founded by Ptolemy Soter, for the use of the academy, or society of
learned men, which he had founded at Alexandria. Beside the books which
he procured, his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, added many more, and left in
this library at his death a hundred thousand volumes; and the succeeding
princes of this race enlarged it still more, till at length the books
lodged in it amounted to the number of seven hundred thousand volumes.
The method by which they are said to have collected these books was
this: they seized all the books that were brought by the Greeks or other
foreigners into Egypt, and sent them to the academy, or museum, where
they were transcribed by persons employed for that purpose. The
transcripts were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals
laid up in the library. Ptolemy Euergetes, for instance, borrowed of the
Athenians the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Æschylus, and only
returned them the copies, which he caused to be transcribed in as
beautiful a manner as possible; the originals he retained for his own
library, presenting the Athenians with fifteen talents for the exchange,
that is, with three thousand pounds sterling and upwards. As the museum
was at first in the quarter of the city called Bruchion, the library was
placed there; but when the number of books amounted to four hundred
thousand volumes, another library, within the Serapeum, was erected by
way of supplement to it, and, on that account, called the daughter of
the former. The books lodged in this increased to the number of three
hundred thousand volumes; and these two made up the number of seven
hundred thousand volumes, of which the royal libraries of the Ptolemies
were said to consist. In the war which Julius Cæsar waged with the
inhabitants of Alexandria, the library of Bruchion was accidentally, but
unfortunately, burnt. But the library in Serapeum still remained, and
there Cleopatra deposited the two hundred thousand volumes of the
Pergamean library with which she was presented by Marc Antony. These,
and others added to them from time to time, rendered the new library
more numerous and considerable than the former; and though it was
plundered more than once during the revolutions which happened in the
Roman empire, yet it was as frequently supplied with the same number of
books, and continued, for many ages, to be of great fame and use, till
it was burnt by the Saracens, A. D. 642. Abulpharagius, in his history
of the tenth dynasty, gives the following account of this catastrophe:
John Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian, a famous Peripatetic
philosopher, being at Alexandria when the city was taken by the
Saracens, was admitted to familiar intercourse with Amrou, the Arabian
general, and presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, but
contemptible in that of the barbarians; and this was the royal library.
Amrou was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid integrity scrupled
to alienate the least object without the consent of the caliph. He
accordingly wrote to Omar, whose well known answer was dictated by the
ignorance of a fanatic: “If these writings of the Greeks agree with the
Koran, or book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved; if
they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.” The
sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience: the volumes
of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the
city; and such was their number, that six months were barely sufficient
for the consumption of this precious fuel.
ALGUM, אלגם or אלגומים, 1 Kings x, 11, 12. This is the name of a kind of
wood, or tree, large quantities of which were brought by the fleet of
Solomon from Ophir, of which he made pillars for the house of the Lord,
and for his own palace; also musical instruments. See ALMUG.
ALLEGORY, a figure in rhetoric, whereby we make use of terms which, in
their proper signification, mean something else than what they are
brought to denote; or it is a figure whereby we say one thing, expecting
it shall be understood of another, to which it alludes; or which, under
the literal sense of the words, conceals a foreign or distant meaning.
An allegory is, properly, a continued metaphor, or a series of several
metaphors in one or more sentences. Such is that beautiful allegory in
Horace, lib. i, Od. 14.
“_O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus_,” _&c._
[O ship, shall new billows drive thee again to sea, &c.]
Where the ship is usually held to stand for the republic; waves, for
civil war; port, for peace and concord; oars, for soldiers; and mariners
for magistrates. Thus, also, in Prior’s Henry and Emma, Emma describes
her constancy to Henry in the following allegorical manner:--
“Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a summer’s sea,
While gentle zephyrs play with prosperous gales,
And fortune’s favour fills the swelling sails;
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar?”
Cicero, likewise, speaking of himself, in Pison. c. 9, tom. vi, p. 187,
uses this allegorical language: “Nor was I so timorous, that, after I
had steered the ship of the state through the greatest storms and waves,
and brought her safe into port, I should fear the cloud of your
forehead, or your colleague’s pestilential breath. I saw other winds, I
perceived other storms, I did not withdraw from other impending
tempests; but I exposed myself singly to them for the common safety.”
