Chapter LXXIII. Of the efficacy of his sermons and ot the testimony which a certain natural philosopher bore to it

107. Now although the evangelist Francis preached to the unlearned in homely and unlearned language, knowing as he did that power is more needed than words, yet among spiritual men and those of greater capacity his utterances were life-giving and profound. He would hint in a few words at what was unspeakable, and mingling ardent gestures and movements with his words, transported his hearers wholly to heavenly things. He made no use of the keys of distinctions, because he did not lay out in order discourses which were not of his own inventing. Christ, the true Power and Wisdom, gave to his voice the voice of power. A natural philosopher, a learned and eloquent man, once said: "Whereas I can remember every word of the sermons of others, the words uttered by holy Francis alone escape me: and if I commit any of them to memory they do not seem to me the same that dropped from his lips before".