A certain curiosity did at times beset me, spurred not so much by the
little that I heard as by things that I read in such histories as my
studies demanded I should read. For even the lives of saints, and Holy
Writ itself, afford their student glimpses of the world. But this
curiosity I came to look upon as a lure of the flesh, and to resist.
Blessed are they who are out of all contact with the world, since to them
salvation comes more easily; so I believed implicitly, as I was taught by
my mother and by Fra Gervasio at my mother's bidding.
And as the years passed under such influences as had been at work upon me
from the cradle, influences which had known no check save that brief one
afforded by Gino Falcone, I became perforce devout and pious from very
inclination.
Joyous transports were afforded me by the study of the life of that Saint
Luigi of the noble Mantuan House of Gonzaga--in whom I saw an ideal to be
emulated, since he seemed to me to be much in my own case and of my own
estate--who had counted the illusory greatness of this world well lost so
that he might win the bliss of Paradise. Similarly did I take delight in
the Life, written by Tommaso da Celano, of that blessed son of Pietro
Bernardone, the merchant of Assisi, that Francis who became the Troubadour
of the Lord and sang so sweetly the praises of His Creation.
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