358 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



by those most noble influences that my feeble implanting 

 of virtues which nature had placed in this breast. ' n 



A no less remarkable inspirer, but in an entirely differ- 

 ent sphere of activity, was the devout and spotless Italian 

 maiden, Chiara Schiffi, better known as St. Clara. She was, 

 as is well known, the ardent cooperator of St. Francis 

 Assisi in his great work of social and religious reform 

 which has contributed so much toward the welfare of 

 humanity. But it is not generally known what an im- 

 portant part she had in this great undertaking, and how 

 she sustained the Poverello during long hours of trial and 

 hardship. It was during these periods of care and struggle 

 that we see how courageous and intrepid was ' ' this woman 

 who has always been represented as frail, emaciated, 

 blanched like a flower of the cloister." 



"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 



i ' ' Verum hoc sen gratitudini seu ineptise ascribendum non 

 sileo, me quantulucunque conspicis, per illam esse, nee unquam ad 

 hoc, si quid est nominis aut glorias fuisse venturum, nisi virtutum 

 tenuissman sementem, quasi pectore in hoc natura locaverat, nobilissi- 

 mis his affectibus coluisset. Francisci Petrarchse, Colloquiorum Liber 

 quern Secretum Suum Inscripsit, pp. 105-106, Berne, 1603. 



In his canzone beginning with the words Perche la vita e breve, 

 Petrarch declares to his inspirer 



"Thus if in me is nurst 



Any good fruit, from you the seed came first; 

 To you, if such appear, the praise is due, 

 Barren myself till fertilized by you." 



