Christianity Of St. Louis In His Private And Social Life, As Well As In His Public Career And Political Relations. I now come to that which is perhaps the most striking and original feature in the character of St. Louis. He was engrossed by religion,--I may say that piety was his ruling passion; and yet his naturally clear and upright judgment in secular and social affairs was scarcely ever disturbed by his religious views. He was not content with the mere forms and appearances of a thing or a person, but must go straight to the very heart of every fact, seeking truth and justice underneath all human conditions, social relations, and royal customs. Tillemont, the most thorough and minutely accurate of his historians, analyses the life of Louis as the best method of describing it. 'We will study him,' he says, 'first as a simple individual, with no other care than that of his own soul; 'then as a father, the head of a family, having the charge of a wife, children, and servants; and last of all as a king, to whom has been confided the guidance of a whole people, and who has to conduct himself as a Christian prince both toward his own subjects and the nations around.' {118} I am certain that this was precisely the order in which St. Louis himself viewed his duties, and I shall preserve a certain harmony and conformity with that which was passing in his own thoughts, if I close this sketch by relating some of those incidents in which the innermost recesses of so noble a nature are spontaneously and truthfully revealed. 'He called me one day,' says Joinville, 'and said, "You are a man of such a light nature that I do not dare to speak to you of things relating to God, and I have called these monks who are here because I wish to ask you a question." Now the demand was this: '"Seneschal, what is God?" '"Sire," I answered, "so good a thing that better cannot be."