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hibited in such a way as to be distinguished from each other, on account of the weakness which is in us, who have fallen from unity into variety. For no one ever succeeds in raising another to the height on which he himself stands, unless he stoop somewhat towards the level which that other occupies.

which the mind itself is moulded in its thoughts nevertheless their operations behoved to be exupon things. Therefore, since by that assumption of human nature the work accomplished was the effective presentation to us of a certain training in the right way of living, and exemplification of that which is commanded, under the majesty and perspicuousness of certain sentences, it is not without reason that all this is ascribed to the Son. For in many things which I leave your own reflection and prudence to suggest, although the constituent elements be many, some one nevertheless stands out above the rest, and therefore not unreasonably claims a right of possession, as it were, of the whole for itself: as, e.g., in the three kinds of questions above mentioned,' although the question raised be whether a thing is or not, this involves necessarily also both what it is (this or that), for of course it cannot be at all unless it be something, and whether it ought to be approved of or dis

You have here a letter which may not indeed put an end to your disquietude in regard to this doctrine, but which may set your own thoughts to work upon a kind of solid foundation; so that, with the talents which I well know you to possess, you may follow, and, by the piety in which especially we must be stedfast, may apprehend that which still remains to be discovered.

LETTER XII.

(A.D. 389.)

approved of, for whatever is is a fit subject for Omitted, as only a fragment of the text of the letter is

preserved.

LETTER XIII.

(A.D. 389.)

TO NEBRIDIUS AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.

some opinion as to its quality; in like manner, when the question raised is what a thing is, this necessarily involves both that it is, and that its quality may be tried by some standard; and in the same way, when the question raised is what is the quality of a thing, this necessarily involves that that thing is, and is something, since all things are inseparably joined to themselves ;- 1. I do not feel pleasure in writing of the nevertheless, the question in each of the above subjects which I was wont to discuss; I am not cases takes its name not from all the three, but at liberty to write of new themes. I see that from the special point towards which the inquirer the one would not suit you, and that for the directed his attention. Now there is a certain other I have no leisure. For, since I left you, training necessary for men, by which they might neither opportunity nor leisure has been given be instructed and formed after some model. We me for taking up and revolving the things which cannot say, however, regarding that which is we are accustomed to investigate together. The accomplished in men by this training, either that winter nights are indeed too long, and they are it does not exist, or that it is not a thing to be not entirely spent in sleep by me; but when I desired [i.e. we cannot say what it is, without have leisure, other subjects [than those which involving an affirmation both of its existence we used to discuss] present themselves as having and of its quality]; but we seek first to know a prior claim on my consideration. What, then, what it is, for in knowing this we know that by am I to do? Am I to be to you as one dumb, which we may infer that it is something, and in who cannot speak, or as one silent, who will not which we may remain. Therefore the first thing speak? Neither of these things is desired, either necessary was, that a certain rule and pattern of by you or by me. Come, then, and hear what training be plainly exhibited; and this was done the end of the night succeeded in eliciting from by the divinely appointed method of the Incar-me during the time in which it was devoted to nation, which is properly to be ascribed to the following out the subject of this letter. Son, in order that from it should follow both our knowledge, through the Son, of the Father Himself, i.e. of the one first principle whence all things have their being, and a certain inward and ineffable charm and sweetness of remaining in that knowledge, and of despising all mortal things, a gift and work which is properly ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, although in all things the Divine Persons act perfectly in common, and without possibility of separation,

1 An sit, quid sit, quale sit.

2. You cannot but remember that a question often agitated between us, and which kept us agitated, breathless, and excited, was one concerning a body or kind of body, which belongs perpetually to the soul, and which, as you recollect, is called by some its vehicle. It is manifest that this thing, if it moves from place to place, is not cognisable by the understanding. But whatever is not cognisable by the understanding cannot be understood. It is not, however, utterly

2 We leave untranslated the words " quæ diffirmando sunt otio necessaria," the text here being evidently corrupt.

impossible to form an opinion approximating to the truth concerning a thing which is outside the province of the intellect, if it lies within the province of the senses. But when a thing is beyond the province of the intellect and of the senses, the speculations to which it gives rise are too baseless and trifling; and the thing of which we treat now is of this nature, if indeed it exists. Why, then, I ask, do we not finally dismiss this unimportant question, and with prayer to God raise ourselves to the supreme serenity of the Highest existing nature?

