utmost diligence for the pious satisfaction of the minds of believers. Whatever is discovered by such study ought to be imparted to others without vain self-complacency; if anything still remain hidden, we must bear with patience an imperfection of knowledge which is not prejudicial to salvation. nated in flesh or any vegetable product [sine cussion of all difficulties connected with the concubitu nascitur]. He is the morning-worm, sacred books, he come to the end of this life because He rose from the grave before the dawn before he pass from death to life. For it is reaof day. That gourd might, of course, have with-sonable that he inquire as to the resurrection of ered without any worm at its root; and finally, the dead before he is admitted to the Christian if God regarded the worm as necessary for this sacraments. Perhaps he ought also to be allowed work, what need was there to add the epithet to insist on preliminary discussion of the question morning-worm, if not to secure that He should proposed concerning Christ-why He came so be recognised as the Worm who in the psalm, late in the world's history, and of a few great "pro susceptione matutina," sings, "I am a questions besides, to which all others are suborworm, and no man"? dinate. But to think of finishing all such ques37. What, then, could be more palpable than tions as those concerning the words, "In what the fulfilment of this prophecy in the accom- measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto plishment of the things foretold? That Worm you," and concerning Jonah, before he becomes was indeed despised when He hung upon the a Christian, is to betray great unmindfulness of cross, as is written in the same psalm: "They man's limited capacities, and of the shortness shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, of the life which remains to him. For there are He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver innumerable questions the solution of which is him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted not to be demanded before we believe, lest life in him ;" and again, when this was fulfilled be finished by us in unbelief. When, however, which the psalm foretold, "They pierced my the Christian faith has been thoroughly received, hands and my feet. They have told all my these questions behove to be studied with the bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture,” 2 — - circumstances which are in that ancient book described when future by the prophet with as great plainness as they are now recorded in the gospel history after their But if in His humiliation that Worm was despised, is He to be still despised when we behold the accomplishment of those things which are predicted in the latter part of the same psalm: "All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His presence. For the kingdom is the Lord's ; and He shall govern among the nations"? 3 Thus the Ninevites "remembered, and turned unto the Lord." The salvation granted to the Gentiles on their repentance, which was thus so long before prefigured, Israel then, as represented by Jonah, regarded with grief, as now their nation grieves, bereft of their shadow, and vexed with the heat of their tribulations. Any one is at liberty to open up with a different interpretation, if only it be in harmony with the rule of faith, all the other particulars which are hidden in the symbolical history of the prophet Jonah; but it is obvious that it is not lawful to interpret the three days which he passed in the belly of the whale otherwise than as it has been revealed by the heavenly Master Himself in the gospel, as quoted above. occurrence. 38. I have answered to the best of my power the questions proposed; but let him who proposed them become now a Christian at once, lest, if he delay until he has finished the dis 1 Ps. xxii. 7, 8. 2 Ps. xxii. 16-18. 3 Ps. xxii. 27, 28. LETTER CIII. TO MY LORD AND BROTHER, AUGUSTIN, RIGHTLY 1. In reading the letter of your Excellency, in which you have overthrown the worship of idols and the ritual of their temples, I seemed to myself to hear the voice of a philosopher,not of such a philosopher as the academician of whom they say, that having neither new doctrine to propound nor earlier statements of his own to defend, he was wont to sit in gloomy corners on the ground absorbed in some deep reverie, with his knees drawn back to his forehead, and his head buried between them, contriving how he might as a detractor assail the discoveries or cavil at the statements by which others had earned renown; nay, the form which rose under the spell of your eloquence and stood before my eyes was rather that of the great statesman Cicero, who, having been crowned with laurels for saving the lives of many of his countrymen, carried the trophies won in his forensic victories into the wondering schools of Greek philosophy, when, as one pausing for 4 Letter XCI. p. 376. breath, he laid down the trumpet of sonorous mistaken, it is a more grievous thing to be devoice and language which he had blown with prived of one's property than to be deprived of blast of just indignation against those who had life. For, as you know, it is an observation frebroken the laws and conspired against the life quently recurring in the whole range of literaof the republic, and, adopting the fashion of the ture, that death terminates the experience of all Grecian mantle, unfastened and threw back over evils, but that a life of indigence only confers his shoulders the toga's ample folds. upon us an eternity of wretchedness; for it is worse to live miserably than to put an end to our miseries by death. This fact, also, is declared by the whole nature and method of your work, in which you support the poor, minister healing to the diseased, and apply remedies to the bodies of those who are in pain, and, in short, make it your business to prevent the afflicted from feeling the protracted continuance of their sufferings. 