alive, but ill-responsive to the questionings of our modern souls, it may well be that only a measure of closer and more sympathetic study is required to show us the real kinship which exists—to reveal in these men and women a genuine and noble life—a life flowing from unfailing sources, from some of which, perhaps, we may realize that we have been too far and too long severed.
In editing this book considerable debts have been incurred to the already mentioned works of M. de Wyzewa and Mr Ellis, and to various volumes of the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum.
My object has been to prepare a volume for popular though not unscholariy reading; I have been at pains to secure the correctness of my text by study of the oldest printed versions of De Voragine and Caxton; but I have not sought to meet the requirements of a literary antiquary. I have therefore slightly modernized the spelling. In the lives selected, which represent about a tenth of Caxton's entire work, I have made omissions—but sparingly, and in such a way as not to injure the essential character and atmosphere of the text. Still more sparingly and slightly have I ventured on alterations. They were prompted by the desire of bringing clearness out of confused or corrupt texts or of setting right mistranslations; they occur chiefly in the lives of S. Austin and S. Louis.