Here the state is compared to a ship, and all the things said of it
under that image, are expressed in metaphors made use of to denote the
dangers with which it had been threatened. We have also a very fine
example of an allegory in Psalm lxxx; in which the people of Israel are
represented under the image of a vine, and the figure is supported
throughout with great correctness and beauty. Whereas, if, instead of
describing the vine as wasted by the boar from the wood, and devoured by
the wild beasts of the field, the Psalmist had said, it was afflicted by
Heathens, or overcome by enemies, which is the real meaning, the
figurative and the literal meaning would have been blended, and the
allegory ruined. The learned Bishop Lowth, _De Sacrâ Poesi Hebræorum,
Præl._ 10, 11, has specified three forms of allegory that occur in
sacred poetry. The first is that which rhetoricians call a continued
metaphor. When several metaphors succeed each other, they alter the form
of the composition; and this succession has very properly, in reference
to the etymology of the word, been denominated by the Greeks αλληγορια,
an allegory; although Aristotle, instead of considering it as a new
species of figure, has referred it to the class of metaphors. The
principle of allegory in this sense of the term, and of the simple
metaphor, is the same; nor is it an easy matter to restrict each to its
proper limit, and to mark the precise termination of the one, and the
commencement of the other. This eminently judicious critic observes,
that when the Hebrew poets use the congenial figures of metaphor,
allegory, and comparison, particularly in the prophetic poetry, they
adopt a peculiar mode of doing it, and seldom regulate the imagery which
they introduce by any fixed principle or standard. Not satisfied with a
simple metaphor, they often run it into an allegory, or blend with it a
direct comparison. The allegory sometimes follows, and sometimes
precedes the simile: to this is added a frequent change of imagery, as
well as of persons and tenses; and thus are displayed an energy and
boldness, both of expression and meaning, which are unconfined by any
stated rules, and which mark the discriminating genius of the Hebrew
poetry. Thus, in Gen. xlix, 9, “Judah is a lion’s whelp;” this metaphor
is immediately drawn out into an allegory, with a change of person:
“From the prey, my son, thou art gone up,” that is, to the mountains,
which is understood; and in the succeeding sentences the person is again
changed, the image is gradually advanced, and the metaphor is joined
with a comparison that is repeated.
“He stoopeth down, he coucheth as a lion;
And as a lioness; who shall rouse him?”
A similar instance occurs in the prophecy, recorded in Psalm cx, 3,
which explicitly foretels the abundant increase of the Gospel on its
first promulgation. This kind of allegory, however, sometimes assumes a
more regular and perfect form, and then occupies the whole subject and
compass of the discourse. An example of this kind occurs in Solomon’s
well known allegory, Eccles. xii, 2–6, in which old age is so admirably
depicted. There is also, in Isaiah xxviii, 24–29, an allegory, which,
with no less elegance of imagery, is more simple and regular, as well as
more just and complete, both in the form and the method of treating it.
