possessions; and the days of their acting, for years; and when a tree is
put for a kingdom, its branches, leaves and fruit, signify as do the wings,
feathers, and food of a bird or beast.

When a man is taken in a mystical sense, his qualities are often signified
by his actions, and by the circumstances of things about him. So a Ruler is
signified by his riding on a beast; a Warrior and Conqueror, by his having
a sword and bow; a potent man, by his gigantic stature; a Judge, by weights
and measures; a sentence of absolution, or condemnation, by a white or a
black stone; a new dignity, by a new name; moral or civil qualifications,
by garments; honour and glory, by splendid apparel; royal dignity, by
purple or scarlet, or by a crown; righteousness, by white and clean robes;
wickedness, by spotted and filthy garments; affliction, mourning, and
humiliation, by clothing in sackcloth; dishonour, shame, and want of good
works, by nakedness; error and misery, by drinking a cup of his or her wine
that causeth it; propagating any religion for gain, by exercising traffick
and merchandize with that people whose religion it is; worshipping or
serving the false Gods of any nation, by committing adultery with their
princes, or by worshipping them; a Council of a kingdom, by its image;
idolatry, by blasphemy; overthrow in war, by a wound of man or beast; a
durable plague of war, by a sore and pain; the affliction or persecution
which a people suffers in labouring to bring forth a new kingdom, by the
pain of a woman in labour to bring forth a man-child; the dissolution of a
body politic or ecclesiastic, by the death of a man or beast; and the
revival of a dissolved dominion, by the resurrection of the dead.

* * * * *

CHAP. III.