The Sixth Book

THE SIXTH BOOK.

ARRIVAL OF MONICA AT MILAN — HER OBEDIENCE TO AMBROSE, AND HIS REGARD FOR HER— AMBROSE'S HABITS— AUGUSTINE'S GRADUAL ABANDONMENT OF ERROR — FINDS THAT HE HAS BLAMED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WRONGLY—DESIRE OF ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, BUT STRUCK WITH THE CONTRARY ANALOGY OF GOD'S NATURAL PROVIDENCE—HOW SHAKEN IN HIS WORLDLY PURSUITS—GOD'S GUIDANCE t his FRIEND ALYPIUS — AUGUSTINE DEBATES WITH HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS ABOUT THEIR MODE OF LIFE —HIS INVETERATE BINS, AND DREAD OF JUDGMENT.

I. 1. O Thou, my hope from my youth,¹ where wert Thou to me, and whither wert Thou gone? Hadst not Thou created me, and separated me from the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air? Thou hadst made me wiser, yet did I walk in darkness, and in slippery places, and sought Thee abroad out of myself, and found not the God of my heart; and had come into the depths of the sea, and distrusted and depaired of ever finding truth. My mother had now come to me, resolute through piety, following me over sea and land, in all perils confiding in Thee. For in perils of the sea, she comforted the very mariners (by whom passengers unacquainted with the deep, used rather to be comforted when troubled), assuring them of a safe arrival, because Thou hadst 116 Monica'^'8 hopes of her son.

1 Ps. Ixxi. 5.

by a vision assured her thereof. She found me in grievous peril, through despair of ever finding truth. But when I had discovered to her that I was now no longer a Manichee, though not yet a Catholic Christian, she was not overjoyed, as at something unexpected; although she was now relieved concerning a part of my misery, for which she bewailed me as one dead, though to be reawakened by Thee. I was carried forth, therefore, upon the bier of her thoughts, that Thou mightest say to the son of the widow, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise; and he should revive, and begin to speak, and thou shouldest deliver him to his mother} Her heart then was shaken with no tumultuous exultation, when she heard that what she daily with tears desired of Thee, was already in so great part realized; in that, though I had not yet attained the truth, I was rescued from falsehood; but, as being assured that Thou, who hadst promised the whole, wouldest one day give the rest, more calmly, and with an heart full of confidence, she replied to me, " She believed in Christ, that before she departed this life, she should see me a Catholic believer." Thus much to me. But to Thee, Fountain of mercies, poured she forth more copious prayers and tears, that Thou wouldest hasten Thy help, and enlighten my darkness; and she hastened the more eagerly to the Church, and hung upon the lips of Ambrose, praying for the fountain of that water, which springeth up unto life everlasting? But that man she loved as an Her obedience to Ambrose. 117

1 Luke vii, 14, I5. 2 John iv. 14.

angel of God, because she knew that by him I had been brought for the present to that doubtful state of faith I now was in, through which she anticipated most confidently that I should pass from sickness unto health, after the access, as it were, of a sharper fit, which physicians call "the crisis."

II. 2. When then my mother had once, as she was wont in Africa, brought to the churches built in memory of the saints, certain cakes, and bread and wine, and was forbidden by the door-keeper; so soon as she knew the bishop had forbidden this, she so piously and obediently embraced his wishes, that I myself wondered how readily she censured her own practice, rather than discuss his prohibition.¹ For wine-bibbing did not lay siege to her spirit, nor did love of wine provoke her to hatred of the truth, as it doth too many (both men and women), who revolt at a lesson of sobriety, as men well-drunk at a draught mingled with water. But she, when she had brought her basket of festival-food, to be but tasted by herself, and then given away, never joined therewith more than one small cup of wine, diluted according to her own abstemious habits, which for courtesy she would taste. And if there were many churches of the departed saints, that were to be honored in that manner, she still carried round that same one cup, to be used everywhere; and this, though not only made very watery, but unpleasantly heated by carrying about, she would distribute to those about her by small sips; for she sought there 118 her obedience to Ambrose.

