III. THE DABCHICKS. I 7 5 



shedding of God's kindness upon them, can 

 \^e know or conceive : only in proportion 

 as we draw near to God, and are made in 

 measure Hke unto Him, can we increase this 

 our possession of charity, of which the entire 

 essence is in God only. But even the ordi- 

 nary exercise of this faculty implies a condition 

 of the whole moral being in some measure 

 right and healthy, and to the entire exercise of 

 it there is necessary the entire perfection of 

 the Christian character; for he who loves not 

 God, nor his brother, cannot love the grass 

 beneath his feet, and the creatures which live 

 not for his uses, filling those spaces in the 

 universe which he needs not ; while, on the 

 other hand, none can love God, nor his human 

 brother, without loving all things which his 

 Father loves ; nor without looking upon them, 

 every one, as in that respect his brethren also, 

 and perhaps worthier than he, if, in the under 

 concords they have to fill, their part be touched 

 more truly. It is good to read of that kindness 

 and humbleness of S. Francis of Assisi, who 

 never spoke to bird or cicala, nor even to wolf 

 and beast of prey, but as his brother; and so 

 we find are moved the minds of all good and 



