CHAPTER III

Allegory. Principle of comparison important in life, language,
literature. Early use of symbolism; suggested reasons for this. Poem
of the Phoenix. Allegorical interpretation of the story. Celtic
influence on English poetry. Gifts of colour, fervour, glow. Various
gifts of various nations enriching one another.

In these papers we are not going through anything like a course of older
English literature. We are looking at some of the work which our early
writers have left, from the point of view of its being our Catholic
Heritage, and we want to pay special attention to special works, not to
go through a long list of names. It is hoped that the bringing forward
of what is so good and strong in interest may be found really helpful by
those who have little or no time to go to the originals. That it may be
so is alike the desire of writer and publisher.

To-day we are going to consider a poem of a different kind from what we
have had before, an old poem called "The Phoenix."

Literature is full of allusions to the fable of the phoenix; it is
one of those stories which have caught hold of people and fired their
imagination; and the reason is, we may well suppose, because it has
suggested so many comparisons, some of them great and beautiful and
holy. There are some stories which lend themselves easily to an
allegorical interpretation; stories quite true, and yet suggesting
things beyond their own actual scope. I dwell on this before passing on
to the poem, because I want to bring before you the remembrance of what
a tremendous factor in literature, as in thought and in the whole of
life is the principle of comparison, or, as we might put it, the
principle of similitude or likeness. We learn about a thing we do not
know through its likeness, as a whole or in some parts, to a thing we do
know. Our little children can understand most easily something of the
love of Our Father who is in Heaven through the love of their father on
earth: they learn of their Redeemer's Mother, their own dear Mother of
Grace, through their earthly mother, who is ever ready to supply their
wants and give them joy and comfort.

In devotion what do we most need to pray for? Is it not for likeness to
the holy ones and to the holiest of all creatures, Our Lady; and
highest of all, to the Lord, Our Saviour and Example? And is it not the
fairest of promises that one day "we shall be like to Him, for we shall
see Him as H