Allegory, al'-le-go-re, s

a figurative manner of speaking or writing, in which a subject of a higher spiritual order is described in terms of that of a lower which resembles it in its properties and circumstances, the principal subject being so kept out of view that we are left to collect the intentions of the writer or speaker from the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject. figurative representation, in which something else is intended than what is actually exhibited [Paint, and Sculp.] (Gr. allos, other, and agoreuo, to speak in public.)