BOOKS.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI.*

THE character of St. Francis of Assisi is perhaps the noblest and most Christlike among those attributed to the Roman Catholic saints. How he and his brotherhood would have prospered under the conditions of modern society,—when, even in some Catholic countries, as, for example, the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, the public solicitation of alms is now penal, and when people are beginning to propose that even the bestowal of alms, instead of being one of the first of virtues, should be made penal also, —it is not easy to conceive. But St. Francis belonged to an age when the self-denial of giving, and the still greater self-denial to noble natures involved in the solicitation of alms, was a moral discipline and exercise of far greater importance to the human race than any observance of the then hardly discovered duties resulting from economical laws. It has always seemed to us that the intel- lect and conscience of the West were employed in the middle ages in discovering the range and sounding the depth of their own regene- rated capacities, in efforts to see how these had been affected by the Christian belief and assumptions of the time. It was not so much that men were learning how to live, as that they were learning to test the scope of their own powers as preliminary to living. As the athlete learns in the gymnastic school to perform feats infinitely more difficult than he is likely ever to have to perform in life, and yet these feats are essential to teach him full confidence in his own muscular powers, and to enable him to meet with perfect presence of mind, and without any dismay, emergencies of a much less tasking kind when they come suddenly upon him, so the* feats of the mediwval schoolmen with philosophical problems, and the feats of the medimval saints with moral and spiritual problems, seem to have been rather exercises preliminary to the attempt to realize the highest intellectual and moral life of man upon earth, than practical solutions of the problems of life. Even the strictest Catholic would probably admit that, on the whole, ascetic and mon- astic institutions exist, like schools of philosophy, for the sake of the masses of men whom they are directly or indirectly to influence and leaven, rather than for their own sake ; -at least, that if it could be demonstrated that any better instruments for leavening the coarse clay of the world could be obtained by suppressing them, then they ought to be sacrificed for the sake of the higher weal of the common world of humanity. Only by the supposition that the work of the middle ages was to train the Christian world to fathom the limits of human capacities, intellectual and moral, does it seem to us possible to explain how for many generations the highest Christian exercises of the intellect, and the highest Christian discipline of the conscience, should have had upon them the impress of an intel- lectual and moral gymnasti c,—a discipline introductory to life rather than the stamp of wise living, and, indeed, a tone of egoism, of ela- borate self-manipulation, of excessive self-consciousness, which, in spite of the wonderful self-abnegation attained, strike us as some- times more preternatural than supernatural, as defective, at all events, in nature and simplicity. When even St. Francis, for instance, by way of mortifying his appetites, used to say, at a Cardinal's table, "Brother Ash is good," and sprinkle ashes over carefully cooked delicacies in order to destroy their flavour, we have a feeling that he was engaged in very much the same sort of tour de force, or over-careful experimenting in relation to his moral nature, in which schoolmen who debated whether there were any limit to the number of angels who could stand on the point of a needle, were engaged in relation to the intellect. The one was • St. Francis of Assist. By Mrs. Oliphant. One of the series of the Sunday Library for Household Reading. London: Macmillan and Co. sharpening his conscience and that of his generation for work infi- nitely better than he was actually performing, just as the others were sharpening their metaphysical conceptions of matter ands spirit for work infinitely better than any involved in the question they were discussing. And this is the great alloy to the pleasure of reading the lives of the mediasval saints, that they seem to be so constantly and anxiously engaged in whetting their sickles for a harvest which they do not begin to reap, in giving a.. wonderful edge and temper to powers of self-denial and endurance which they never proceed to apply to the actual life of the world at large. There was no harm in sprinkling ashes over a good. dinner, if it taught those who did it, not really to be afraid of the fascinations of a good dinner in future,—to be absolutely certain. that in no point it should tempt them to eat even a mouthful which there was any good reason for declining to eat. Bat the. saints thought of these things more as ends than as means. Poverty and pain were to them hardly so much disciplines as ends in themselves. They did not regard their rigour of life as a mere. mode of obtaining absolute mastery of themselves,—a mastery to. be used for better living,—but as a mode of driving away pleasures. which were rivals with Christ for the possession of their souls St. Francis, for instance, insisted on intellectual, no less than physical poverty, as absolutely essential to the true Christian Thetrue brother of the order, he said, "must lay aside not only worldly prudence, but even all knowledge of letters, that thus stript of all things, he may come to see what is the power of the Lord" (Life, p. 139). Now, that assertion is hardly consistent with. the wise care and zeal shown by the Church in the elaboration of her medimval philosophy ; and yet St. Francis acted upon it, and dissolved a school of his followers established for purposes of learning at Bologna, entreating the members of it "to turn their thoughts more to prayer than to vain accumulations of know-- ledge" (Life, p. 134),—accumulations of knowledge which he. evidently regarded as competitors with Christ for the possession. of the soul.

