this method of teaching, and who have desired thereby to make clearer,† either to illustrate or to prove, the truths which they had in hand:-I say either to illustrate or to prove; for the parable, or other analogy to spiritual truth appropriated from the world of nature or man, is not merely illustration, but also in some sort proof. It is not merely that these analogies assist to make the truth intelligible, or, if intelligible before, present it more vividly to the mind, which is all that some will allow them. Their power lies deeper than this, in the harmony unconsciously felt by all men, and by deeper minds continually recognized and so also with this latter generation; even as that law is declared in the latter half of Rom. i., to have taken its course with the Gentile world; in Augustine's awful words, Deus solus magnus, lege infatigabili spargens pœnales cæcitates super illicitas cupidines; who says also in another place, Quorundam peccatorum perpetrandorum facilitas, pœna est aliorum præcedentium. The fearful curse of sin is that it ever has the tendency to reproduce itself, that he who sows in sin reaps in spiritual darkness, which delivers him over again to worse sin; all which is wonderfully expressed by Shakspeare ;— For when we in our viciousness grow hard, In our own filth drop our clear judgments, make us To our confusion. *Bacon has noted this double purpose of parables (De Sap. Vet.); Duplex apud homines repertus est atque increbuit parabolarum usus, atque quod magis mirum sit, ad contraria adhibetur. Faciunt enim parabolæ ad involucrum et velum, faciunt etiam ad lumen et illustrationem. See also De Augm. Scient., 1. 2. c. 13; and the remarkable passage from Stobæus, on the teaching of Pythagoras, quoted in Potter's edit. of Clemens Alexandrinus, p. 676; note. This has been acknowledged on all sides, equally by profane and sacred writers; thus Quintilian (Inst. viii. 3, 72.): Præclare vero ad inferendam rebus lucem repertæ sunt similitudines. And Seneca styles them, adminicula nostræ imbecilitatis. Again, they have been called, Mediæ scientiam inter et ignorantiam. The author of the treatise ad Herennium: Similitudo sumitur aut ornandi causa aut probandi, aut apertius docendi, aut ante oculos ponendi. Tertullian. (De Resur. Car., c. 33), expressly denies of parables, that they darken the light of the Gospel (obumbrant Evangelii lucem). See also the quotation from Chrysostom in SUICER's Tes. s. ν. παραβολή, and Basil explains it, λόγος ὠφέλιμος μετ' ἐπικρύψεως MeTpías, with that moderate degree of concealment which shall provoke, not such as shall repel or disappoint, inquiry. The Lord, says Chrysostom (Hom. 69 in Matth.), spoke in parables, pedíswv kal dieɣeipwv, or as he expresses it elsewhere (De Prec., Serm. 2), that we might dive down into the deep sea of spiritual knowledge, from thence to fetch up pearls and precious stones. So Stellini: Ita enim ferè comparati sumus, ut cum impressionis vivacitate notionis evidentiam confundamus, eaque clarius intelligere nos arbetremur, quibus imaginandi perculsa vis acrius est, et quæ novitate aliquâ commendantur, ea stabiliora sunt ad diuturnitatem memoriæ, neque vetustate ulla consenescunt. |