well not to inquire too closely. It is a part of the philosophy of
travel to take the goods the gods provide, and the blending of amused
tolerance and unsuspected depths of reverential devotion by which the
visitor will find himself moved, while in Assisi, can hardly be
described. For, surely, here

"... there trod
The whitest of the saints of God,"

and Catholic or Protestant, one equally enters into the beauty of his
memory. The double and triple arches of the convent church enclose
cloistered walls continually filled with visitors. No shrine in Italy
holds such mysterious power. Simplicity and joy were the two keynotes of
the life taught by St. Francis. "Poverty," he asserted, "is the happy
state of life in which men are set free from the trammels of
conventionalism, and can breathe the pure air of God's love. The richest
inward life is enjoyed when life is poorest outwardly. Be poor," he
continued, "try a new principle; be careless of having and getting; try
_being_, for a change. Our life in the world ought to be such that any
one on meeting us should be constrained to praise the heavenly Father.
Be not an occasion of wrath to any one," he often said, "but by your
gentleness may all be led to press onward to good works."

The supreme aim of Francis was that of service to humanity. He gave
himself with impassioned fervor to this one work. For him there were no
ideals of cloistered seclusion or of devotion to learning and art, but
the ideal alone to uplift humanity. It was literally and simply, indeed,
the Christ ideal. Of the "Rule" made, one of his biographers says:--

"Amid all these encouragements the Rule was made. It consists, like
other monastic rules, of the three great vows of poverty, chastity,
and obedience, differing only in so far that the poverty ordained
by Francis was absolute. In other rules, though the individual was
allowed to possess nothing, the community had often rich
possessions, and there was no reason why the monks should not fare
sumptuously and secure to themselves many earthly enjoyments,
notwithstanding their individual destitution and their vow. But
among the Brothers Minor there was not to be so much as a provision
secured for the merest daily necessities. Day by day they were to
live by God's providence, eating what was given to them, taking no
thought how they were to be fed, or wherewithal cloth