The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

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attested, is not the design of this work. Wherefore, in such facts, it
seemed often sufficient to refer the reader to the original records. But
miracles may be the subject of a particular disquisition.
A tedious sameness in the narration hath been carefully avoided, and in
relating general virtues, it is hoped that the manner, diction, and
thoughts will be found new. Where memoirs allowed it, such a collection
of remarkable actions and sayings of the saints hath been selected as
seems neither trifling nor redundant; and may serve to express their
character and spirit. In this consists the chief advantage of biography,
as in painting, a portraiture draws its life from the strength of the
features. By thus singular excellency doth Plutarch charm his readers,
cover, or at least compensate for, his neglect of style and method, and
other essential blemishes, and make even the most elegant writers who
have attempted a supplement to his {052} lives,[5] to appear tedious and
dull to one who hath first read his work. What eloquence could furnish
so fine a description, or convey so strong a idea of the pride of
Alexander, as the short answers of that prince to the Cynic philosopher,
or to Darius? or of the modesty of Phocion, as the well-chosen
circumstances of his disinterestedness and private life?[6]
In these lives of the saints pious reflections are sometimes
interspersed, though in general sparingly, not to swell the volume, or
seem to suspect the judgment of the reader, or to forestall the pleasure
of his own reflections. The study and exercise of virtue being the
principal end which every good Christian ought to propose to himself in
all his actions and undertakings, and which religious persons have
particularly in view in reading the lives of saints, in favor of those
who are slow in forming suitable reflections in the reading, a short
instruction, consisting of maxims drawn from the writing or example of
each saint, is subjoined to the principal life for each day, which may
be omitted at discretion. A succinct account of the writings of the
fathers is given in marginal notes, as a key to young theologians in
studying their works: their ascetical lucubrations are principally
pointed out, in which their spirit is often discovered, even to better
advantage than in the best histories which are left us of their actions.
The compiler's first care in this work, hath been a most scrupulous
attachment to truth, the foundation, or rather the soul of all history,
especially of that which tends to the advancement of piety and religion.
The indagation is often a task both nice and laborious. If we weigh the
merit of original authors, some we shall find careless and injudicious,
and many write under the bias of party prejudice, which strangely
perverts the judgment. By this, James Basnage could, in his History of
the Jews, (b. 6,) notoriously mistake and misrepresent, by wholesale,
the clearest authorities, to gratify his prepossession against an