LETTER XIV.

(A.D. 389.)

TO NEBRIDIUS AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.

1. I have preferred to reply to your last letter, not because I undervalued your earlier questions, or enjoyed them less, but because in answering you I undertake a greater task than you think.

For although you enjoined me to send you a superlatively long letter, I have not so much leisure as you imagine, and as you know I have always wished to have, and do still wish. 3. Perhaps you may here reply: "Although Ask not why it is so: for I could more easily bodies cannot be perceived by the understand- enumerate the things by which I am hindered, ing, we can perceive with the understanding than explain why I am hindered by them. many things concerning material objects; eg. 2. You ask why it is that you and I, though we know that matter exists. For who will deny separate individuals, do many things which are this, or affirm that in this we have to do with the same, but the sun does not the same as the the probable rather than the true? Thus, though other heavenly bodies. Of this thing I must matter itself lies among things probable, it is a attempt to explain the cause. Now, if you and most indisputable truth that something like it I do the same things, the sun also does many exists in nature. Matter itself is therefore pro- things which the other heavenly bodies do: if in nounced to be an object cognisable by the senses; some things it does not the same as the others, but the assertion of its existence is pronounced this is equally true of you and me. I walk, and you to be a truth cognisable by the intellect, for it walk; it is moved, and they are moved: I keep cannot be perceived otherwise. And so this awake, and you keep awake; it shines, and they unknown body, about which we inquire, upon shine: I discuss, and you discuss; it goes its which the soul depends for its power to move round, and they go their rounds. And yet there from place to place, may possibly be cognisable is no fitness of comparison between mental acts by senses more powerful than we possess, though not by ours; and at all events, the question whether it exists is one which may be solved by our understandings."

When

and things visible. If, however, as is reasonable, you compare mind with mind, the heavenly bodies, if they have any mind, must be regarded as even more uniform than men in their thoughts 4. If you intend to say this, let me remind or contemplations, or whatever term may more you that the mental act we call understanding is conveniently express such activity in them. Moredone by us in two ways: either by the mind and over, as to the movements of the body, you will reason within itself, as when we understand that find, if you reflect on this with your wonted atthe intellect itself exists; or by occasion of sug- tention, that it is impossible for precisely the gestion from the senses, as in the case above same thing to be done by two persons. mentioned, when we understand that matter we walk together, do you think that we both exists. In the first of these two kinds of acts necessarily do the same thing? Far be such we understand through ourselves, i.e. by asking thought from one of your wisdom! For the instruction of God concerning that which is one of us who walks on the side towards the within us; but in the second we understand by north, must either, in taking the same step as asking instruction of God regarding that of which the other, get in advance of him, or walk more intimation is given to us by the body and the slowly than he does. Neither of these things is senses. If these things be found true, no one perceptible by the senses; but you, if I am not can by his understanding discover whether that mistaken, look to what we know by the underbody of which you speak exists or not, but the standing rather than to what we learn by the person to whom his senses have given some senses. If, however, we move from the pole intimation concerning it. If there be any living towards the south, joined and clinging to each creature to which the senses give such intima- other as closely as possible, and treading on a tion, since we at least see plainly that we are sheet of marble or even ivory smooth and level, not among the number, I regard the conclusion a perfect identity is as unattainable in our moestablished which I began to state a little ago, tions as in the throbbings of our pulses, or in that the question [about the vehicle of the soul] our figures and faces. Put us aside, and place is one which does not concern us. I wish you in our stead the sons of Glaucus, and you gain would consider this over and over again, and

1 The phrase used by Nebridius had been “longior quam longisto in sec. 3.

take care to let me know the product of your which Augustin here quotes, and afterwards playfully alludes consideration.

nothing by this substitution: for even in these twins so perfectly resembling each other, the necessity for the motions of each being peculiarly his own, is as great as the necessity for their birth as separate individuals.

