9. Allegorical Stories

The allegory is a double story, or two stories in one. While one story is being told, another, a deeper and often a still more interesting story, is caught by the imagination or reason. Fables and parables are short allegories with one definite moral. The allegory has been the favorite form of story among almost all nations, and is especially pleasing to children. The Bible contains a number of beautiful allegories, one being the comparison of Israel to a vine, in the Eighteenth Psalm. Æsop’s fable of the stomach and its members is an allegory. Some of the most perfect allegories are found in “The Golden Windows,” and “The Silver Crown,” by Laura E. Richards. Ruskin’s “King of the Golden River”; Spenser’s “Faerie Queene”; Swift’s “Tale of a Tub”; Addison’s “Vision of Mirza”; Mrs. Gatty’s “Parables from Nature”; Miss Slossum’s “Story-Tell-Lib”; and, above all, Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” are allegories with which every modern boy and girl should become familiar.