SOME INFLUENCES 



We read of his desire that the Emperor should 

 order orrain to be scattered on the roads on Christmas 

 Day, so that the birds might rejoice with men at the 

 Nativity ; of the nests he made for the doves ; of his 

 persuasive method with the chattering swallows which 

 disturbed his sermon ; how he compared the modest 

 sister lark with the Religious. " Perfectly sure that he 

 himself was a spiritual being, he thought it at least 

 possible that birds might be spiritual beings also, 

 incarnate like himself in mortal flesh ; and saw no 

 degradation to the dignity of human nature in claiming 

 kindred lovingly with creatures so beautiful, so wonder- 

 ful, who (as he fancied in his old-fashioned way) praised 

 God in the forest even as angels did in Heaven."^ 



He provided for the wolf of Gubbio, so that it 

 might be won from bloodshed by having its wants 

 supplied from house to house. To the astonishment 

 of the fishermen on the lake of Rieti he put back 

 into the water the tench which had been given to 

 him. The leveret and the pheasant came to place 

 themselves under his protection. Even the frozen bees 

 accepted warmth and food at his hands, and the cicada 

 and the earthworm experienced his care. 



That St. Francis influenced the thought of his own 

 generation, both profoundly and widely, and that he 



^ Charles Kingsley, Prose Idylls, 1889, p. 23. 

 5 



