Hillaire Belloc: Sharing a legend illuminates and satisfies the recipient while it amplifies the subject matter.

Reading a book about Catholicism, with an eye toward enchanting my agnostic life.

A Legend is "a story told about some real person, real virtue, or real spiritual experience, and of such a quality that it illuminates and satisfies the recipient while it amplifies and gives further substance to the matter to which it is attached." p.161 

"Legend fell out of fashion, was abused and ridiculed and at last almost lost [because] men fell into a habit of measuring everything exactly and neglecting whatever could not be measured." p.162. 

"Legend has taken a terrible revenge.  For in its absence men have been condemned to Myth, which is the dogmatic affirmation of something false." p.163 

--Hillaire Belloc, Essays of a Catholic, 1931,

It feels like the purpose of teaching in the humanities is to encourage students to connect to legends and to see their lives as legends waiting to begin.