But to-day real agnosticism has declined
along with real theology. People cannot leave a creed alone;
though it is the essence of a creed to be clear. But neither can they
leave a legend alone; though it is the essence of a legend to be vague.
That sane half scepticism which was found in all rustics,
in all ghost tales and fairy tales, seems to be a lost secret.
Modern people must make scientifically certain that St. Joseph did
or did not go to Glastonbury, despite the fact that it is now quite
impossible to find out; and that it does not, in a religious sense,
very much matter. But it is essential to feel that he may have
gone to Glastonbury: all songs, arts, and dedications branching
and blossoming like the thorn, are rooted in some such sacred doubt.
Taken thus, not heavily like a problem but lightly like an old tale,
the thing does lead one along the road of very strange realities,
and the thorn is found growing in the heart of a very secret maze
of the soul. Something is really present in the place; some closer
contact with the thing which covers Europe but is still a secret.
Somehow the grey town and the green bush touch across the world
the strange small country of the garden and the grave; there is verily
some communion between the thorn tree and the crown of thorns.
A man never knows what tiny thing will startle him to such ancestral
and impersonal tears.
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