The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure

THE life of a Saint, written by a Saint, as the life of S. Paul of the Cross written by his companion, the B. Strambi, speaks to the heart with a vital power which no work of merely natural genius can command. It has a twofold operation of the Spirit of God with it, both in the subject and in the writer. Such is, in an eminent degree, the Life of S. Francis, by S. Bonaventure-the life of the Seraphic Patriarch written by the Seraphic Doctor. Among uninspired books there are few that breathe more sensibly the love of God. There is a light and a sweetness about it which is not of this world.

The anecdote of S. Thomas visiting S. Bonaventure's cell, and finding him in ecstasy, is too well known to need recital. S. Bonaventure was then writing the Life of S. Francis, and it was on these very pages that he was intent, when S. Thomas drew back from the door, saying, "Let us leave a Saint to work for a Saint.". It is in this same spirit of love and reverence that we ought to read this book.

+HENRY EDWARD,

Archbishop of Westminster.