y. The universal brotherhood,
preached by Francis of Assisi, is a brotherhood not of suffering, but of
happiness, nay, of life and of happiness.

The sun, in the wonderful song which he made--characteristically--during
his sickness, is the brother of man because of his radiance and splendour;
water and fire are his brethren on account of their virtues of purity
and humbleness, of jocund and beautiful strength;[1] and if we find,
throughout his legends, the Saint perpetually accompanied by birds--the
swallows he begged to let him speak, the falcon who called him in the
morning, the turtle-doves whose pairing he blessed, and all the feathered
flock whom Benozzo represents him preaching to in the lovely fresco at
Montefalco--if, as I say, there is throughout his life and thoughts a
sort of perpetual whir and twitter of birds, it is, one feels sure,
because the creatures of the air, free to come and go, to sit on
beautiful trees, to drink of clear streams, to play in the sunshine and
storm, able above all to be like himself, poets singing to God, are the
symbols, in the eyes of Francis, of the greatest conceivable
felicity.[2]

[Footnote 1: St. Francis's hymn (Sabatier, _St. Francois d'Assise_):--

Laudato sie, mi signore, cum tucte le tue creature,
Spetialimento messer lo frate sole,
Lo quale jorna, et illumini per lui;
_Et ello e bello e radiante cum grande splendore._
* * * * *
Laudato si, me signore per frate Vento
Et per aere et nubilo et sereno et omne tempo
* * * * *
Laudato, si, mi signore, per sor acqua
La quale e multo utile et humele et pretiosa et casta;
Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu
Per lo quale ennallumini la nocte
_Et ello e bello et jocundo e robustioso e forte._

In its rudeness, how magnificent is this last line!]

[Footnote 2: St. Francis's sermon to the birds in the valley of Bevagna
(_Fioretti_ xvi.): "Ancora gli (a Dio) siete tenuti per lo elemento
dell' aria che egli ha diputato a voi ... e Iddio vi pasce, e davvi li
fiumi e le fonti per vostro bere; davvi li monti e le valli per vostro
rifugio e gli alberi alti per fare li vostri nidi ... e pero guardatevi,
sirocchie mie, del peccato della ingratitudine, e sempre vi studiate di
lodare Iddio ... e allora tutti qugli uccilli si levarons in aria con
maraviglios canti."

_Fioretti