plifted,
was just beginning the second verse:

"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 he, 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, O my Lord, thou art praised.

"And praised 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 praised 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 our sister Death, my Lord, art Thou,
From whom no living man escapes.
Who die in mortal sin have mortal woe,
But blessed are they who die doing Thy will;
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."

How God was loved by this saint, who beheld in everything the Most High
had created kindred whom he loved and held intercourse with as with
brother and sister! Whatever the divine Father's love had formed--the
sun, the moon and stars, the wood, water and fire, the earth and her
fair children, the various flowers and plants--he made proclaim, each
for itself and all in common, like a mighty chorus, the praise of God.
Even death joins in the hymn, and all these sons and daughters of the
same exalted Father call to the minds of men the omnipotent, beneficent
rule of the Lord. They help mortals to appreciate God's majesty, fill
their hearts with gratitude, and summon them to praise His sublimity
and greatness. In death, whom the poet also calls his sister, he sees
no cruel murderer, because she, too, comes from the Most High. "And
what sister," asks the saint, "could more surely rescue the brother from
sorrow