146 THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



And notice ! This love of legend is both racial and 

 individual. 



'' Every nation has its legends mixed up with, and 

 branching off into, traditions, fairy tales, fables, 

 myths, romances. As there are the Roman fabulae 

 or fables, and Greek myths, and Arabian nights, so 

 there are the old sagas, sav^s, or sayings, which play 

 so large a part in our legendary past, and have their 

 root in a God-given love of legend. No literature 

 would be complete without its legends, for any 

 literature which omits an element in an appeal to 

 the imaginative faculties ceases to provide for a real 

 want in its best students." 



*' The cup, the cup itself, from which Our Lord 



Drank at the last sad supper with his own. 

 This, from the blessed land of Aromat — 



After the day of darkness, when the dead 

 Went wandering o'er Moriah — the good saint 



Arimathasan Joseph, journeying brought 

 To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn 



Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of Our Lord. 

 And there awhile it bode; and if a man 



Could touch or see it, he* was heal'd at once. 

 By faith, of all his ills. But then the times 



Grew to such evil that the holy cup 

 Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared." 



Tennyson: The Holy Grail. 



