He had to insist on the irrationality of the procedure of those historians who willingly accept the testimony of contemporary witnesses for events in the natural order and reject it arbitrarily when those same witnesses speak of miracles or other supernatural happenings he had to do this with tact and persuasiveness, with a straightforward appeal to common sense, and at the same time with a certain wise "economy" which, avoiding what might prove to be rocks of offence to readers who cannot yet grasp any true idea of mysticism, should be wholly loyal to truth. He had to show to those not of the household of the Faith how the supernatural attitude toward the things of nature is the reasonable, we may even say, the natural attitude, since the things of earth by the very purpose of their creation are, if rightly used, steps to heaven. Francis in a great understanding of and love for our common humanity. Chesterton is well fitted to write of this greatly loved saint, both by his special and always telling way of presenting to the public his subjects, and, one does not hesitate to say after reading this book, by a real spiritual kinship with St.
Chesterton's little book on the saint in a popular series containing works on such varied subjects as Victorian Poetry, The Story of the Renaissance, Atoms and Electrons, and others, is a further proof of the universality of the interest taken in the founder of the three Franciscan Orders. In our own time we have seen the Salvation Army take him as a sort of patron and publish an account of his life, and the appearance of Mr. Francis makes his appeal he is widely recognized outside the Catholic Church as one to be admired and reverenced as a truly human saint whose holiness does not even in appearance remove him from sympathy with common humanity as one whose character, in consequence, draws also to himself the sympathy of his fellow men. It is not only to Catholics, who are in the position to appreciate in greater or less degree the supernatural side of his character, the wonders of divine grace exemplified in him, that St. Francis of Assisi in universality of appeal to all sorts and conditions of men. Probably none of the great lovers and imitators of our Lord Jesus Christ has so closely approached their Divine Exemplar as St.
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