392 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



to the existence of a spontaneous independent principle in the 

 mind by virtue of which man may challenge experience and 

 tradition, resist them, overcome them, and start anew on his 

 journey with the beacon-light of idealism to guide him. It is at 

 such times of struggle that breaks have come and will come in 

 the evolution of human affairs ; that new varieties are and will 

 be produced from existing forms by sudden leaps. 



Let us test the truth of this observation by one or two illus- 

 trations — one from the development of man's spiritual life, the other 

 from the political development of men in the mass. 



In all religious revivals there may be found individulals who 

 pass through an intense inward experience commonly called 

 conversion. There was such a revival in Europe in the thirteenth 

 century, and another in England in the seventeenth century. 

 St. Francis of Assisi may be selected from the former ; John 

 Bunyan from the latter. 



I do not pretend to know precisely what is meant by the 

 term conversion, but it is clear enough to me from a study of 

 the lives of these men that conversion marked a distinct break 

 in the continuity of their inward development. In the life of St. 

 Francis of Assisi that critical period is marked clearly enough by 

 his mystical marriage with the Lady Poverty, which Giotto has 

 represented in a famous allegorical fresco above the altarpiece in 

 the Lower Church at Assisi. 



Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, and up to 

 that time he had lived according to the ordinary experience and 

 traditions of the youth of his class. He dressed expensively, 

 fared sumptuously, played, rioted, and regaled his boon com- 

 panions with costly suppers extending late into the night. There 

 was nothing vicious in his early life ; it was simply the ordinary 

 gay and self-indulgent life of a young man who liked to be generous 

 — with his father's money. 



Then came the resolution to wed the Lady Poverty on that 

 eventful night after the last boisterous supper, and, with it, a 

 distinct break with past experience. Instead of fine raiment, he 

 is contented with — nay, has preference for — rags ; instead of 

 buying and selling for gain, he throws away what money he has 

 or gives it to beggars. His devotion to the Lady Poverty is as 

 absolute as anything human can be. He rejects privilege of all 

 kinds, and instead of seeking personal glory, his one ambition 

 from that time onwards is to be the poorest man in Italy. In a 

 word, the gay, revelling, luxurious son of Peter Bemadone had 

 emerged from a spiritual crisis with an invincible determination 

 to follow the rule of the Holy Gospel literally and in very deed. 



Now it is not necessary to argue that so great a change was 

 effected in a few weeks or even a few months. It may have taken 

 a year or even two years, but even if we allow the maximum that 

 the best historical evidence can justfy it still remains true that 