1 Compare Augustini Epistolae xxii., xxix. — Ed.

devotion, not pleasure. So soon, then, as she found this custom to be forbidden by that famous preacher, and most pious prelate, even to those that would use it soberly, lest so an occasion of excess might be given to the drunken,— and furthermore, because these, as it were, anniversary funeral solemnities did much resemble the superstition of the Gentiles,— she most willingly forbare it: and in the place of a basket filled with the fruits of the earth, she learned to bring to the churches of the martyrs a breast filled with more purified petitions, and to give what she could to the poor; that so the communication of the Lord's Body might be rightly celebrated in the places where, after the example of His Passion, the martyrs had been sacrificed and crowned. But yet it seems to me, O Lord my God, and thus thinks my heart of it in Thy sight, that perhaps she would not so readily have yielded to the cutting off of this custom, had it been forbidden by another whom she loved not as Ambrose, whom, for my salvation, she loved most entirely; and he loved her again, for her most religious conversation, whereby in good works, so fervent in spirit, she was constant at church; so that, when he saw me, he often burst forth in her praise, congratulating me that I had such a mother; not knowing what a son she had in me, who doubted of all these things, and imagined the way to life could not be found out.

III. 3. Nor did I yet groan in my prayers, that Thou wouldest help me; but my spirit was wholly intent on learning, and restless to dispute. And Ambrose's mode of life. 119

Ambrose himself, as the world counts happy, I esteemed a happy man, whom personages so great held in such honor; only his celibacy seemed to me a painful course. But what hope he bore within him, what struggles he had against the temptations which beset his very excellencies, or what comfort in adversity, and what sweet joys Thy Bread had for the hidden mouth of his spirit, when chewing the cud thereof, I neither could conjecture, nor had experienced. Nor did he know the tides of my feelings, or the abyss of my danger. For I could not ask of him what I would as I would, being shut out both from his ear and speech by multitudes of busy people, whose weaknesses he served. With whom, when he was not taken up (which was but a little time), he was either refreshing his body with the sustenance absolutely necessary, or his mind with reading. But when he was reading, his eye glided over the pages, and his heart searched out the sense, but his voice and tongue were at rest. Ofttimes when we had come (for no man was forbidden to enter, nor was it his wont that any who came should be announced to him), we saw him thus reading to himself, and never otherwise; and having long sat silent (for who durst intrude on one so intent ?) we were fain to depart, conjecturing, that in the small interval, which he obtained, free from the din of others' business, for the recruiting of his mind, he was loath to be taken off; and perchance he feared lest if the author he read should deliver anything obscurely, some attentive or perplexed hearer should 120 Ambrose's mode of life.

desire him to expound it, or to discuss some of the harder questions; so that his time being thus spent, he could not turn over so many volumes as he desired; although the preserving of his voice (which a very little speaking would weaken), might be the truer reason for his reading to himself. But with what intent soever he did it, certainly in such a man it was good.

4. I, however, had no opportunity of inquiring what I wished of that so holy oracle of Thine, his breast, unless the thing might be answered briefly. But those tides in me, to be poured out to him, required his full leisure, and never found it. I heard him indeed every Lord's day, rightly expounding the Word of truth,¹ among the people; and I was more and more convinced, that all the knots of those crafty calumnies, which those our deceivers had knit against the Divine Books, could be unravelled. But when I understood withal, that the words, "man, created by Thee, after Thine own image," were not so understood by Thy spiritual sons, whom of the Catholic Mother Thou hast regenerated through grace, as though they believed and conceived of Thee as bounded by human shape; (although what a spiritual substance should be I had not even a faint or shadowy notion); yet, with joy I blushed at having so many years barked not against the Catholic faith, but against the fictions of carnal imaginations. For so rash and impious had I been, that what I ought by inquiring to have learned, I Augustine's notions of the Catholic faith. 121

1 2 Tim. ii. 15.

had ignorantly pronounced upon, condemning. For Thou, Most High, and most near, most secret, and most present, Who hast not limbs some larger, some smaller, but art wholly everywhere, and nowhere in space, art not of corporeal shape, yet hast Thou made man after Thine own image; and behold, from head to foot is he contained in space.

