A brief reference, without explanation, to a person, a text, a myth or a fact known outside the work, which carries with it the meaning of that other story.
In The Magic Mountain
We already know that power is evil. But for the kingdom to come, the dualism between good and evil, this side and the beyond, spirit and arbitrariness must be momentarily suspended, and united in one principle that combines asceticism and dominion. This is what I call the necessity of terror
"For the kingdom to come" echoes the petition of the Lord's Prayer, and Naphta puts the Christian prayer in the service of terror. The allusion shows the Jesuit using the language of faith to justify force.
Chapter VI: Naphta, the Snow and the Death of Joachim, Leo Naphta