Another kind of allegory is that which, in the proper and more
restricted sense, may be called a parable; and consists of a continued
narration of some fictitious event, accommodated, by way of similitude,
to the illustration of some important truth. The Greeks call these
allegories αινοι or apologues, and the Latins _fabulæ_, or fables. (See
_Parable_.) The third species of allegory, which often occurs in the
prophetic poetry, is that in which a double meaning is couched under the
same words, or when the same discourse, differently interpreted,
designates different events, dissimilar in their nature, and remote as
to time. These different relations are denominated the literal and
mystical senses. This kind of allegory, which the learned prelate calls
mystical, seems to derive its origin from the principles of the Jewish
religion; and it differs from the two former species in a variety of
respects. In these allegories the writer may adopt any imagery that is
most suitable to his fancy or inclination; but the only proper materials
for this allegory must be supplied from the sacred rites of the Hebrews
themselves; and it can only be introduced in relation to such things as
are immediately connected with the Jewish religion, or their immediate
opposites. The former kinds partake of the common privileges of poetry;
but the mystical allegory has its foundation in the nature of the Jewish
economy, and is adapted solely to the poetry of the Hebrews. Besides, in
the other forms of allegory, the exterior or ostensible imagery is mere
fiction, and the truth lies altogether in the interior or remote sense;
but in this allegory each idea is equally agreeable to truth. The
exterior or ostensible image is itself a reality; and although it
sustains another character, it does not wholly lay aside its own. There
is also a great variety in the use and conduct of the mystical allegory;
in the modes in which the corresponding images are arranged, and in
which they are obscured or eclipsed by one another. Sometimes the
obvious or literal sense is so prominent and conspicuous, both in the
words and sentiments, that the remote or figurative sense is scarcely
permitted to glimmer through it. On the other hand, the figurative sense
is more frequently found to beam forth with so much perspicuity and
lustre, that the literal sense is quite cast into the shade, or becomes
indiscernible. Sometimes the principal or figurative idea is exhibited
to the attentive eye with a constant and equal light; and sometimes it
unexpectedly glares upon us, and breaks forth with sudden and
astonishing coruscations, like a flash of lightning bursting from the
clouds. But the mode or form of this figure which possesses the chief
beauty and elegance, is, when the two images, equally conspicuous, run,
as it were, parallel throughout the whole poem, mutually illustrating
and correspondent to each other. The learned author has illustrated
these observations by instances selected from Psalms ii, and lxxii. He
adds, that the mystical allegory is, on account of the obscurity
resulting from the nature of the figure, and the style of the
composition, so agreeable to the nature of the prophecy, that it is the
form which it generally, and indeed lawfully, assumes, as best adapted
to the prediction of future events. It describes events in a manner
exactly conformable to the intention of prophecy; that is, in a dark,
disguised, and intricate manner, sketching out, in a general way, their
form and outline; and seldom descending to a minuteness of description
and exactness of detail.
ALLELUIA, or HALLELU-JAH, הללו־יה, _praise the Lord_; or, _praise to the
Lord_: compounded of הללו, _praise ye_, and יה, _the Lord_. This word
occurs at the beginning, or at the end, of many Psalms. Alleluia was
sung on solemn days of rejoicing: “And all her streets shall sing
Alleluia,” says Tobit, speaking of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, Tob.
xiii, 18. St. John, in the Revelation, xix, 1, 3, 4, 6, says, “I heard a
great voice of much people in heaven, who cried, Alleluia; and the four
living creatures fell down, and worshipped God, saying, Alleluia.” This
expression of joy and praise was transferred from the synagogue to the
church. At the funeral of Fabiola, “several psalms were sung with loud
alleluias,” says Jerom, in _Epitaphio Paulæ_, “The monks of Palestine
were awaked at their midnight watchings, with the singing of alleluias.”
It is still occasionally used in devotional psalmody.
ALMAH, עלמה, a Hebrew word signifying properly _a virgin_, a young woman
unacquainted with man. In this sense it occurs in the famous passage of
Isaiah, vii, 14: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” The
Hebrew has no term that more properly signifies a virgin than _almah_.
St. Jerom, in his commentary on this passage, observes, that the Prophet
declined using the word _bethaul_ which signifies any young woman, or
young person, but employed the term _almah_, which denotes a virgin
never seen by man. This is the import of the word _almah_, which is
derived from a root which signifies _to conceal_. It is very well known,
that young women in the east do not appear in public, but are shut up in
their houses, and their mothers’ apartments, like nuns. The Chaldee
paraphrast and the Septuagint translate _almah_ “a virgin;” and Akiba,
the famous rabbin, who was a great enemy to Christ and Christians, and
lived in the second century, understands it in the same manner. The
Apostles and Evangelists, and the Jews of our Saviour’s time, explained
it in the same sense, and expected a Messiah born of a virgin.
The Jews, that they may obscure this plain text, and weaken this proof
of the truth of the Christian religion, pretend that the Hebrew word
signifies a young woman, and not a virgin. But this corrupt translation
is easily confuted. 1. Because this word constantly denotes a virgin in
all other passages of Scripture in which it is used. 2. From the intent
of the passage, which was to confirm their faith by a strange and
wonderful sign. It surely could be no wonder, that a young woman should
conceive a child; but it was a very extraordinary circumstance that a
virgin should conceive and bear a son.