IV. 5. Being ignorant then how this Thy image should subsist, I should have knocked and proposed the question, how it was to be believed, and not insultingly opposed it, as if believed. Doubt, then, as to what to hold for certain, the more sharply gnawed my heart, the more ashamed I was, that so long deluded and deceived by the promise of certainties, I had with childish error and vehemence, prated of so many uncertainties. For that they were falsehoods, became clear to me later. However, I was certain that they were uncertain, and that I had formerly accounted them certain, when with a blind contentiousness, I accused Thy Catholic Church, whom I now discovered, not indeed as yet to teach truly, but at least not to teach that for which I had grievously censured her. So I was confounded, and converted: and I joyed, O my God, that the One Only Church, the body of Thine Only Son (wherein the name of Christ had been put upon me as an infant), had no taste for infantine conceits; nor in her sound doctrines maintained any tenet which should confine Thee, the Creator of all, in space, however great and large, yet bounded everywhere by the limits of a human form.

122 process whereby Augustine

6. I joyed also that the old Scriptures of the law and the prophets were laid before me, not now to be perused with that eye to which before they seemed absurd, when I reviled Thy holy ones for so thinking, whereas indeed they thought not so: and with joy I heard Ambrose, in his sermons to the people, oftentimes most diligently recommend this text for a rule, The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life;¹ whilst he drew aside the mystic veil, laying open spiritually what, according to the letter, seemed to teach something unsound; teaching herein nothing that offended me, though he taught what I knew not as yet whether it were true. For I kept my heart from assenting to anything, fearing to fall headlong; but by hanging in suspense I was the worse killed. For I wished to be as assured of the things I saw not, as I was that seven and three are ten. For I was not so mad as to think that even this could not be comprehended; but I desired to have other things as clear as this, whether things corporeal, which were not present to my senses, or spiritual, whereof I knew not how to conceive, except corporeally. By believing I might have been cured, and the eyesight of my soul being cleared, might have been directed to Thy truth, which abideth always, and in no part faileth. But as he who has tried a bad physician, fears to trust himself with a good one, so was it with the health of my soul, which could not be healed but by believing, and lest it should believe falsehoods, refused to be cured; resisting Thy hands, who hast came to believe the /Scriptures. 123

1 2 Cor. iii. 6.

prepared the medicines of faith, and hast applied them to the diseases of the whole world, and given unto them so great authority.

V. 7. Being led, however, from this to prefer the Catholic doctrine, I felt that her proceeding was more unassuming and honest, in that she required belief in things not demonstrated (whether it was that they could in themselves be demonstrated but not to certain persons, or could not at all be), whereas among the Manichees our credulity was mocked by a promise of certain knowledge, and then so many most fabulous and absurd things were imposed to be believed, because they could not be demonstrated. Then Thou, O Lord, little by little with most tender and merciful hand, touching and composing my heart, didst persuade me, — considering what innumerable things I believed, which I saw not, nor was present while they were done, as so many things in secular history, so many reports of places and of cities, which I had not seen, so many reports of friends, so many of physicians, so many continually of other men, which unless we should believe, we should know nothing at all in this life; lastly, with how unshaken an assurance I believed of what parents I was born, which I could not know had I not believed upon hearsay, — considering all this, Thou didst persuade me, that not they who believed Thy Books (which Thou hast established in so great authority among almost all nations), but they who believed them not, were to be blamed; and that they were not to be heard who should say to me, "How knowest thou 124 Begins to believe the Scriptures.

those Scriptures to have been imparted unto mankind by the Spirit of the one true and most true God?" For this very thing was of all most to be believed, since no contentiousness of all that multitude of blasphemous questionings which I had read in the self-contradicting philosophers, could wring this belief from me, "That Thou art" whatsoever Thou art¹ (what I knew not), and "That the government of human things belongs to Thee."

