BOOK REVIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOOK REVIEW.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. Among the latest of Messrs. Duckworth's series of Great Lives is "St. Francis of Assisi." It is the work of Mr. T. S. R. Boase, and the brevity and simplicity with which he brings it to a close are samples of his style all through—"The Christian thought of the world has found in this man a most especial holiness."

"Sweet Francis," as Tennyson called him, has been the subject of numerous studies in books, essays and discourses. One of the best studies is that of Augustus Jessopp in his "The Coming of the Friars," which the late Earl of Birkenhead included in hiq "Hundred Best English Essays." Francis, the son of a wealthy woollen merchant, was intended by his father,, as was natural, to follow a mercantile career, and, for a_ time, he did. His thoughts and ambitions, however, were more taken up with fastidiousness and splendour of attire, and with arms and knight errantry.

When he was still a young man. as Mr. Boase reminds us, he had the feeling that he was destined for a great future. The unexpected, however, is a constant feature of human life, and the greatness he achieved in the short compass of the years' he lived—he was only 44 when he died in 1220—was very different from the greatness he had dreamed of. What it was, and how it came about, as well as the age in which it was accomplished Mr. Boase tells m briefly, yet with something of detail, and with a sanity, balance and clarity that make the book a delight to read. The bibliographical note he adds will he appreciated hv those who are unacquainted with the fstory of Francis and his ,grey friars and who will wish to pursue the subject more fully.