e poetry by which it is so ably supported, in the original manuscript. But
you must allow that the public taste gives little encouragement to those legendary
superstitions, which formed alternately the delight and the terror of our predecessors.
In like manner, much is omitted illustrative of the impulse of enthusiasm in
favour of the ancient religion in Mother Magdalen and the Abbot. But we do not
feel deep sympathy at this period with what was once the most powerful and animating
principle in Europe, with the exception of that of the Reformation, by which
it was successfully opposed.
You rightly observe, that these retrenchments have rendered the title no longer
applicable to the subject, and that some other would have been more suitable
to the Work, in its present state, than that of THE ABBOT, who made so much
greater figure in the original, and for whom your friend, the Benedictine, seems
to have inspired you with a sympathetic respect. I must plead guilty to this
accusation, observing, at the sam
