a kind of painted enigma, which represents some obvious history, with reflections underneath, and instructs us in some moral truth or other matter of knowledge. Such is that very significant image of Scrofa holding his hand in the fire; with the words, Agere et pati fortiter Romanum est, to do and to suffer courageously is Roman. The word is pure Greek, formed of the verb ἐβάλλειν, to cast in or insert. Suetonius relates that Tiberius caused the word to be erased from the decree of the Roman senate, because borrowed from another language. The emblem is somewhat plainer and more obvious than the enigma. Gale defines emblem an ingenious picture, representing one thing to the eye, and another to the understanding.

The Greeks also gave the name emblema, μεμβρανα, to inlaid or mosaic works, and even to all kinds of ornaments of vases, moveables, garments, and the like. The Latins also used emblema in the same sense. Accordingly, Cicero, reproaching Verres with the statues and finely wrought works he had plundered from the Sicilians, calls the ornaments fixed thereto, and which on occasion might be separated from them, emblemata; and, further, the Latin authors frequently compare the figures and ornaments of discourse to these emblemata. Thus, an ancient Latin poet praising an orator, says, that all his words were ranged like the pieces in mosaic:

Quam lepide xeror compositae, ut tesserae omnes, Arte pavimento, atque embolismo vermiculato.

With us emblem ordinarily signifies no more than a painting, bas-relief, or other representation, intended to convey some moral or political instruction.

What distinguishes an emblem from a device is, that the words of an emblem have a full and complete sense of themselves; whereas those of a device are significative only with reference to some particular person or thing. A device, in short, is a symbol appropriated to some person, or that expresses something which concerns him particularly; whereas an emblem is a symbol that regards all the world alike. These differences will be more apparent from comparing the emblem above quoted, with the device of a candle lighted, and the words Juvando consumor, I am wasted in doing good.