Excerpt from The Famous Allegories: Selections and Extracts for Reading and Study This custom of allegorical interpretation was at once the cause and the result of the universal taste for allegorical compositions a taste which for a time modified the whole texture of European literature. To be able to represent one thing under the similitude of another, to personify the passions and the abstract qualities of the human mind, to give corporeal existence to the virtues and vices, came to be regarded as an exhibition of the highest forms of literary workmanship. For two centuries and a half the most popular of all writings was the allegory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.