which gave fame to Bonaventura. He has an intuitive contempt for
all quacks and pretenders. At Paris he maintains fourteen
different theses, propounded by learned men, on different subjects,
and gains universal admiration. He is early selected by his native
city for important offices, which he fills with honor. In wit he
encounters no superiors. He scorches courts by sarcasms which he
can not restrain. He offends the great by a superiority which he
does not attempt to veil. He affects no humility, for his nature
is doubtless proud; he is even offensively conscious and arrogant.
When Florence is deliberating about the choice of an ambassador to
Rome, he playfully, yet still arrogantly, exclaims: "If I remain
behind, who goes? and if I go, who remains behind?" His
countenance, so austere and thoughtful, impresses all beholders
with a sort of inborn greatness; his lip, in Giotto's portrait, is
curled disdainfully, as if he lived among fools or knaves. He is
given to no youthful excesses; he lives simply and frugally. He
rarely speaks unless spoken to; he is absorbed apparently in
thought. Without a commanding physical person, he is a marked man
to everybody, even when he deems himself a stranger. Women gaze at
him with wonder and admiration, though he disdains their praises
and avoids their flatteries. Men make way for him as he passes
them, unconsciously. "Behold," said a group of ladies, as he
walked slowly by them, "there is a man who has visited hell!" To
the close of his life he was a great devourer of books, and
digested their contents. His studies were as various as they were
profound. He was familiar with the ancient poets and historians
and philosophers; he was still better acquainted with the abstruse
speculations of the schoolmen. He delighted in universities and
scholastic retreats; from the cares and duties of public life he
would retire to solitary labors, and dignify his retirement by