2. I therefore listened with pleasure when you urged us to the worship and religion of the only supreme God; and when you counselled us to look to our heavenly fatherland, I received the exhortation with joy. For you were obviously speaking to me not of any city confined by encircling ramparts, nor of that commonwealth on this earth which the writings of philosophers have mentioned and declared to have all mankind as its citizens, but of that City which is inhabited and possessed by the great God, and by the spirits which have earned this recompense from Him, to which, by diverse roads and pathways, all religions aspire, - the City which we are not able in language to describe, but which perhaps we might by thinking apprehend. But while this City ought therefore to be, above all others, desired and loved, I am nevertheless of opinion that we are bound not to prove unfaithful to our own native land, — the land which first imparted to us the enjoyment of the light of day, in which we were nursed and educated, and (to pass to what is specially relevant in this case) the land by rendering services to which men obtain a home prepared for them in heaven after the death of the body; for, in the opinion of the most learned, promotion to that celestial City is granted to those men who have deserved well of the cities which gave them birth, and a higher experience of fellowship with God is the portion of those who are proved to have contributed by their counsels or by their labours to the welfare of their native land. Again, as to the degree of demerit in the faults of some as compared with others, it is of no importance what the quality of the fault may seem to be in a case in which forgiveness is craved. For, in the first place, if penitence procures forgiveness and expiates the crimeand surely he is penitent who begs pardon and humbly embraces the feet of the party whom he has offended — and if, moreover, as is the opinion of some philosophers, all faults are alike, pardon ought to be bestowed upon all without distinction. One of our citizens may have spoken somewhat rudely: this was a fault; another may have perpetrated an insult or an injury: this was equally a fault; another may have violently taken what was not his own: this is reckoned a crime; another may have attacked buildings devoted to secular or to sacred purposes: he ought not to be for this crime placed beyond the reach of pardon. Finally, there would be no occasion for pardon if there were no foregoing faults. 4. Having now replied to your letter, not as the letter deserved, but to the best of my ability, such as it is, I beg and implore you (oh that I As to the remark which you were pleased wit- were in your presence, that you might also see tily to make regarding our town, that it has been my tears!) to consider again and again who you made conspicuous not so much by the achieve- are, what is your professed character, and what ments of warriors as by the conflagrations of is the business to which your life is devoted. incendiaries, and that it has produced thorns Reflect upon the appearance presented by a rather than flowers, this is not the severest re- town from which men doomed to torture are proof that might have been given, for we know dragged forth; think of the lamentations of that flowers are for the most part borne on mothers and wives, of sons and of fathers; think thorny bushes. For who does not know that of the shame felt by those who may return, set even roses grow on briars, and that in the at liberty indeed, but having undergone the torbearded heads of grain the ears are guarded by ture; think what sorrow and groaning the sight spikes, and that, in general, pleasant and pain- of their wounds and scars must renew. ful things are found blended together? when you have pondered all these things, first think of God, and think of your good name among men; or rather think of what friendly charity and the bonds of common humanity require at your hands, and seek to be praised not by punishing but by pardoning the offenders. And such things may indeed be said regarding your treatment of those whom actual guilt con 3. The last statement in your Excellency's letter was, that neither capital punishment nor bloodshed is demanded in order to compensate for the wrong done to the Church, but that the offenders must be deprived of the possessions which they most fear to lose. But in my deliberate judgment, though, of course, I may be And demns on their own confession: to these persons you have, out of regard to your religion, granted pardon; and for this I shall always praise you. But now it is scarcely possible to express the greatness of that cruelty which pursues the innocent, and summons those to stand