d smoke. But if we say: "As vinegar to the teeth, and
as smoke to the eyes, _so is_ the sluggard to them that send him" (Prov.
10:26), we have a comparison, and the language ceases to be tropical.
The metaphor is thus a more vivid form of expression than the
comparison.

A common mode of comparison in the book of Proverbs is simply to put
together the object compared and the thing or things with which it is
compared, thus: "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod
for the fool's back" (chap. 26:3); that is, _As_ a whip is appropriate
for, the horse, and a bridle for the ass, _so_ is a rod for the fool's
back. Again, "Where there is no wood the fire goeth out, and where there
is no tale-bearer the strife ceaseth" (Prov. 26:20); "Charcoal to live
coals, and wood to fire; and a man of strife to kindle strife" (Prov.
26: 21); "Silver dross spread over an earthen sherd--burning lips [lips
glowing with professions of love] and a wicked heart" (Prov. 26: 23); in
all which cases our version has supplied particles of comparison.

(2.) An _allegory_ is the _narrative of a spiritual transaction under
the figure of something lower and earthly_, the lower transaction
representing directly the higher. We have in the eightieth Psalm an
exquisite example of the allegory: "Thou hast brought a vine out of
Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst
room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the
land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it," etc. (ver. 8-16);
where the transfer of the Israelitish people from Egypt to the land of
Canaan, with their subsequent history, is described under the figure of
a vine.

The metaphor and allegory have this in common, that the foundation of
both is _resemblance_, and in both the lower object is _put directly_
for the higher. Yet the metaphor cannot be properly called a condensed
allegory, nor the allegory an extended metaphor; for it is essential to
the allegory that it have the form of a narrative, and that it contain
real history--in the case of _prophecy_ it may be _future_
history--under a figure. Hence it admits of indefinite extension, as in
the "_Pilgrim's Progress_;" and we may add the _Canticles_, which the
Christian church from the earliest times has regarded as an allegory of
which the subject is, in Old Testament language, God and his covenant
people, but, according to the representation of the New Testament,
Christ an