"She defended Francis not only against others but also against himself. In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was beside him to show the way. When he doubted his mission and thought of fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men going astray with no shepherd to herd them, and drew him once again into the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who give their lives as a ransom for many."[235] It is under the shade of the olive trees of St. Damian, with his sister-friend Clara caring for him, "that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern religions sentiment, _The Canticle of the Sun_."[236] This canticle, however, beautiful as it is, lacks, as has well been remarked, one strophe. "If it was not upon Francis' lips, it was surely in his heart:" "Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; Thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious, And, by her, thy light shines in our hearts."[237] It was through the inspiration and influence of Theodora that the famous Church of St. Sophia, that matchless poem in marble and gold, that imperishable monument to the glory of the true God, came into existence. It was through her that Justinian conceived the idea of those _Pandects_ and _Institutes_ which constitute the greatest glory of his reign, and which are the basis of the _Code Napoleon_ and of all modern jurisprudence. It was to Vittoria Colonna that Michaelangelo dedicated many of the most exquisite productions of his peerless genius. "He saw," as has been said, "with her eyes and acted by her inspiration." Almost every one of Chopin's compositions was inspired by women, and a large proportion of them are dedicated to them. The same may be said of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann and other illustrious composers. All these sons of genius believed with Castiglione that "all inspiration must come from woman;" that she had been expressly created and sent into the world to inspire them with intelligence and creative power. M. Claviere declares that "There is hardly a philosopher or a poet of the sixteenth century whose pages are not illuminated or gladdened by the smile of some high-born lady."[238] What the brilliant Frenchman says of the influence of woman on the poets and philosophers of a single century could with equal truth be said of the poets and philosophers of every century from Anacreon and Plato to the present day. And, still more, it can be predicated of woman's inspiration and influence in every department of intellectual effort, in art and architecture, in music and literature, in science in all its departments, whether deductive or inductive.