MIRROR OF PERFECTION, The, is a most intimate and exceedingly illuminating ac count of the son of Peter Bernardone, cloth merchant of Assisi. Christened John he was nicknamed by his father "Francisco* and is known to the world by no other name than that of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The volume, small enough to be attractive— there are only about 50,000 words to it — was written by Leo of Assisi who is often spoken of as the "beloved disciple* Saint Francis. "Brother Leo, was not merely a fellow-towns man, disciple, and dear friend of Francis of Assisi. He was also his sick nurse, secretary and confessor during the last six years of his life. None knew Francis so intimately, or remembered him so well. None could be more scrupulously conscientious in recording what he believed to be the exact truth about the not yet canonized Saint.* The character and fashion of the record tempts one to speak of him as Saint Francis's Boswell. It is the 'oldest life of the Beloved Francis,' lringgdone," so a note at the end of the volume informs us, "in the most holy place of S. Mary of the Little Portion, and completed this fifth of the Ides of Max in the year of Our Lord 122&' Saint Francis died 3 Oct. 1226.
The significance of the title is disclosed in these words of the author: 'Here endeth the Mirror of Perfection of a brother Minor; to wit, of the Blessed Francis, wherein we may most sufficiently behold as in a glass the per fection of his calling and profession." With out a doubt a less scrupulous writer would have said also the perfection of the life of the Blessed Francis. He refrained from saying this most likely because he knew that Saint Francis would most flatly resent being spoken of as perfect.
The style in which the book is written is singularly in keeping with the spirit and char acter of the subject, and of the type of life he represented — simple, direct, homely, shorn of all scholarly vanities and conceits as the life of the subject was shorn of all wordly comforts. There is an indescribable charm and power of revelation to this narrative that is simple and homely even almost to the point of bluntness. Narrative is hardly the correct word. Per haps it is better described as "a chaplet of im mortelles set upon the head of the Saint on the morrow of his death to typify the crown of glory achieved by this beatified Spirit' It is hardly a disinterested picture or biography. Some of it has been written with
a distinct purpose, the intent being to show not merely what kind of a man Saint Francis was and the kind of life he lived but what prin ciples and "Rules* he laid down as the founda tion of the famous Order which takes its name from him, and it is plainly also the purpose to show what obedience to these principles is the true path of the perfect Christian. Sometimes Brother Leo becomes controversial, taking vigorous issue with those, and they were many, who 'desired to ignore certain of the wishes and to modify certain of the injunctions of Francis in what they believed to be the inter ests of the Order.' All this however does not lessen the value of the book as a carefully drawn and wholly reliable pictur- of the founder of the order of Franciscans. By his scheme of minutely, yet briefly, telling what Saint Francis did on those occasions when it seemed best that by example he should make dear to those concerned what doctrines he be lieved should govern their conduct, and of re peating what reply was made to those who came to Saint Francis seeking information or to question his ideals, the author gives the reader a very impressive picture of this noted re ligious character. With the devotion of one who is wholly of the same mind and spirit as the subject of his writing Brother Leo with Painstaking accuracy repeats in "what wise the Blessed Francis declared the will and intention which he had from the beginning to the end as regards the observance of poverty' and of poverty in books, and beds, build ings and appliances,* and "how he did induce and teach his brethren to go forth for alms,* thus disclosing what manner of man he was. lie recounts instances showing with what un swerving zeal Saint Francis carried out to the very limit of perfect example his ideals of absolute poverty in all things, of humility, charity, compassion and condescension. There may be much more to the life of the Blessed Francis than is here given, but the author has without doubt in these pages pictured Francis in the fashion in which he most desired to ap pear before his fellow-men. It is a book one must read if he would know the real Saint Francis and appreciate the ideas and ideals which moved him to fashion his life after the manner of the rules he made for the order that grew up about him.
Rev. CHARLES GRAVES.