They did not know that few are great enough in an age of superstition to
hold a conscience uncontrolled by traditions, and a primitive faith
simple as a child's, with the tenacity of a strong man; there had been
nothing in his labors at the Senate to call forth this most sacred side
of his reserved nature, and they did not understand that it was to this
he owed much of the marvelous poise of will and judgment which kept him
unspoiled in spite of intellectual gifts that would have ruined him
without his absolute dependence on the One Supreme. But on this sacred
side alone was there any entrance to his emotions.
Fra Paolo was not speaking from the pulpit; he stood beside a table that
had been placed in the nave, and the people gathered close about him, as
children near a father, while he opened a great vellum-bound volume with
massive golden clasps, which his secretary had brought from the library
of the Servi.
"Come nearer," he called to them simply, beckoning with his hand, "so
that all may hear; put the old people and the little ones nearest.
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