8. This I believed, sometimes more strongly, more weakly other-whiles; yet I ever believed both that Thou art, and hast a care of us; though I was ignorant both what was to be thought of Thy substance, and what way led or led back to Thee. Since, then, we are too weak by abstract reasonings^ to find out truth, and for this very cause need the authority of Holy Writ, I began to believe that Thou wouldest never have given such excellency of authority to Scripture in all lands, hadst Thou not willed thereby to be believed in, and sought. For those things, sounding strangely in the Scripture, which were wont to offend me, being now expounded satisfactorily, I referred to the depth of the mysteries; and its authority appeared to me the more venerable, and more worthy of religious credence, in that while it lay open to all to read, it reserved the majesty of its mysteries within its profounder meaning, stooping to all in the great plainness of its words and lowliness of its style, yet calling forth the intensest application of such as are not light of

1 Ex. iii. 14.

Augustine's inward unrest. 125

heart; that so it might receive all in its open bosom, and through narrow passages waft over towards Thee some few, yet many more than if it stood not aloft on such a height of authority, nor drew multitudes within its bosom by its holy lowliness. These things I thought on, and Thou wert with me; I sighed, and Thou heardest me; I wavered and Thou didst guide me; I wandered through the broad way of the world, and Thou didst not forsake me.

VI. 9. I panted after honors, gains, marriage ; and Thou deridedst me. In these desires I underwent most bitter crosses, Thou being the more gracious, the less Thou sufferedst aught to grow sweet to me which was not Thyself. Behold my heart, O Lord, who wouldest I should remember all this, and confess to Thee. Let my soul cleave unto Thee, now that Thou hast freed it from that fast-holding birdlime of death. How wretched was it! and Thou didst irritate the sense of its wounds, that, forsaking all else, it might be converted unto Thee, who art above all, and without whom all things would be nothing; and so be converted, and healed. How miserable was I then, and how didst Thou deal with me to make me feel my misery on that day when I was preparing to recite a panegyric of the Emperor,¹ wherein I was to utter many a lie, and, lying, was to be applauded by those who knew I lied, and my heart was panting with these anxieties, and boiling with the feverishness of consuming thoughts. For, 126 The sight of a drunken beggar a lesson.

1 Valentinian II.: Compare Aug. Contra Petitioners, III, 25, and Possidonius De Vita Augustini, 1. — Ed.

passing through one of the streets of Milan, I observed a poor beggar, then, I suppose, with a full belly, joking and joyous: and I sighed, and spoke to the friends around me of the many sorrows of our ambitions; for that by all such efforts of ours, as those wherein I then toiled, dragging along, under the goading of desire, the burthen of my own wretchedness, and, by dragging, augmenting it, we yet looked to arrive only at that very joyousness, whither that beggar-man had arrived before us, who should never perchance attain it. For what he had obtained by means of a few begged pence, the same was I plotting for by many a toilsome turning and winding, — the joy of a temporary felicity. For he verily had not the true joy; but yet I, with those my ambitious designs, was seeking one much less true. For certainly he was joyous, I anxious; he void of care, I full of fears. But should any ask me, had I rather be merry or fearful? I would answer, merry. Again, if he asked had I, rather be such as he was, or what I then was? I should choose to be myself, though worn with cares and fears; but would this be wise, and according to reason? For I ought not to prefer myself to him, because more learned than he, seeing I had no joy therein, but sought to please men by it; and that not to instruct, but simply to please. Wherefore, also Thou didst break my bones with the staff of Thy correction.

