Laudato sie, mi signore, cum tucte le tue creature, Spetialimento messer lo frate sole, Lo quale jorna, et illumini per lui; _Et ello è bello e radiante cum grande splendore._ * * * * * Laudato si, mè signore per frate Vento Et per aere et nubilo et sereno et omne tempo * * * * * Laudato, si, mi signore, per sor acqua La quale è multo utile et humele et pretiosa et casta; Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu Per lo quale ennallumini la nocte _Et ello è 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 però 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_ xxviii. "... Questo dono, che era dato a frate Bernardo da Quintevalle, cioè, che volando si pascesse come la rondine." _Fioretti_ xxii., Considerazioni i.] Indeed, we can judge of what the Franciscan movement was to the world by what its gospel, the divine _Fioretti_, are even to ourselves. This humble collection of stories and sayings, sometimes foolish, always childlike, becomes, to those who have read it with more than the eyes of the body, a beloved and necessary companion, like the solemn serene books of antique wisdom, the passionate bitter Book of Job, almost, in a way, like the Gospels of Christ. But not for the same reason: the book of Francis teaches neither heroism nor resignation, nor divine justice and mercy; it teaches love and joyfulness. It keeps us for ever in the company of creatures who are happy because they are loving: whether the creatures be poor, crazy Brother Juniper (the comic person of the cycle) eating his posset in brotherly happiness with the superior he had angered; or Brother Masseo, unable from sheer joy in Christ to articulate anything save "U-u-u," "like a pigeon;" or King Lewis of France falling into the arms of Brother Egidio; or whether they be the Archangel Michael in friendly converse with Brother Peter, or the Madonna handing the divine child for Brother Conrad to kiss, or even the Wolf of Gubbio, converted, and faithfully fulfilling his bargain. There are sentences in the _Fioretti_ such as exist perhaps in no other book in the world, and which teach something as important, after all, as wisdom even and perfect charity--"And there answered Brother Egidio: Beloved brethren, know that as soon as he and I embraced one another, the light of wisdom revealed