And yet though this disappointing perception that St. Francis. of Assisi, like most other medieval saints, wasted strength on. moral and spiritual means which should be reserved, ultimately at least, for moral and spiritual ends, sticks to us throughout the. perusal of Mrs. Oliphant's spirited and graphic story of this most loveable of beatified men, yet it was, we think, the characteristic. distinction of the great saint of Assisi, that in an age when this was all but inevitable, he yet showed a far finer appreciation of the spiritual ends as distinguished from the means of life, of the worth of the spiritual affections as distinguished from those acts of self-renunciation by which the affections were so often stimulated, in vain, of the sweetness and innocence of certain natural enjoy- ments, of the beauty of the physical world and the love of God to. his dumb creatures, of the music and poetry of devotional feeling,. than the holiest of his contemporaries. Ascetic as St. Francis was, asceticism was not in the least his individual peculiarity as a saint. He condemned that love of letters which alienated the mind from- Christ, but he made up to literature for this jealousy of phi- losophy by founding a school of devotional poetry to draw the mind towards Christ, and composing lyrics which seem to anticipate by more than six centuries the spirit of some of the most tender poems in the Christian rear. He prohibited the possession of property to his first and second Orders,—tho Franciscan friars and nuns,—but he recognized it as a necessary incident of life for the world at large ; and for his third Order he laid down a rule which might easily be followed by those living in the ordinary world, who wished also to have a life hidden with Christ in God. And even for his first Order, the friars, his own imme- diate followers, the rule was not, in idea and essence, an ascetia rule, but rather a rule of absolute trust in the words of Christ ; and it seems clear that he disapproved the attempt of his first Vicar to. asceticize the rule by forbidding the use of meat to the Order, instead of enjoining upon its members a simple compliance with the direction of Christ to the missionaries he sent out to eat such things as were set before them. Refined in taste, delicate in sym- pathy, imaginative in feeling, devoted in affection, St. Francis is an age of bold and almost cruel self-experimenting, kept the divine tenderness of his Master always in his heart, and it is Mrs_ Oliphant's sympathetic and picturesque delineation of this side of his character which gives the great charm to this book.

Always simple, St. Francis taught his followers to discour- age all theatrical show of popular reverence for themselves (which was often, no doubt, the result of selfish calculation in the people, and always dangerous to the friars), a lesson on which some of the simplest of his followers occasionally acted in a very grotesque form, as when Fra Ginepro disgusted

the B.°Mart crowd which came out to pay respect to his saintliness, by jumping on a children's see-saw, and absorbing himself in his game till the crowd went away in offence. This jealousy of the Franciscans of worldly admiration, this dread of spurious praise, this belief that all true devotional life should have a sacred reserve of its own, has always had an analogue among men of true genius as well as among men of true holiness ; Goethe showed it, for example, if the story be true that when some great man, travel-stained from a long journey, burst into his bedroom as he was undressing, to throw himself at his feet and express the admira- tion he had journeyed so far to pour out, Goethe only blew out the candle and jumped into bed. There is an intense sensitiveness to falsely-toned praise embedded in every true faculty, whether turned earthwards or heavenwards ; and St. Francis clearly felt and impressed on his disciples a great fear and distaste for the praise of nien. Again, nothing can show the genuine delicacy of his nature more than the love he felt and constantly exhibited to the lower races of animals, of which Mrs. Oliphant's story gives many most touch- ing accounts. How closely his memory was associated with tenderness for them, is proved by the legend that one of his miracles was performed for the benefit, not only of his towns- men, but also of a savage wolf in the neighbourhood of Assisi which had been the terror of the little town, destroying many of the inhabitants, till St. Francis addressed him in the following human way :— " Arid behold, in the sight of many citizens who had come to see so great a miracle, the said wolf made towards St. Francis with open mouth; and drawing near to him, St. Francis made over him the sign of the most holy cross, and called him, and spoke thus to him Come hither, Brother Wolf; I command thee in Christ's behalf, that thou do no evil to me nor to any one.' Wondrous sight ! as soon as St. Francis had made the sign of the cross, the dread wolf closed his month, and stayed his course: he came gently like a lamb, and cast himself at St. Francis's feet to lie down. And then St. Francis spoke thus to him :—' Brother Wolf, thou haat done much damage in these parts, and great evil, spoil- ing and slaying the creatures of God without His leave ; and not only heat thou slain and devoured beasts, but haat dared to slay men, made in the image of God : wherefore thou art worthy of the gallows, as a robber and most wicked murderer: and all men cry out and murmur against thee, and all this land is thy enemy. But I wish, Brother Wolf, to make peace between thee and them ; therefore vex them no more, and they will pardon thee all thy past offences, and neither dogs nor men will chase thee any more.' And when these words were said, the wolf, with gestures of body, tail, and eyes, and with head bowed, showed that he accepted what St. Francis said, and would observe it. There- upon St. Francis again said : 'Brother Wolf, since it is thy pleasure to make and to observe this peace, I promise thee I will cause that food be given thee constantly, so long as thou shalt live, by the men of this town, so that thou mayst suffer no more from hunger ; for well I know, that through hunger haat thou done all wickedness. But since I obtain for thee this favour, I will, Brother Wolf, that thou promise me that thou wilt harm neither man nor beast : promisest thou me this ?' And the wolf, with head bowed, made evident sign that he prpmised. And St. Francis thus spake:—' Brother Wolf, I will that thou give me pledge of this promise, that I may be well assured of it :' and St. Francis stretch- ing forth his hand to take his pledge, the wolf raised his right fore-foot, and tamely placed it in the hand of St. Francis, giving him such sign of good faith as he was able. And then St. Francis said, 'Brother Wolf, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, that thou come now with me, doubting nothing, and let us go to confirm this peace in the name of God ;' and the wolf obediently went with him like a gentle lamb, at which all the citizens, when they saw it, marvelled greatly."

