V THE LESSER HALLOWS OF THE LEGEND
§ A.--THE SUMMARY OF THESE MATTERS
The Hallows of the Graal legend are the beginning of its wonders and of its meanings only; but, as I have intimated already, the greater includes the lesser, and that which is of all the highest has assumed from the beginning in its symbolism the things by which it is surrounded. As it is in the light of man's higher part that we are able to interpret the lower, as the body is explained by the soul, so even the Castle of the Graal and the great Temple, with all their allusions and all their sacred things, are resolved into the mystery of the Cup, because there is a cloud of witnesses but one true voice which is the spokesman of all. There is obviously no need in this place--as we are concerned with the greater subjects--to lay stress upon the subsidiary Hallows as if they were an integral portion of the Holy Graal regarded symbolically. They are of the accidents only, and as such they are not vital. The Lance is important to the legends, but not otherwise than from the legendary standpoint; the Sword is also important, but not in a sacramental sense; the Dish signifies nothing, or next to nothing. The explanation is that the French literature of the Holy Graal, in its form as now extant, has on the external side its roots in traditions and memorials connected with the Passion of Christ. The different cycles of the literature develop their account of these memorials with motives that vary, but they combine therewith certain sacred objects derived from other sources and not belonging logically to the scheme. They worked, for example, upon pre-existent materials which were not assimilated wholly into the matter of the romances, and