trial on a capital charge of whom it is certain that they had no share in the crimes alleged. If it so happen that they are acquitted, consider, I beseech you, with what ill-will their acquittal must be regarded by their accusers who of their own accord dismissed the guilty from the bar, but let the innocent go only when they were defeated in their attempts against them. May the supreme God be your keeper, and preserve you as a bulwark of His religion and an ornament to our country. LETTER CIV. (A.D. 409.) TO NECTARIUS, MY NOBLE LORD AND BROTHER, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. the infliction, either by ourselves or by any one, of such hardships upon any of our enemies! But, as I have said, if report has brought any such measures of severity to your ears, give us a more clear and particular account of the things reported, that we may know either what to do in order to prevent these things from being done, or what answer we must make in order to disabuse the minds of those who believe the rumour. 2. Examine more carefully my letter, to which you have so reluctantly sent a reply, for I have in it made my views sufficiently plain; but through not remembering, as I suppose, what I had written, you have in your reply made reference to sentiments widely differing from mine, and wholly unlike them. For, as if quoting from memory what I had written, you have inserted in your letter what I never said at all in mine. You say that the concluding sentence of my letter was, "that neither capital punishment nor bloodshed is demanded in order to compensate for the must be deprived of that which they most fear done to the Church, but that the offenders wrong to lose ;" and then, in showing how great a calamity this imports, you add and connect with my words that you deliberately judge - though you may perhaps be mistaken-that it is a more grievous thing to be deprived of one's possessions than to be deprived of life." And in order to expound more clearly the kind of possessions to which you refer, you go on to say that it must be known to me, as an observation frequently recurring in the whole range of literature, that death terminates the experience of all evils, but that a life of indigence only confers upon us an eternity of wretchedness." From which you have drawn the conclusion that it is "worse to live miserably than to put an end to our miseries by death." CHAP. I. — I. I have read the letter which you kindly sent in answer to mine. Your reply comes at a very long interval after the time when I despatched my letter to you. For I had written an answer to you' when my holy brother and colleague Possidius was still with us, before he had entered on his voyage; but the letter which you have been pleased to entrust to him for me I received on March 27th, about eight months after I had written to you. The reason why my communication was so late in reaching you, or yours so late in being sent to me, I do not know. Perhaps your prudence has only now dictated the reply which your pride formerly disdained. If this be the explanation, I 3. Now I for my part do not recollect reading wonder what has occasioned the change. Have anywhere - either in our [Christian] literature, you perchance heard some report, which is as yet to which I confess that I was later of applying my unknown to us, that my brother Possidius had mind than I could now wish that I had been, or obtained authority for proceedings of greater se- in your [Pagan] literature, which I studied from verity against your citizens, whom you must my childhood that "a life of indigence only excuse me for saying this- he loves in a way confers upon us an eternity of wretchedness." more likely to promote their welfare than you do For the poverty of the industrious is never in yourself? For your letter shows that you appre- itself a crime; nay, it is to some extent a means hended something of this kind when you charge of withdrawing and restraining men from sin. me to set before my eyes "the appearance pre- And therefore the circumstance that a man has sented by a town from which men doomed to lived in poverty here is no ground for apprehendtorture are dragged forth," and to "think of the ing that this shall procure for him after this brief lamentations of mothers and wives, of sons and life "an eternity of wretchedness;" and in this of fathers; of the shame felt by those who may life which we spend on earth it is utterly imposreturn, set at liberty indeed, but having under-sible for any misery to be eternal, seeing that gone the torture; and of the sorrow and groan- this life cannot be eternal, nay, is not of long ing which the sight of their wounds and scars duration even in those who attain to the most must renew." 2 Far be it from us to demand advanced old age. In the writings referred to, 1 Letter XCI. p. 376. 