s from the secret
treasure-houses of the world, just as if it created them itself. As
the countryman trains the vine upon the elm, so the magician marries
the earthly objects to heavenly bodies. His art is beneficial and
Godlike, for it brings men to wonder at the works of God, than which
nothing conduces more to true religion."]

[Footnote 342: This was a very old theory. Cf. Lecky, _Rationalism in
Europe_, vol. i. p. 264. "The _Clavis_ of St. Melito, who was bishop
of Sardis, it is said, in the beginning of the second century,
consists of a catalogue of many hundreds of birds, beasts, plants, and
minerals that were symbolical of Christian virtues, doctrines, and
personages."]

[Footnote 343: The analogy between allegorism in religion and the
hieroglyphic writing is drawn out by Clement, _Strom._ v. 4 and 7.]

[Footnote 344: The distinction, however, would be unintelligible to
the savage mind. To primitive man a _name_ is a symbol in the
strictest sense. Hence, "the knowledge, invocation, and vain
repetition of a deity's name constitutes in itself an actual, if
mystic, union with the deity named" (Jevons, _Introduction to the
History of Religion_, p. 245). This was one of the chief reasons for
making a secret of the cultus, and even of the name of a patron-deity.
To reveal it was to admit strangers into the tutelage of the national
god.]

[Footnote 345: I do not find it possible to give a more honourable
place than this to a system of biblical exegesis which has still a few
defenders. It was first developed in Christian times by the Gnostics,
and was eagerly adopted by Origen, who fearlessly applied it to the
Gospels, teaching that "Christ's actions on earth were enigmas
([Greek: ainigmata]), to be interpreted by Gnosis." The method was
often found useful in dealing with moral and scientific difficulties
in the Old Testament; it enabled Dionysius to use very bold language
about the literal meaning, as I showed in Lecture III. The Christian
Platonists of Alexandria meant it to be an esoteric method: Clement
calls it [Greek: symbolikos philosophein]. It was held that [Greek: ta
mysteria mystikos paradidotai]; and even that Divine truths are
honoured by enigmatic treatment ([Greek: he krypsis he mystike
semnopoiei to theion]). But the main use of allegorism was pietistic;
and to this there can be no objection, unless the piety is morbid, as
is the case in many commentaries on the Song of Solomon. Still, it can
hardl