Truth. This I grant is very obscure; yet I know not by what kind of illustration light may be shed upon it, unless perhaps we betake ourselves to those sciences which lie wholly within our minds. In geometry, the idea of an angle is one thing, 3. You will perhaps say: "The difference in the idea of a square is another. As often, therethis case is one which only reason can discover; fore, as I please to describe an angle, the idea but the difference between the sun and the other of the angle, and that alone, is present to my heavenly bodies is to the senses also patent." mind; but I can never describe a square unless If you insist upon my looking to their difference I fix my attention upon the idea of four angles in magnitude, you know how many things may at the same time. In like manner, every man, be said as to the distances by which they are considered as an individual man, has been made removed from us, and into how great uncertainty according to one idea proper to himself; but in that which you speak of as obvious may thus be the making of a nation, although the idea acbrought back. I may, however, concede that cording to which it is made be also one, it is the the actual size corresponds with the apparent idea not of one, but of many men collectively. size of the heavenly bodies, for I myself believe If, therefore, Nebridius is a part of this universe, this; and I ask you to show me any one whose as he is, and the whole universe is made up of senses were incapable of remarking the prodi- parts, the God who made the universe could not gious stature of Nævius, exceeding by a foot that but have in His plan the idea of all the parts. of the tallest man.' By the way, I think you Wherefore, since there is in this idea of a very have been just too eager to discover some man great number of men, it does not belong to man to match him; and when you did not succeed himself as such; although, on the other hand, in the search, have resolved to make me stretch all the individuals are in wonderful ways reduced out my letter so as to rival his dimensions. If to one. But you will consider this at your therefore even on earth such variety in size may convenience. I beg you meanwhile to be conbe seen, I think that it need not surprise us to tent with what I have written, although I have find the like in the heavens. If, however, the already outdone Nævius himself. thing which moves your surprise is that the light of no other heavenly body than the sun fills the day, who, I ask you, has ever been manifested to men so great as that Man whom God took into union with Himself, in another way entirely than He has taken all other holy and wise men who ever lived? for if you compare Him with other men who were wise, He is separated from them by superiority greater far than that which the sun has above the other heavenly bodies. This comparison let me charge you by all means attentively to study; for it is not impossible that to your singularly gifted mind I may have suggested, by this cursory remark, the solution of a question which you once proposed to me concerning the humanity of Christ.

4. You also ask me whether that highest Truth and highest Wisdom and Form (or Archetype) of things, by whom all things were made, and whom our creeds confess to be the only-begotten Son of God, contains the idea of mankind in general, or also of each individual of our race. A great question. My opinion is, that in the creation of man there was in Him the idea only of man generally, and not of you or me as individuals; but that in the cycle of time the idea of each individual, with all the varieties distinguishing men from each other, lives in that pure

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LETTER XV.
(A.D. 390.)

TO ROMANIANUS AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.

I

1. This letter indicates a scarcity of paper,4 but not so as to testify that parchment is plentiful here. My ivory tablets I used in the letter which I sent to your uncle. You will more readily excuse this scrap of parchment, because what I wrote to him could not be delayed, and I thought that not to write to you for want of better material would be most absurd. But if any tablets of mine are with you, I request you to send them to meet a case of this kind. have written something, as the Lord has deigned to enable me, concerning the Catholic religion, which before my coming I wish to send to you, if my paper does not fail me in the meantime. For you will receive with indulgence any kind of writing from the office of the brethren who are with me. As to the manuscripts of which you speak, I have entirely forgotten them, except the books de Oratore; but I could not have written anything better than that you should take such of them as you please, and I am still of the same mind; for at this distance I know not what else I can do in the matter.

