Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the, "composition of
a scene," or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashionable
person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You know what
care is taken, nightly, in the composition of that scene,--how the
draperies are arranged for it; the lights turned off, and on; the
fiddlestrings taxed for their utmost tenderness; the bassoons exhorted
to a grievous solemnity.

You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever
appeared to any mortal in that manner?

_Here_ is an apotheosis also. Composed!--yes; figures high on the
right and left, low in the middle, etc., etc., etc.

But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St. Francis?--
_did_ he ever receive stigmata?--_did_his soul go up to heaven--did any
monk see it rising--and did Giotto mean to tell us so? If you will be
good enough to settle these few small points in your mind first, the
"composition" will take a wholly different aspect to you, according to
your answer.

Nor does it seem doubtful to me what your answer, after investigation
made, must be.

There assuredly was a St. Francis, whose life and works you had better
study than either to-day's Galignani, or whatever, this year, may
supply the place of the Tichborne case, in public interest.

His reception of the stigmata is, perhaps, a marvellous instance of the
power of imagination over physical conditions; perhaps an equally