Addressing the good Dominican, she told him that her intention was to burn
up Paradise with the one and to put out the fire of Hell with the other,
in order that henceforth God might be served with a holy and unfeigned
charity. That is to say, with a true and disinterested love, for love of
Himself alone, not from a servile and mercenary spirit; _i.e._, from fear
of punishment or hope of reward.

Our Blessed Father told me that he should have liked this story to be told
on all possible occasions, and to have had engravings of the subject for
distribution, so that by so beautiful an example many might be taught to
love and serve God with true charity, and to have no other end in view than
His Divine glory; for true charity seeks not her own advantage, but only
the honour of her Beloved.


UPON THE CHARACTER OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN.

A Salamander, according to the fable, is a creature hatched in the chilling
waters of Arctic regions, and is consequently by nature so cold that it
delights in the burning heat of a furnace. Fire, said the ancients, cannot
consume it nor even scorch it.

"Just so is it with the Christian," said Blessed Francis. "He is born in a
region far away from God, and is altogether alien from Him. He is conceived
in iniquity and brought forth in sin, and sin is far removed from the way
of salvation. Man is condemned before his very birth. _Damnatus antequam
natus_, says St. Bernard. He is born in the darkness of original sin and in
the region of the shadow of death. But, being born again in the waters of
Baptism, in which he is clothed with the habit of charity, the fire of the