He comes to remind the world that the welfare of man, the peace of his heart, the joy of his life, are neither in money, nor in learning, nor in strength, but in an upright and sincere will.
Peace to men of good will.
The part which he had taken at Assisi in the controversies of his fellow-citizens he would willingly have taken in all the rest of Italy, for no man has ever dreamed of a more complete renovation; but if the end he sought was the same as that of many revolutionaries who came after him, their methods were completely different; his only weapon was love.
The event has decided against him.

Apart from the _illuminati_ of the March of Ancona and the _Fraticelli_ of our own Provence his disciples have vied with one another to misunderstand his thought.[3] Who knows if some one will not arise to take up his work?
Has not the passion for worm-eaten speculations yet made victims enough?
Are there not many among us who perceive that luxury is a delusion, that if life is a battle, it is not a slaughter-house where ferocious beasts wrangle over their prey, but a wrestling with the divine, under whatever form it may present itself--truth, beauty, or love?
Who knows whether this expiring nineteenth century will not arise from its winding-sheet to make _amende honorable_ and bequeath to its successor one manly word of faith?
Yes, the Messiah will come.

He who was announced by Gioacchino di Fiore and who is to inaugurate a new epoch in the history of humanity will appear.

_Hope maketh not ashamed._ In our modern Babylons and in the huts on our mountains are too many souls who mysteriously sigh the hymn of the great vigil, _Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant Justum_,[4] for us not to be on the eve of a divine birth.
All origins are mysterious.

This is true of matter, but yet more true of that life, superior to all others, which we call holiness; it was in prayer that Francis found the spiritual strength which he needed; he therefore sought for silence and solitude.