Part 4 (2/2)

Yet do not be afraid ofit to you fro to read it to you--if after ht, I a, as far as we know, then the est brain and hand in Florence; the best friend of the best religious poet of the world; and widely differing, as his friend did also, in his views of the world, froeon, or Pius IX

The first duty of a child is to obey its father and mother; as the first duty of a citizen to obey the laws of his state And this duty is so strict that I believe the only lienia On the other hand, the father and mother have also a fixed duty to the child--not to provoke it to wrath I have never heard this text explained to fathers and mothers from the pulpit, which is curious

For it appears to me that God will expect the parents to understand their duty to their children, better even than children can be expected to know their duty to their parents

But farther A _child's_ duty is to obey its parents It is never said anywhere in the Bible, and never was yet said in any good or wise book, that a man's, or woman's, is _When,_ precisely, a child becomes a man or a woman, it can no s But a tireat states, children are always trying to re to make men and wo to be men and women, and the parents to keep them children

It may be--and happy the house in which it is so--that the father's at least equal intellect, and older experience, may remain to the end of his life a law to his children, not of force, but of perfect guidance, with perfect love Rarely it is so; not often possible It is as natural for the old to be prejudiced as for the young to be presueneration has soe of for itself

But this scene, on which Giotto has dith so great force, represents, not the child's assertion of his independence, but his adoption of another Father

You must not confuse the desire of this boy of assisi to obey God rather thancockney Hopeful to have a latch-key, and a separate allowance

No point of duty has been more miserably warped and perverted by false priests, in all churches, than this duty of the young to choose whom they will serve But the duty itself does not the less exist; and if there be any truth in Christianity at all, there will come, for all true disciples, a ti to heart, ”He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy offathers oraway from a home where you would rather not stay But to leave the home which is your peace, and to be at enmity with those who arein Christ's words, one day or other will be de in Christ's words Whatever misuse may have been made of them,--whatever false prophets--and Heaven knows there have beenchildren to them, not to bless, but to curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will come a moment when the voice of ainst you The friend and the wise adviser--the brother and the sister--the father and the hted acquaintance--the entire weight of the scornful stupidity of the vulgar world--for _once_, they will be against you, all at one You have to obey God rather than man The hunation and folly, on one side,--God alone on the other You have to choose

That is thehis inheritance; and it is the beginning of Giotto's gospel of Works Unless this hardest of deeds be done first,--this inheritance of mammon and the world cast away,--all other deeds are useless You cannot serve, cannot obey, God and mammon No charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any use, while you are still at heart in conforoes You keep Sunday, because your neighbours keep it But you dress ridiculously, because your neighbours ask it; and you dare not do a rough piece of work, because your neighbours despise it You hbour, in his riches and pride, and remember him in his distress That is St Francis's 'disobedience'

And now you can understand the relation of subjects throughout the chapel, and Giotto's choice of them

The roof has the symbols of the three virtues of labour--Poverty, Chastity, Obedience

A Highest on the left side, looking to theThe life of St

Francis begins in his renunciation of the world

B Highest on the right side His new life is approved and ordained by the authority of the church

C Central on the left side He preaches to his own disciples

D Central on the right side He preaches to the heathen

E Lowest on the left side His burial

F Lowest on the right side His power after death

Besides these six subjects, there are, on the sides of the , the four great Franciscan saints, St Louis of France, St Louis of Toulouse, St Clare, and St Elizabeth of Hungary

So that you have in the whole series this iven you to think of: first, the law of St Francis's conscience; then, his own adoption of it; then, the ratification of it by the Christian Church; then, his preaching it in life; then, his preaching it in death; and then, the fruits of it in his disciples

I have only been able ht sense to see, of this code of subjects, the first, second, fourth, and the St Louis and Elizabeth I will ask _you_ only to look at two more of theht, and St

Louis