We have thought it necessary to meet objections as to over-valuing the importance of the Middle Ages, but it must be understood that we do not stand forward as apologists for them except in relation to modern times. The part which they played in the course of history 84 was not only necessary to the development of the life of the world, but was so special and characteristic that it will leave its mark on future ages in spite of the ignorant contemplation of them from which we are slowly emerging. They had their own faults and miseries, their own uses and advantages, and they left behind them works to show that at least happiness and cheerful intelligence were possible sometimes and somewhere in them, even amongst that working class, which now has to bear the whole burden of our follies and mistakes.
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