ALMIGHTY, an attribute of the Deity, Gen. xvii, 1. The Hebrew name, שדי,
_Shaddai_, signifies also _all-sufficient_, or _all-bountiful_. See Gen.
xxviii, 3; xxxv, 11; xliii, 14; xlix, 25. Of the omnipotence of God, we
have a most ample revelation in the Scriptures, expressed in the most
sublime language. From the annunciation by Moses of a divine existence
who was “in the beginning,” before all things, the very first step is to
the display of his almighty power in the creation out of nothing, and
the immediate arrangement in order and perfection, of the “_heaven and
the earth_;” by which is meant, not this globe only with its atmosphere,
or even with its own celestial system, but the universe itself; for “_he
made the stars also_.” We are thus at once placed in the presence of an
agent of unbounded power; for we must all feel that a being which could
create such a world as this, must, beyond all comparison, possess a
power greater than any which we experience in ourselves, than any which
we observe in other visible agents, and to which we are not authorized
by our observation or knowledge to assign any limits of space or
duration.
2. That the sacred writers should so frequently dwell upon the
omnipotence of God, has important reasons which arise out of the very
design of the revelation which they were the means of communicating to
mankind. Men were to be reminded of their obligations to obedience; and
God is therefore constantly exhibited as the Creator, the Preserver, and
Lord of all things. His solemn worship and fear were to be enjoined upon
them; and, by the manifestation of his works, the veil was withdrawn
from his glory and majesty. Idolatry was to be checked and reproved, and
the true God was therefore placed in contrast with the limited and
powerless gods of the Heathen: “Among the gods of the nations, is there
no god like unto thee; neither are there any works like thy works.”
Finally, he is exhibited as the object of _trust_ to creatures
constantly reminded by experience of their own infirmity and dependence;
and to them it is essential to know, that his power is absolute,
unlimited, and irresistible, and that, in a word, he is “mighty to
save.”
3. In a revelation which was thus designed to awe and control the
wicked, and to afford strength of mind and consolation to good men under
all circumstances, the omnipotence of God is therefore placed in a great
variety of impressive views, and connected with the most striking
illustrations.
It is declared by the fact of _creation_, the creation of beings out of
_nothing_; which itself, though it had been confined to a single object,
however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, and overwhelms the
faculties. This with God required no effort: “He spake and it was done,
he commanded and it stood fast.” The _vastness_ and _variety_ of his
works enlarge the conception: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handy work.” “He spreadeth out the heavens,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and
Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; he doeth great things, past
finding out, yea, and wonders without number. He stretcheth out the
north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He
bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent
under them; he hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and
night come to an end.” The _ease_ with which he sustains, orders, and
controls the most powerful and unruly of the elements, arrays his
omnipotence with an aspect of ineffable dignity and majesty: “By him all
things consist.” “He brake up for the sea a decreed place, and set bars
and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed.” “He looketh to the end of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to
weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree for the rain, and a way
for the lightning of the thunder.” “Who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance.” The descriptions of the divine power are often
_terrible_: “The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his
reproof; he divideth the sea by his power.” “He removeth the mountains,
and they know it not; he overturneth them in his anger; he shaketh the
earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; he commandeth
the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars.” The same absolute
subjection of creatures to his dominion is seen among the intelligent
inhabitants of the material universe; and angels, mortals the most
exalted, and evil spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the most
passive elements: “He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire.” They veil their faces before his throne, and acknowledge
themselves his servants: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,” “as the dust of
the balance, less than nothing and vanity.” “He bringeth princes to
nothing.” “He setteth up one and putteth down another;” “for the kingdom
is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations.” “The angels that
sinned he cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment.” The closing scenes of this world complete
these transcendent conceptions of the majesty and power of God. The dead
of all ages rise from their graves at his _voice_: and the sea gives up
the dead which are in it. Before his _face_ heaven and earth fly away;
the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven are shaken. The
dead, small and great, stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd
divideth the sheep from the goats. The wicked go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
4. Of these amazing views of the omnipotence of God, spread almost
through every page of the Scriptures, the power lies in their _truth_.
