The Golden Legend was first published in 1851. The title was derived from the epithet given to Vora gine's Legends of the Saints, Aurea Legenda, which was said by its admirers to exceed all other books, as gold passeth in value all other metals. So the story upon which this poem is founded seems to me, says Longfellow, in his original note, to surpass all other legends in beauty and significance. It exhibits amid the corruptions of the Middle Ages, the Virtue of disinter estedness and self-sacrifice, and the power of Faith, Hope, and Charity, sufficient for all the exigencies of life and death.