2. It gave me very great pleasure that in your

4 Charta.

last letter you desired to make me a sharer of He has made, we worship under many names, your joy at home; but

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"Wouldst thou have me forget how soon the deep, So tranquil now, may wear another face, And rouse these slumbering waves?" 1 Yet I know you would not have me forget this, nor are you yourself unmindful of it. Wherefore, if some leisure is granted you for more profound meditation, improve this divine blessing. For when these things fall to our lot, we should not only congratulate ourselves, but show our gratitude to those to whom we owe them; for if in the stewardship of temporal blessings we act in a manner that is just and kind, and with the moderation and sobriety of spirit which befits the transient nature of these possessions, -if they are held by us without laying hold on us, are multiplied without entangling us, and serve us without bringing us into bondage, such conduct entitles us to the recompense of eternal blessings. For by Him who is the Truth it was said: "If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who will give you that which is your own?" Let us therefore disengage ourselves from care about the passing things of time; let us seek the blessings that are imperishable and sure; let us soar above our worldly possessions. The bee does not the less need its wings when it has gathered an abundant store; for if it sink in the honey it dies.

LETTER XVI. (A.D. 390.)

FROM MAXIMUS OF MADAURA TO AUGUSTIN.

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1. Desiring to be frequently made glad by communications from you, and by the stimulus of your reasoning with which in a most pleasant way, and without violation of good feeling, you recently attacked me, I have not forborne from replying to you in the same spirit, lest you should call my silence an acknowledgment of being in the wrong. But I beg you to give these sentences an indulgent kindly hearing, if you judge them to give evidence of the feebleness of old age. Grecian mythology tells us, but without sufficient warrant for our believing the statement, that Mount Olympus is the dwelling-place of the gods. But we actually see the market-place of our town occupied by a crowd of beneficent deities; and we approve of this. Who could ever be so frantic and infatuated as to deny that there is one supreme God, without beginning, without natural offspring, who is, as it were, the great and mighty Father of all? The powers of this Deity, diffused throughout the universe which

"Mene salis placidi vultum fluctusque quietos
Ignorare jubes?" - Æn. v. 848, 849.

as we are all ignorant of His true name, the name God being common to all kinds of religious belief. Thus it comes, that while in diverse supplications we approach separately, as it were, certain parts of the Divine Being, we are seen in reality to be the worshippers of Him in whom all these parts are one.

2. Such is the greatness of your delusion in another matter, that I cannot conceal the impatience with which I regard it. For who can bear to find Mygdo honoured above that Jupiter who hurls the thunderbolt; or Sanæ above Juno, Minerva, Venus, and Vesta; or the arch-martyr Namphanio (oh horror !) above all the immortal gods together? Among the immortals, Lucitas also is looked up to with no less religious reverence, and others in an endless list (having names abhorred both by gods and by men), who, when they met the ignominious end which their character and conduct had deserved, put the crowning act upon their criminal career by affecting to die nobly in a good cause, though conscious of the infamous deeds for which they were condemned. The tombs of these men (it is a folly almost beneath our notice) are visited by crowds of simpletons, who forsake our temples and despise the memory of their ancestors, so that the prediction of the indignant bard is notably fulfilled: "Rome shall, in the temples of the gods, swear by the shades of men." 3 To me it almost seems at this time as if a second campaign of Actium had begun, in which Egyptian monsters, doomed soon to perish, dare to brandish their weapons against the gods of the Romans.

3. But, O man of great wisdom, I beseech you, lay aside and reject for a little while the vigour of your eloquence, which has made you everywhere renowned; lay down also the arguments of Chrysippus, which you are accustomed to use in debate; leave for a brief season your logic, which aims in the forthputting of its energies to leave nothing certain to any one; and show me plainly and actually who is that God whom you Christians claim as belonging specially to you, and pretend to see present among you in secret places. For it is in open day, before the eyes and ears of all men, that we worship our gods with pious supplications, and propitiate them by acceptable sacrifices; and we take pains that these things be seen and approved by all.

4. Being, however, infirm and old, I withdraw myself from further prosecution of this contest, and willingly consent to the opinion of the rhetorician of Mantua, "Each one is drawn by that which pleases himself best." 4

2 Deus.

3 "Inque Deûm templis jurabit Roma per umbras." LUCAN, Pharsalia, vii. 459. 4 Virg. Eclog. ii. 65: "Trahit sua quemque voluptas."

LETTER XVII.
(A.D. 390.)

