A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 



knee to utter his Ave. And surely not even Raphael 

 himself ever painted a sweeter and more life-like image 

 of childhood than that of the radiant Child-Christ, 

 who holds up his ringers to his lips and laughs for joy 

 in his mother's face. 



As in the well-known Annunciation on the Hos- 

 pital of the Innocents in Florence, by Andrea, a tall 

 white lily growing in a pot stands between Gabriel 

 and the Virgin, and a frieze of classic moulding takes 

 the place of the usual wreath of flowers and fruit 

 that frames in the subject. 



The monk who was our guide seemed to catch a 

 gleam of inspiration from these terra-cotta pictures, 

 which were so familiar to him, and his bronzed face 

 was lighted up with genuine pleasure as he pointed 

 to the Nativity, and exclaimed : " But see that 

 Child, how natural, how expressive ! the breath 

 alone is wanting." And as we stood before the 

 Ascension, he turned to the heretic Inglesi with a 

 kindly smile : " Ecco ! " he said ; " these are the same 

 for you as for us. They are written for us all in the 

 Bible ; there is nothing to separate us here." 



He led us out on the broad piazza in front of the 

 church, and after showing us many smaller chapels 

 raised to commemorate different events in the life of 

 Francis, he conducted us through a long covered 



cloister to the chapel erected on the site of the great 



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