10. Away'with those, then, from my soul, who say to her, "It makes a difference whence a man's joy is. That beggar-man joyed in drunkenness; Thou his friend Alypius. 127

wouldest joy in glory." What glory, Lord? That which is not in Thee. For even as his was no true joy, so was that no true glory: and it overthrew my soul more. For he that very night would digest his drunkenness; but I had slept and risen again with mine, and was to sleep again, and again to rise with it, how many days, Thou, God, knowest. But "it doth make a difference whence a man's joy is." I know it, and the joy of a faithful hope lieth incomparably beyond such vanity. Yea, and so was that beggar then beyond me: for he verily was the happier; not only for that he was thoroughly drenched in mirth, I disembowelled with cares: but he, by fair wishes had gotten wine; I, by lying, was seeking for empty, swelling praise. much to this purpose said I then to my friends: and I often marked in them the same experience with my own; and I found it went ill with me, and grieved, and doubled that very ill; and if any prosperity smiled on me₍ I was loath to catch at it, for almost before I could grasp it, it flew away.

VII. 11. These things we, who were living as friends together, bemoaned together, but chiefly and most familiarly did I speak thereof with Alypius and Nebridius. Alypius was born in the same town with me, of persons of chief rank there, but he was younger than I. He had studied under me, both when I first lectured in our town, and afterwards at Carthage, and he loved me much, because I seemed to him kind, and learned; and I loved him for his great towardliness to virtue, which was eminent in 128 his friend Alypius cured by God,

one of no greater years. Yet the whirlpool of Carthaginian habits (amongst whom those idle spectacles are hotly followed) had drawn him into the madness of the Circus. But while he was miserably tossed therein, and I, professing rhetoric there in a public school, he as yet came not under my teaching, by reason of some unkindness risen betwixt his father and me. I had found how deadly he doted upon the circus, and was deeply grieved that he seemed likely to throw away so great promise: yet had I no means of advising or with a sort of constraint reclaiming him, either by the kindness of a friend, or the authority of a master. For I supposed that he thought of me as his father did; but it was not so; and laying aside his father's mind in that matter, he began to greet me, came sometimes into my lecture-room, hear a little, and begone.

12. I, however, had forgotten to deal with him, so that he should not, through a blind and headlong desire of vain pastimes, undo so good a wit. But Thou, O Lord, who guidest the course of all Thou hast created, hadst not forgotten him, who was one day to be among Thy children, a priest and dispenser of Thy Sacrament; and that his amendment might plainly be attributed to Thyself, Thou effectedst it through me, but unknowingly. For as one day I sat in my accustomed place, with my scholars before me, he entered, greeted me, sat down, and applied his mind to what I then handled. I had by chance a passage in hand, which while I was explaining, a likeness from the Circensian races occurred to through a chance word of Augustine. 129

me, as likely to make what I would convey pleasanter and plainer, seasoned with biting mockery of those whom that madness had enthralled; God, Thou knowest, that I then thought not of curing Alypius of that infection. But he took it wholly to himself, and thought that I said it simply for his sake. And what another would have taken as occasion of offence with me, that right-minded youth took as a ground of being offended at himself, and loving me more fervently. For Thou hadst said it long ago, and put it into Thy book, Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee} But I had not rebuked him, but Thou, who employest all, knowing or not knowing, in that order which Thyself knowest (and that order is just), didst of my heart and tongue make burning coals, by which to set on fire the hopeful mind, thus languishing, and so cure it. Let him be silent in Thy praises, who considers not Thy mercies, which confess unto Thee out of my inmost soul. For upon that speech, Alypius burst out of that pit so deep, wherein he was wilfully plunged, and was blinded with its wretched pastimes; and he roused his mind with a strong self-command; whereupon all the filths of the Circensian pastimes flew off from him, nor returned he again thither. Upon this, he prevailed with his unwilling father, that he might be my scholar. He gave way, and gave in. And Alypius beginning to be my hearer again, was involved in the same superstition with me, loving in the Manichees that show of consistency, which he supposed 130 Alypius betrayed by self-confidence

1 Prov. ix. 8.

true and unfeigned. Whereas it was a senseless and seducing continency, ensnaring precious souls, unable as yet to reach the depth of virtue, yet readily beguiled with the surface of what was but a shadowy and counterfeit virtue.

