ight to him in the light of their
gratitude, of the timid, trembling affection which they dared not utter
but which his heart revealed to him; this worship which he does not
deserve to-day he will deserve to-morrow, at least he promises himself
to do all he can to deserve it.

To understand these feelings one must understand the condition of the
poor of a place like Assisi. In an agricultural country poverty does
not, as elsewhere, almost inevitably involve moral destitution, that
degeneration of the entire human being which renders charity so
difficult. Most of the poor persons whom Francis knew were in straits
because of war, of bad harvests, or of illness. In such cases material
succor is but a small part. Sympathy is the thing needed above all.
Francis had treasures of it to lavish upon them.

He was well requited. All sorrows are sisters; a secret intelligence
establishes itself between troubled hearts, however diverse their
griefs. The poor people felt that their friend also suffered; they did
not precisely know with what, but they forgot their own sorrows in
pitying their benefactor. Suffering is the true cement of love. For men
to love each other truly, they must have shed tears together.

As yet no influence strictly ecclesiastic had been felt by Francis.
Doubtless there was in his heart that leaven of Christian faith which
enters one's being without his being aware; but the interior
transformation which was going on in him was as yet the fruit of his own
intuition. This period was drawing to a close. His thought was soon to
find expression, and by that very act to receive the stamp of external
circumstances. Christian instruction will give a precise form to ideas
of which as yet he has but vague glimpses, but he will find in this form
a frame in which his thought will perhaps lose something of its
originality and vigor; the new wine will be put into old wine-skins.

By degrees he was becoming calm, was finding in the contemplation of
nature joys which up to this time he had sipped but hastily, almost
unconsciously, and of which he was now learning to relish the flavor. He
drew from them not simply soothing; in his heart he felt new compassions
springing into life, and with these the desire to act, to give himself,
to cry aloud to these cities perched upon the hill-tops, threatening as
warriors who eye one another before the fray, that they should be
reconciled and love one another.

Certainly, at this tim