Why not mention these almost divinely
childish sayings of kindness? Puerile they may be; but these sublime
puerilities were peculiar to Saint Francis d'Assisi and of Marcus Aurelius.
One day he
sprained his ankle in his effort to avoid stepping on an ant. Thus lived this
just man.
Sometimes he
fell asleep in his garden, and then there was nothing more venerable possible.
Monseigneur
Bienvenu had formerly been, if the stories anent his youth, and even in regard
to his manhood, were to be believed, a passionate, and, possibly, a violent
man.
His
universal suavity was less an instinct of nature than the result of a grand
conviction which had filtered into his heart through the medium of life, and
had trickled there slowly, thought by thought; for, in a character, as in a
rock, there may exist apertures made by drops of water. These hollows are
uneffaceable; these formations are indestructible.
In 1815, as
we think we have already said, he reached his seventy-fifth birthday, but he
did not appear to be more than sixty.
He was not
tall; he was rather plump; and, in order to combat this tendency, he was fond
of taking long strolls on foot; his step was firm, and his form was but
slightly bent, a detail from which we do not pretend to draw any conclusion.
Gregory
XVI., at the age of eighty, held himself erect and smiling, which did not
prevent him from being a bad bishop.
Monseigneur
Welcome had what the people term a "fine head," but so amiable was he
that they forgot that it was fine.
When he
conversed with that infantile gayety which was one of his charms, and of which
we have already spoken, people felt at their ease with him, and joy seemed to
radiate from his whole person.
His fresh
and ruddy complexion, his very white teeth, all of which he had preserved, and
which were displayed by his smile, gave him that open and easy air which cause
the remark to be made of a man, "He's a good fellow"; and of an old
man, "He is a fine man."
That, it
will be recalled, was the effect which he produced upon Napoleon.
On the first
encounter, and to one who saw him for the first time, he was nothing, in fact,
but a fine man.
But if one
remained near him for a few hours, and beheld him in the least degree pensive,
the fine man became gradually transfigured, and took on some imposing quality,
I know not what; his broad and serious brow, rendered august by his white
locks, became august also by virtue of meditation; majesty radiated from his
goodness, though his goodness ceased not to be radiant; one experienced something
of the emotion which one would feel on beholding a smiling angel slowly unfold
his wings, without ceasing to smile.
Respect, an unutterable
respect, penetrated you by degrees and mounted to your heart, and one felt that
one had before him one of those strong, thoroughly tried, and indulgent souls
where thought is so grand that it can no longer be anything but gentle.
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