ders and said:

"My words are exact and literal, yet the man cannot tell what I mean. I
have disputed with Augustine and Jerome, with Gregory and him of the
Golden Mouth, St. Chrysostom. And they comprehended me still less.
Miserable men walk groping in the dark, and Error lifts over their head
her monstrous canopy. Simple and sage alike are the plaything of eternal
falsehood."

And Satan said again to the holy man Giovanni:

"Have you won happiness? If you have happiness, I shall not prevail
against you. A man's thoughts are only stirred by sorrow, and their
meditations by grief. Then, tortured by fears and desires, he turns
anxiously in his bed and rends his pillow with lies. What use to tempt
this man? He is happy."

But Fra Giovanni sighed:

"Sir! I am less happy since listening to you. Your words trouble my
mind."

On hearing this, Satan cast away his pastoral staff, his mitre and his
cope; and stood there naked and unashamed. He was black and more
beautiful than the loveliest of the Angels.

He smiled gently, and said to the holy man:

"Friend, be comforted. I am the Evil Spirit."

VIII

THE BURNING COAL

Now Brother Giovanni was simple of heart and spirit, and his tongue was
tied; he knew not the secret of speaking to his fellow-men.

But one day when he was praying, as his habit was, at the foot of an
ancient holm-oak, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and saluting
him, said:

"I salute you, because it is I who visit the simple-minded, and announce
the mysteries to virgins."

And the Angel held in his hand a burning coal. This he laid on the holy
man's lips, and spoke again, and said:

"By virtue of this fire shall your lips remain pure, and they shall glow
with eloquence. I have burned them, and they shall be burned. Your
tongue shall be loosed, and you shall speak to your fellows. For men
must hear the word of life, and learn how they shall not be saved but
by innocency of heart. For this cause the Lord has unloosed the tongue
of the simple and innocent."

Then the Angel went back again to Heaven. And the holy man was seized
with terror, and he prayed, saying:

"O God, my heart is so sore troubled I cannot find on my lips the sweet
savour of the fire Thy Angel hath touched them with.

"Thou wouldst chasten me, O Lord, seeing Thou dost send me to speak to
the folk, who will not hearken to my words. I shall be hateful to all
men, and Thy priests themselves will declare, 'He is a bl