Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, Praise, glory and honor and benediction all, are Thine. To Thee alone do they belong, most High, And there is no man fit to mention Thee. Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy creatures. Especially to my worshipful brother sun, The which lights up the day, and through him dost Thou brightness give; And beautiful is he and radiant with splendor great; Of Thee, Most High, signification gives. Praised be my Lord, for sister moon and for the stars, In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and precious and fair. Praised be my Lord for brother wind And for the air and clouds and fair and every kind of weather. By the which Thou givest to Thy creatures nourishment. Praised be my Lord for sister water, The which is greatly helpful and humble and precious and pure. Praised be my Lord for brother fire, By the which Thou lightest up the dark. And fair is he and gay and mighty and strong. Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth. The which sustains and keeps us And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright. Praised be my Lord for those who for Thy love forgive And weakness bear and tribulation. Blessed those who shall in peace endure, For by Thee, Most High, shall they be crowned. Praised be my Lord for our sister, the bodily death. From the which no living man can flee. {259} Woe to them who die in mortal sin; Blessed those who shall find themselves in Thy most holy will, For the second death shall do them no ill. Praise ye and bless ye my Lord, and give Him thanks, And be subject unto Him with great humility." Except for his place in literature and art, the lives of few men would seem to be of so little interest to the modern time as that of St. Francis of Assisi, yet it is for the man himself that so many now turn to him. His spirit is entirely opposed to the sordid principles that have been accepted as the basis of success in modern life. His idea was that happiness consisted in being free from unsatisfied desires rather than seeking to secure the satisfaction of his wishes. Duty was self-denial, not self-seeking under any pretext. He stripped himself literally of everything and his mystic marriage to the Lady Poverty was, so far as he was concerned, as absolute a reality, as if the union had been actual instead of imaginary. The commonplace details of his early years seem all the more interesting from these later developments, and have been the subject of much sympathetic study in recent years. St. Francis' father was a cloth merchant and St. Francis had been brought up and educated as became the son of a man whose commercial journeys often took him to France. It was indeed while his father was absent on one of these business expeditions that Francis was born and on his father's return received from him the name of Francisco--the Frenchman--in joyful commemoration of his birth.