According to the legend,—a very beautiful one of its kind,—St. Francis's promise to the wolf was kept ; it was kindly fed by the people as it went from house to house, harming no one and being harmed by none, and died two years later of old age, to the great sorrow of the town, which had loved him for St. Francis's sake. A great many stories and legends of the same order,—the tra- dition of St. Francis's love for the birds has been quite recently rendered into an effective English picture,—all go to prove that the saint throughout life indulged his tenderness for the lower orders of animals and that they were closely associated with his memory. Listen to the beautiful legend of the welcome given him by the birds on occasion of his retreat to Monte .Alverno

"More characteristic, however, is his pause before mounting to the highest heights of Alverno, winch alone were his special property. He had thrown himself down under an oak to rest, in the languor of the September afternoon, when suddenly a multitude of birds came from every quarter, singing and beating their wings as if for joy. These gentle inhabitants of the mountain threw themselves upon their new lord with every demonstration of welcome; upon his head and shoulders and arms, in his cowl, and everywhere about him, his fluttering atten- dants perched, while his companions and the amazed peasant who led his ass stood by wondering. Carissimi fratelli' (dearest brethren) said the gentle apostle, with great delight and gladness, I think it must be pleasant to our Lord Jesus Christ that we should dwell in this solitary place, since our brothers and sisters, the birds, are so glad of our coming.'

It is the same beautiful sympathy with "the creatures" which inspires St. Francis's first attempt at vernacular devotional poetry, the irregularly constructed Italian hymn of which Mrs. Oliphaut has given us so graceful and tender a translation :— "Highest omnipotent good Lord,

Glory and honour to Thy name adored, And praise and every blessing. Of everything Thou art the source, No man is worthy to pronounce Thy name.

"Praised by His creatures all, Praised be the Lord my God, By Messer Sun, my brother above all, Who by his rays lights us and lights the day— Radiant is she, with his great splendour stored, Thy Glory, Lord, confessing.

"By Sister Moon and stars my Lord is praised, Where clear and fair they in the heavens are raised.

"By Brother Wind, my Lord, Thy praise is said, By air and clouds and the blue sky o'erhead, By which Thy creatures all are kept and fed.

"By one most humble, useful, precious, chaste, By Sister Water, 0 my Lord, Thou art praised.

"And praisfil is my Lord By brother Fire—he who lights up the night Jocund, robust is he, and strong and bright.

"Praised art thou, my Lord, by Mother Earth—

Thou who sustainest her, and governest, And to her flowers, fruit, herbs, dost colour give and birth. "And praisod is my Lord By those who, for Thy love, can pardon give, And bear the weakness and the wrongs of men. Blessed are those who suffer thus in peace, By Thee, the Highest, to be crowned in heaven.

"Praised by oar Sister Death, my Lord, art Thou, From whom no living man escapes. Who die in mortal sin have mortal woe ; But blessed they who die doing Thy The second death can strike at them no blow.

"Praises, and thanks, and blessing to my Master be : Serve ye Him all, with great humility."

The man who not only composed this poem, but who intro- duced the spirit of it into his Order, cannot be said to have neglected the earthly ends of living for its means. Mrs. Oliphant's account of the great saint is fascinating, and her dismission of the marvellous elements of his life is cautious and sober, without being wholly sceptical. How difficult it is to pass any certain opinion on the reality or falsehood of such asserted facts as the appearance of "the stigmata" in the hands and feet of St.. Francis, those who have read the remarkable medical discussion in the current number of Macmillan's Magazine,—a discussion by a scientific man of purely scientific evidence, produced in the case of Louise Lateau,—may best decide. What the legitimate in- ferences and interpretations to be put upon such facts, if assumed to be true, ought to be, is quite another matter. No one, how- ever, Will derive any bias towards superstition, or anything but pleasure from Mrs. Oliphant's fascinating life of the most fascinating of Catholic saints.