In Isidore we find that allegorical interpretation is a thing of little spontaneity. The allegorizing of the Scriptures had long before his time settled down into a system. In his _Certain Allegories of the Holy Scriptures_ a list is given of the most noted mystical interpretations of Scripture, a dry enumeration, with now and then an interesting side-light upon the opinion of the time. The extent to which the Scripture was subject to allegorizing may be guessed from the fact that Isidore specifies that “the ten commandments must be taken literally”.[99] Allegory is applied also to the phenomena of nature. In _De Natura Rerum_ Isidore makes a regular practice of first giving the explanation of natural phenomena and following this with the “higher meaning”. Thus the sun has Christ for its allegorical meaning; the stars, the saints; thunder is “the rebuke from on high of the divine voice”, or it may be “the loud preaching of the saints, which dins with loud clamor in the ears of the faithful over all the circle of the lands”.[100] In the _Etymologies_ this “higher meaning” of natural objects is rarely given. [99] Migne, _P. L._, 83, col. 303. “Inter haec igitur omnia decem praecepta solum ibi quod de Sabbato positum est figurate observandum praecipitur. Quam figuram nos intelligendam, non etiam per otium corporale celebrandam, suscipimus. Reliqua tamen ibi praecepta proprie praecepta sunt, quae sine ulla figurata significatione observantur. Nihil enim mystice significant, sed sic intelliguntur ut sonant. Et notandum quia sicut decem plagis percutiuntur Aegyptii, sic decem praeceptis conscribuntur tabulae, quibus regantur populi Dei.” The Scriptures were for Isidore _un vasto simbolismo_ (Cañal, _San Isidoro_, p. 51). [100] _D. N. R._, 29, 2.