volume one

HISTORY OF THE CSUSADES. 259
holy war is not sufficiently marked in tlie poem of " Jerusalem
Delivered."* Another reproach may likewise be
addressed to the bard of Einaldo and Godfrey ; the ideas of
magic and gallantry which he has too freely lavished upon his
poem are not in accordance v.ith the truth of history.
Magic, which is nothing but a sort of degenerated superstition,
and which only deals with small things, was but
little known to the Crusaders. Their superstition, however
gross, had something noble and grand in it, which associated
them sufficiently with the spirit of the epopee, T^ithout the
poet having anything to alter ; their character and manners
were grave and austere, and exceedingly well suited to the
dignity of a rehgious epic. It was not till long after
the first crusade that magic formed any part of the superstition
of the Franks, or that their warlike manners abandoned
the prominently epic character which distinguished
them, to adopt the romantic character which they have preserved
in all books of chivalry. It appears to us that we
discover in Tasso much more of the manners of the times
in which he hved than of those of the end of the eleventh
century, the period of the events which form the subject of
his poem.
But it does not enter into the plan or the object of this
work to carry such observations further.f After ha\ing
spoken of the heroic deeds and of all that was wonderful
in the first crusade, I will turn my attention to the immediate
effects it produced upon Europe and Asia. We are
sufficiently well acquainted with the evils by which it was
followed ; great disasters are the familiar subjects of history,
but the slow and almost insensible progress of the good
that may result from a great revolution, is much less easily
perceived.
The first result of this crusade was to carry terror among
* Tasso himself was of this opinion, as may be seen in an interesting
letter addressed to us by M. Bureau Delamalle. The admiration which
I entertain for the Poet of the Crusades, makes me exceedingly anxious
that M. Baour Lormian should finish the undertaking he has begun, so
worthy of his rare talent, a translation in verse of the Jerusalem Delivered.
•f" M. Guinguene, in his Histoire Litteraire d'lialie, has deigned to
adopt, with some modification, several of these observations, which is the
most worthy reward of my labours and researches.
Vol. I.— 13