ALFADER. The father of all, or the universal Father. The principal deity of the Scandinavian mythology. The Edda gives twelve names of God, of which Alfader is the first and most ancient, and is the one most generally used. ALGABIL. One of the names of the Supreme Being among the Cabalists. It signifies "the Master Builder," and is equivalent to the masonic epithet of "Grand Architect of the Universe." ALLEGORY. A discourse or narrative, in which there is a literal and a figurative sense, a patent and a concealed meaning; the literal or patent sense being intended by analogy or comparison to indicate the figurative or concealed one. Its derivation from the Greek ἀλλος and ἀγορειν, _to say something different_, that is, to say something where the language is one thing, and the true meaning different, exactly expresses the character of an allegory. It has been said in the text that there is no essential difference between an allegory and a symbol. There is not in design, but there is this in their character: An allegory may be interpreted without any previous conventional agreement, but a symbol cannot. Thus the legend of the third degree is an allegory evidently to be interpreted as teaching a restoration to life; and this we learn from the legend itself, without any previous understanding. The sprig of acacia is a symbol of the immortality of the soul. But this we know only because such meaning had been conventionally determined when the symbol was first established. It is evident, then, that an allegory which is obscure is imperfect. The enigmatical meaning should be easy of interpretation; and hence Lemière, a French poet, has said, "L'allégorie habite un palais diaphane"--_Allegory lives in a transparent palace._ All the legends of Freemasonry are more or less allegorical, and whatever truth there may be in some of them in an historical point of view, it is only as allegories, or legendary symbols, that they are important. ALL-SEEING EYE. A symbol of the third degree, of great antiquity. See _Eye_.