2 Letter CIII. p. 426. I for my part have read, not that in this life as you think, and as you allege that these writ ings frequently affirm there can be an eternity of wretchedness, but rather that this life itself which we here enjoy is short. Some, indeed, but not all, of your authors have said that death is the end of all evils: that is indeed the opinion of the Epicureans, and of such others as believe the soul to be mortal. But those philosophers whom Cicero designates "consulares" in a certain sense, because he attaches great weight to their authority, are of opinion that when our last hour on earth comes the soul is not annihilated, but removes from its tenement, and continues in existence for a state of blessedness or of misery, according to that which a man's actions, whether good or bad, claim as their due recompense. This agrees with the teaching of our sacred writings, with which I wish that I were more fully conversant. Death is therefore the end of all evils but only in the case of those whose life is pure, religious, upright, and blameless; not in the case of those who, inflamed with passionate desire for the trifles and vanities of time, are proved to be miserable by the utter perversion of their desires, though meanwhile they esteem themselves happy, and are after death compelled not only to accept as their lot, but to realize in their experience far greater miseries. I CHAP. II.-5. Though you did not consider it worth while to read my letter over when it was to be answered, perhaps you have at least so far esteemed it as to preserve it, in order to its being brought to you when you at any time might desire it and call for it; if this be the case, look over it again, and mark carefully my words: you will assuredly find in it one thing to which, in my opinion, you must admit that you have made no reply. For in that letter occur the words which I now quote: "We do not desire to gratify our anger by vindictive retribution for the past, but we are concerned to make provision in a truly merciful spirit for the future. Now wicked men have something in respect to which they may be punished, and that by Christians, in a merciful way, and so as to promote their own profit and well-being. For they have these three things life and health of the body, the means of supporting that life, and the means and opportunities of living a wicked life. Let the two former remain untouched in the possession of those who repent of their crime; this we desire, and this we spare no pains to secure. But as to the third, if it please God to deal with it as a decaying or diseased part, which must be removed with the pruning-knife, He will in such punish4. These sentiments, therefore, being fre- ment prove the greatness of his compassion." quently expressed both in some of your own If you had read over these words of mine again, authors, whom you deem worthy of greater es- when you were pleased to write your reply, you teem, and in all our Scriptures, be it yours, O would have looked upon it rather as an unkind worthy lover of the country which is on earth insinuation than as a necessary duty to address your fatherland, to dread on behalf of your coun- to me a petition not only for deliverance from trymen a life of luxurious indulgence rather than death, but also for exemption from torture, on a life of indigence; or if you fear a life of indi- behalf of those regarding whom I said that we gence, warn them that the poverty which is to wished to leave unimpaired their possession of be more studiously shunned is that of the man bodily life and health. Neither was there any who, though surrounded with abundance of ground for your apprehending our inflicting a worldly possessions, is, through the insatiable life of indigence and of dependence upon otheagerness wherewith he covets these, kept always ers for daily bread on those regarding whom I in a state of want, which, to use the words of had said that we desired to secure to them the your own authors, neither plenty nor scarcity second of the possessions named above, viz. the can relieve. In the letter, however, to which means of supporting life. But as to their third you reply, I did not say that those of your citi-possession, viz. the means and opportunities of zens who are enemies to the Church were to be living wickedly, that is to say-passing over corrected by being reduced to that extremity of other things their silver with which they conindigence in which the necessaries of life are structed those images of their false gods, in wanting, and to which succour is brought by that whose protection or adoration or unhallowed compassion of which you have thought it incum- worship an attempt was made even to destroy bent on you to point out to me that it is pro- the church of God by fire, and the provision fessed by us in the whole plan of those labours made for relieving the poverty of very pious wherein we "support the poor, minister healing persons was given up to become the spoil of a to the diseased, and apply remedies to the bodies wretched mob, and blood was freely shed - why, of those who are in pain;" albeit, even such ex- I ask, does your patriotic heart dread the stroke tremity of want as this would be more profitable which shall cut this away, in order to prevent a than abundance of all things, if abused to the fatal boldness from being in everything fostered gratification of evil passions. But far be it from and confirmed by impunity? This I beg you to me to think that those about whom we are treat- discuss fully, and to show me in well-considered ing should be reduced to such destitution by the measures of coercion proposed. 1 Letter CXI. 9, p. 379. 