his confessor, that, if he had been torn to pieces in this state of
rapture, he would not have felt it; that, in that moment, he could
only feel at the bottom of his soul. The company, quite alarmed, drew
near him; and when he had recovered his usual serenity, they enquired
of him, laughing, what had occasioned his extraordinary reserve; if,
perhaps, he was not thinking of taking a wife? "It is so," he replied:
"I shall take one, but one so noble and so beautiful, that such another
will not be found in the whole world." Evangelical poverty, which he
afterwards embraced, was the spouse to which the Holy Ghost inspired
him to allude.

After this divine favor he disembarrassed himself as much as possible
of his commercial affairs, to beg of God to know what He would have
him do; and he usually went to pray in a grotto with a confidential
friend, who left him there in entire liberty. The frequent recourse
to prayer excited in his heart so ardent a desire for the celestial
country, that he already looked upon everything that was earthly as
nothing. He felt that this happy disposition contained a treasure, but
he did not as yet know how to possess himself of the hidden prize. The
Spirit of God merely insinuated to him that the spiritual life, under
the idea of traffic, must begin by a contempt of the world,--and under
the idea of warfare, by a victory over self.--All spirituality not
based upon these two Divine lessons, will never have anything solid
in it.

Francis had soon occasion to put these lessons in practice. As he was
riding across the plains of Assisi, he perceived a leper coming straight
to him. At first he felt horror-stricken, but calling to mind that he
had formed a resolution to labor to attain perfection, and that, in
order to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, it was necessary to begin by