98 AUTHENTICITY OF RELICS. [CHAP. VII. 



turies after Christ such, for example, as the true cross, the cradle 

 in which the infant Jesus lay, the clothes in which he was wrap 

 ped up, and the table on which the last Supper was laid ? The 

 Puritans also believed, as do their descendants, that they were 

 suffering in the cause of religious truth, and this feeling may have 

 imparted additional sanctity to all memorials of their exile and 

 adventures ; yet how incomparably greater must have been the 

 veneration felt by the early Christians for all that belonged to 

 their divine teacher !&quot; These observations led me to dwell on 

 the relative authenticity of the relics in the two cases the clear 

 ness of the historical evidence in the one, its worthlessness in the 

 other. It has been truly said that the strength of every chain 

 of historical testimony, like that of a chain of brass or iron, must 

 be measured by the force of its weakest link. The earliest links 

 in every traditional tale are usually the weakest ; but in the case 

 of the sacred objects said to have been obtained by Queen Helena, 

 there are more links absolutely wanting, or a greater chasm of 

 years without any records whatever, than the whole period which 

 separates our times from those of the Pilgrim Fathers. The 

 credulity of Helena, the notorious impostures of the monks of her 

 age, the fact that three centuries elapsed before it was pretended 

 that the true cross had been preserved, and another century be 

 fore it was proved to be genuine by miracles, and a still further 

 lapse of time before all doubt was set at rest by the resuscitation 

 of a dead person the extravagance of supposing that the Chris 

 tians, when they escaped with difficulty from Jerusalem, just be 

 fore the siege, should have carried with them in their flight so 

 cumbersome a piece of furniture as the table, have all been well 

 exposed.^ But in regard to the genuineness of all the Pilgrim 

 treasures shown me at Plymouth and elsewhere I indulged entire 

 faith, until one day ray confidence was disturbed in the Museum 

 at Salem. A piece of furniture which came over in the May 

 flower was pointed out to me, and the antiquary who was my 

 guide remarked, that as the wood of the true cross, scattered over 

 Christendom, has been said to be plentiful enough to build a man- 

 of-war, so it might be doubted whether a ship of the line would 

 * Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman, 1833, vol. ii. p. 186 