TO MAXIMUS OF MADAURA.

After this, O excellent man, who hast turned 2. As to your collecting of certain Carthaginaside from my faith, I have no doubt that this ian names of deceased persons, by which you letter will be stolen by some thief, and destroyed think reproach may be cast, in what seems to you by fire or otherwise. Should this happen, the a witty manner, against our religion, I do not paper will be lost, but not my letter, of which know whether I ought to answer this taunt, or to I will always retain a copy, accessible to all re- pass it by in silence. For if to your good sense ligious persons. May you be preserved by the these things appear as trifling as they really are, gods, through whom we all, who are mortals on I have not time to spare for such pleasantry. If, the surface of this earth, with apparent discord however, they seem to you important, I am surbut real harmony, revere and worship Him who prised that it did not occur to you, who are apt is the common Father of the gods and of all to be disturbed by absurdly-sounding names, that mortals. your religionists have among their priests Eucaddires, and among their deities Abaddires. I do not suppose that these were absent from your mind when you were writing, but that, with your courtesy and genial humour, you wished for the unbending of our minds, to recall to our recollection what ludicrous things are in your super1. Are we engaged in serious debate with each stition. For surely, considering that you are an other, or is it your desire that we merely amuse African, and that we are both settled in Africa, ourselves? For, from the language of your let- you could not have so forgotten yourself when ler, I am at a loss to know whether it is due to writing to Africans as to think that Punic names the weakness of your cause, or through the were a fit theme for censure. For if we intercourteousness of your manners, that you have pret the signification of these words, what else preferred to show yourself more witty than does Namphanio mean than "man of the good weighty in argument. For, in the first place, a foot," i.e. whose coming brings with it some good comparison was drawn by you between Mount fortune, as we are wont to say of one whose comOlympus and your market-place, the reason for ing to us has been followed by some prosperous which I cannot divine, unless it was in order to event, that he came with a lucky foot? And if remind me that on the said mountain Jupiter the Punic language is rejected by you, you virtupitched his camp when he was at war with his ally deny what has been admitted by most learned father, as we are taught by history, which your men, that many things have been wisely preserved religionists call sacred; and that in the said from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. market-place Mars is represented in two images, Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having the one unarmed, the other armed, and that a been born in the country in which the cradle of statue of a man placed over against these restrains this language is still warm, i.e. in which this lanwith three extended fingers the fury of their guage was originally, and until very recently, the demonship from the injuries which he would language of the people. If, however, it is not willingly inflict on the citizens. Could I then reasonable to take offence at the mere sound of ever believe that by mentioning that market-place names, and you admit that I have given correctly you intended to revive my recollection of such the meaning of the one in question, you have divinities, unless you wished that we should pur- reason for being dissatisfied with your friend sue the discussion in a jocular spirit rather than Virgil, who gives to your god Hercules an invitain earnest? But in regard to the sentence in tion to the sacred rites celebrated by Evander in which you said that such gods as these are mem- his honour, in these terms, "Come to us, and to bers, so to speak, of the one great God, I ad- these rites in thine honour, with auspicious foot.” monish you by all means, since you vouchsafe He wishes him to come "with auspicious foot; " such an opinion, to abstain very carefully from that is to say, he wishes Hercules to come as profane jestings of this kind. For if you speak a Namphanio, the name about which you are of the One God, concerning whom learned and pleased to make much mirth at our expense. unlearned are, as the ancients have said, agreed, But if you have a penchant for ridicule, you have do you affirm that those whose savage fury or, among yourselves ample material for witticisms if you prefer it, whose power-the image of athe god Stercutius, the goddess Cloacina, the dead man keeps in check are members of Him? I might say more on this point, and your own judgment may show you how wide a door for the refutation of your views is here thrown open. But I restrain myself, lest I should be thought by you to act more as a rhetorician than as one earnestly defending truth.

Bald Venus, the gods Fear and Pallor, and the goddess Fever, and others of the same kind without number, to whom the ancient Roman idolaters erected temples, and judged it right to offer worship; which if you neglect, you are neg

I Virg. Æneid, viii. 302: "Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra

secundo.'

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