ibed in the same words; other incidents are given in abridged
form; the whole work is marked by a more liturgic style, and
occasionally fresh details are given.

CHAPTER IX.

INTERIOR SPIRIT.

Hitherto we have considered principally the outward life of
Bonaventure; we now turn to those interior virtues which made him a
saint. Notwithstanding his manifold labours and the eminently
strenuous life he led he was a perfect master of the interior life. A
glance at his writings will show how thoroughly he understood the
secrets of Mystic Theology, and how intimately acquainted he was with
every aspect of the spiritual life. There is no phase of divine
contemplation that he does not seem to have learnt by personal
experience. It was this very striking characteristic which gained for
him the title of Seraphic Doctor.

He possessed the rare faculty of keeping his mind habitually fixed
upon God in the midst of external occupations. To this may be traced
the very remarkable attribute of his writings whereby {65} every
subject he treats of is made ultimately to converge Godwards. In his
treatises "The Journey of the Mind to God," and "The Reduction of the
Arts to Theology," the workings of his soul in this respect are
systematized and reduced to scientific order. St. Antoninus notes this
feature of Bonaventure's works when he says: "According as Bonaventure
made progress in science and the knowledge of the Scriptures, so, too,
he grew in the grace of devotion. For whatever he perceived with the
intellect he reduced to the form of prayer and worship of God and kept
meditating on it continually in his heart."

Besides maintaining at all times this habitual spirit of recollection,
our Saint sometimes withdrew entirely from the cares of his office and
gave himself exclusively to prayer and recollection. It was on one
such occasion, in the seclusion of Mount Alverna, that he conceived
the idea of, and actually composed, his "Journey of the Mind to God".
He tells us this himself. "On an occasion," he says, [Footnote 30]
"when, after the example of the most Blessed Francis, I, a sinner,
sighed for spiritual peace--I who, though unworthy in every respect,
am yet his seventh successor in the general ministry of the
Brethren--it happened that about the thirty-third year after his death
I had withdrawn to Mount Alverna as to a quiet place where I might
find {66} the peace I sought. Whilst there, as I reflected on certain
elevations