Page:Goldenlegendlive00jaco.djvu/23

Rh had the distinction of being crowned by the French Academy.

Thus has our day shown its willingness to abandon and repair the neglect or contempt of four centuries, a willingness which has encouraged and will (we venture to hope) welcome the production of the present volume. This new receptivity for a book like the Golden Legend is not, I think, due so much to any particular 'revival'—religious, ' Gothic,' or romantic—as to a general desire to understand the whole past of the world and to appreciate that past by the first-hand unbiassed study of ancient memorials. It is recognized that in the Legenda Aurea and in Caxton's version of it we possess documents of very high value. They are documents—that is to say, 'instructions'—even quite apart from the weight we lay on the objective truth or intrinsic importance of the facts recorded. They open up for us the world of mediæval thought and feeling; and for such unveilings our time shows an honourable eagerness.

But if we are to take up with profit the Golden Legend and not risk presently laying it down with tedium or dislike, we shall do well to secure some correct initial ideas as to its nature and conception, and those of the entire class of mediæval literature which it represents. It is meant to be historical. And Jacobus de Voragine shows a sincere desire to separate truth from falsehood and present his readers only with the former. Not seldom does he warn us that he gives a tale with reserves as to its genuineness or accuracy, that there are difficulties in the way of