Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/72

xlvi without reference to their own individual merit, have been raised into higher importance by furnishing the groundwork of many popular dramas. I shall also take occasion to offer a few remarks upon the translation now before the public, elucidatory of certain points which seem to require explanation.

The was one of the most applauded compilations of the middle ages. The method of instructing by fables, is a practice of remote antiquity; and has always been attended with very considerable benefit. Its great popularity encouraged the monks to adopt this medium, not only for the sake of illustrating their discourses, but of making a more durable impression upon the minds of their illiterate auditors. An abstract argument, or logical deduction, (had they been capable of supplying it,) would operate but faintly upon intellects, rendered even more