66 arguments what wrong there is in this; mark inconsiderate person from incurring the most carefully what I say, lest under the form of a dreadful punishments by becoming accustomed petition in regard to what I am saying you ap- to crimes which yield him no advantage, he is pear to bring against us an indirect accusation. like one who pulls a boy's hair in order to pre6. Let your countrymen be well reported of vent him from provoking serpents by clapping for their virtuous manners, not for their super- his hands at them; in both cases, while the actfluous wealth; we do not wish them to be re- ing of love is vexatious to its object, no member duced through coercive measures on our account of the body is injured, whereas safety and life to the plough of Quintius [Cincinnatus], or to are endangered by that from which the person the hearth of Fabricius. Yet by such extreme is deterred. We confer a benefit upon others, poverty these statesmen of the Roman republic not in every case in which we do what is renot only did not incur the contempt of their quested, but when we do that which is not hurtfellow-citizens, but were on that very account ful to our petitioners. For in most cases we peculiarly dear to them, and esteemed the more serve others best by not giving, and would inqualified to administer the resources of their jure them by giving, what they desire. Hence country. We neither desire nor endeavour to the proverb, "Do not put a sword in a child's reduce the estates of your rich men, so that in hand." Nay," says Cicero, "refuse it even to their possession should remain no more than ten your only son. For the more we love any one, pounds of silver, as was the case with Ruffinus, the more are we bound to avoid entrusting to who twice held the consulship, which amount him things which are the occasion of very dangerthe stern censorship of that time laudably re- ous faults." He was referring to riches, if I am quired to be still further reduced as culpably not mistaken, when he made these observations. large. So much are we influenced by the pre- Wherefore it is for the most part an advantage vailing sentiments of a degenerate age in dealing to themselves when certain things are removed more tenderly with minds that are very feeble, from persons in whose keeping it is hazardous that to Christian clemency the measure which to leave them, lest they abuse them. When surseemed just to the censors of that time appears geons see that a gangrene must be cut away or unduly severe; yet you see how great is the cauterized, they often, out of compassion, turn a difference between the two cases, the question deaf ear to many cries. If we had been indulbeing in the one, whether the mere fact of pos- gently forgiven by our parents and teachers in sessing ten pounds of silver should be dealt with our tender years on every occasion on which, as a punishable crime, and in the other, whether being found in a fault, we begged to be let off, any one, after committing other very great which of us would not have grown up intoleracrimes, should be permitted to retain the sum ble? which of us would have learned any useful aforesaid in his possession; we only ask that thing? Such punishments are administered by what in those days was itself a crime be in our wise care, not by wanton cruelty. Do not, I bedays made the punishment of crime. There is, seech you, in this matter think only how to achowever, one thing which can be done, and complish that which you are requested by your ought to be done, in order that, on the one hand, countrymen to do, but carefully consider the severity may not be pushed even so far as I have matter in all its bearings. If you overlook the mentioned, and that, on the other, men may not, past, which cannot now be undone, consider presuming on impunity, run into excess of ex- the future; wisely give heed, not to the desire, ultation and rioting, and thus furnish to other but to the real interests of the petitioners who unhappy men an example by following which have applied to you. We are convicted of unthey would become liable to the severest and faithfulness towards those whom we profess to most unheard of punishments. Let this at least love, if our only care is lest, by refusing to do be granted by you, that those who attempt with what they ask of us, their love towards us be difire and sword to destroy what are necessaries to minished. And what becomes of that virtue us be made afraid of losing those luxuries of which even your own literature commends, in which they have a pernicious abundance. Per- the ruler of his country who studies not so much mit us also to confer upon our enemies this the wishes as the welfare of his people? benefit, that we prevent them, by their fears about that which it woull do them no harm to forfeit, from attempting to that which would bring harm to themselves. For this is to be termed prudent prevention, not punishment of crime; this is not to impose penalties, but to protect men from becoming liable to penalties. 7. When any one uses measures involving the infliction of some pain, in order to prevent an CHAP. 3.-8. You say "it is of no importance what the quality of the fault may be in any case in which forgiveness is craved." In this you would state the truth if the matter in question were the punishment and not the correction of men. Far be it from a Christian heart to be carried away by the lust of revenge to inflict punishment on any one. Far be it from a Christian, when forgiving any one his |