Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/110

 92 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. well as the artistic and literarj'^, history of the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era is a history of the many ways in which this difference has been ignored, and of the many ways in which the magic mystery has been confused and made equal with the mystery which exists by reason of the limitation of human knowledge. Moreover, this confusion must be regarded as wilful. It was not that germinal mental chaos which exists in savages and barbarians who have not developed the faculty of perceiving clear distinctions ; it was rather a confusion to which human beings abandoned them- selves after periods of clear thinking among their ancestors, Roman, Greek, and Hebrew. There is a further related phase of intellectual his- tory; the perverse and wilful use of allegory, or rather the ascribing to ancient writings and myths an alle- gorical significance which they did not have. Christ made abundant use of allegory and image in parables which should suggest the character of what was be- yond his hearers' comprehension : " the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto " many situations and factors of common life. These parables were meant as allego- ries. But between understanding as an allegory that which was meant as an allegory, and interpreting as an allegory that which was stated as a fact, there lies a difference analogous to that between treating the symbol as a symbol and treating it as if it were what it symbolizes, or between the magic mystery and the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. These are three elements of surpassing importance in the history of man during the opening Christian centuries : the magic-mystery, the symbol taken for