broken represented four kings under whom the empire would eventually be
divided into as many parts. In the Apocalypse itself we have a number of
symbols divinely interpreted, "The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches." "The seven candle-sticks which thou sawest are the
seven churches." "The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings." "The
waters which thou sawest ... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues." "The woman which thou sawest is that great city which
reigneth over the kings of the earth," etc.

It will be seen that the great underlying principle or _law_ upon which
symbolic language is based is ANALOGY. An object is chosen to represent
not itself, but something of analagous character.

Webster defines _symbol_ as follows: "The sign or representation of any
moral thing by the images or properties of natural things. Thus, a lion
is the _symbol_ of courage; the lamb is the _symbol_ of meekness or
patience." Home, in his Introduction to the Study of the Bible, says:
"By symbols we mean certain representative marks, rather than express
pictures; or, if pictures, such as were at the time _characters_, and
besides presenting to the eye the resemblance of a particular object,
suggested a general idea to the mind, as when a _horn_ was made to
denote _strength_, an _eye_ and _scepter, majesty_, and in numberless
such instances; where the picture was not drawn to express merely the
thing itself, but something else, which was, or was conceived to be,
analagous to it." The main idea, then, as expressed in the foregoing
definitions, is the representation of an object, not by a picture of
itself, but by something analagous, such as the exhibition of moral
qualities by images drawn from nature. But the use of symbols is not
confined to the representation of moral subjects alone. Anything may be
symbolized to which a corresponding analagous object can be found.