They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken for sublimity. Every thing
in nature answers to them, and renews from age to age the energy of the
impression which they cannot but make on the reflecting mind. The order
of the astral revolutions indicates the constant presence of an
invisible but incomprehensible power. The seas hurl the weight of their
billows upon the rising shores, but every where find a “_bound_ fixed by
a perpetual decree.” The tides reach their height; if they flowed on for
a few hours, the earth would change places with the bed of the sea; but,
under an invisible control, they become refluent. The expression, “He
toucheth the mountains and they smoke,” is not mere imagery:--every
volcano is a testimony of its truth; and earthquakes proclaim, that,
before him, “the pillars of the world tremble.” Men collected into
armies, or populous nations, give us vast ideas of human power; but let
an army be placed amidst the sand storms and burning winds of the
desert, as, in the east; or, before “_his frost_,” as in our own day in
Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments was seen retreating before,
or perishing under, an unexpected visitation of snow and storm; or let
the utterly helpless state of a populous country which has been visited
by famine, or by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected upon;
and we feel that it is scarcely a figure of speech to say, that “all
nations before him are _less than nothing_ and _vanity_.”
5. Nor, in reviewing this doctrine of Scripture, ought the great
practical uses made of the omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to
be overlooked. By them nothing is said for the mere display of
knowledge, as in Heathen writers; and we have no speculations without a
subservient _moral_. To excite and keep alive in man the fear and
worship of God, and to bring him to a felicitous confidence in that
almighty power which pervades and controls all things, are the noble
ends of those ample displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll
through the sacred volume with a sublimity that inspiration only could
supply. “Declare his glory among the Heathen, his marvellous works among
all nations; for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.--Glory
and honour are in his presence, and strength and gladness in his
place.--Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the
Lord glory and strength; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his
name.--The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?--The
Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If God be
for us, who _then_ can be against us? Our help standeth in the name of
the Lord, who made heaven and earth.--What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee.”--Thus, as one observes, “our natural fears, of which we
must have many, remit us to God, and remind us, since we know what God
is, to lay hold on his almighty power.”
6. Ample, however, as are these views of the power of God, the subject
is not exhausted. As, when the Scriptures speak of the eternity of God,
they declare it so as to give us a mere glimpse of that fearful
peculiarity of the divine nature, that God is the fountain of being to
himself, and that he is eternal, because he is the “I AM;” so we are
taught not to measure God’s omnipotence by the actual displays of it
which we see around us. These are the _manifestations_ of the fact, but
not the _measure_ of the attribute; and should we resort to the
discoveries of modern philosophy, which, by the help of instruments, has
so greatly enlarged the known boundaries of the visible universe, and
add to the stars which are visible to the naked eye, those new
exhibitions of the divine power in the nebulous appearances of the
heavens which are resolvable into myriads of distinct celestial
luminaries, whose immense distances commingle their light before it
reaches our eyes; we thus almost infinitely expand the circle of created
existence, and enter upon a formerly unknown and overwhelming range of
divine operation. But still we are only reminded, that his power is
truly _almighty_ and _measureless_--“Lo, all these are parts of his
ways; but how little a portion is known of him, and the thunder of his
power who can understand?” It is a mighty conception that we form of a
power from which all other power is derived, and to which it is
subordinate; which nothing can oppose; which can beat down and
annihilate all other power whatever; which operates in the most perfect
manner, at once, in an instant, with the utmost ease; but the Scriptures
lead us to the contemplation of greater and even unfathomable depths.
The omnipotence of God is inconceivable and boundless. It arises from
the infinite perfection of God, that his power can never be actually
exhausted; and, in every imaginable instant in eternity, that
inexhaustible power of God can, if it please him, be adding either more
creatures to those in existence, or greater perfection to them; since
“it belongs to self-existent being, to be always full and communicative,
and, to the communicated contingent being, to be ever empty and
craving.”