VIII. 13. Not forsaking that secular course which his parents had charmed him to pursue, he had gone before me to Rome, to study law, and there he was carried away incredibly with an incredible eagerness after the shows of gladiators. For being utterly averse to and detesting such spectacles, he was one day by chance met by divers of his acquaintances and fellow-students coming from dinner, and they with a familiar violence haled him, vehemently refusing and resisting, into the Amphitheatre, during these cruel and deadly shows, he thus protesting: "Though you hale my body to that place, and there set me, can you force me also to turn my mind or my eyes to those shows? I shall then be absent while present, and so shall overcome both you and them." They hearing this, led him on nevertheless, desirous perchance to try that very thing, whether he could do as he said. When they were come thither, and had taken their places as they could, the whole place kindled with that savage pastime. But he, closing the passages of his eyes, forbade his mind to range abroad after such evils; and would he had stopped his ears also! For in the fight, when one fell, a mighty cry of the whole people striking him strongly, overcome by curiosity, and as if prepared to despise and be superior to it whatsoever it were, even when seen, to love gladiatorial combats. 131

he opened his eyes, and was stricken with a deeper wound in his soul, than the gladiator, whom he desired to behold, was in his body; and he fell more miserably than he, upon whose fall that mighty noise was raised, which entered through his ears and unlocked his eyes, to make way for the striking and beating down of a soul, bold rather than resolute, and the weaker, in that it had presumed on itself, which ought to have relied on Thee. For so soon as he saw that blood, he therewith drunk down savageness ; nor turned away, but fixed his eye, drinking in frenzy, unawares, and was delighted with that guilty fight, and intoxicated with the bloody pastime. Nor was he now the man he came, but one of the throng he came unto, yea, a true associate of theirs that brought him thither. Why say more? He beheld, shouted, kindled, carried thence with him the madness which should goad him to return not only with them who first drew him thither, but also before them, yea, and to draw in others. Yet thence didst Thou with a most strong and most merciful hand pluck him, and taughtest him to have confidence not in himself, but in Thee. But this was afterwards.

IX. 14. All this was being laid up in his memory to be a medicine hereafter. So was this, also, that when he was yet studying under me at Carthage, and was thinking over at mid-day in the marketplace what he was to say by heart (as scholars are accustomed), Thou sufFeredst him to be apprehended by the officers of the market-place for a thief. For no other cause I deem, didst Thou, our God, suffer 1'62 God instructs beforehand

it, but that he, who was hereafter to prove so great a man, should already begin to learn that, in judging of causes, man is not readily to be condemned by man out of a rash credulity. For as he was walking up and down by himself before the judgment-seat, with his note-book and pen, lo! a young man, a lawyer, the real thief, privily bringing a hatchet, got in, unperceived by Alypius, as far as the leaden gratings, which fence in the silversmiths' shops, and began to cut away the lead. But the noise of the hatchet being heard, the silversmiths beneath began to make a stir, and sent to apprehend whomever they should find. But the thief hearing their voices, ran away, leaving his hatchet, fearing to be taken with it. Alypius now, who had not seen him enter, was aware of his leaving, and saw with what speed he made away. And being desirous to know the matter, entered the place; where finding the hatchet, he was standing, wondering and considering it, when behold, those that had been sent, find him alone with the hatchet in his hand, the noise whereof had startled and brought them thither. They seize him, hale him away, and gathering the dwellers in the market-place together, boast of having taken a notorious thief, and so he was being led away to be taken before the judge.

15. But thus far was Alypius to be instructed. For forthwith, O Lord, Thou succoredst his innocency, whereof Thou alone wert witness. For as he was being led either to prison or to punishment, a certain architect met them, who had the chief charge those whom He employs. 133

of the public buildings. Glad they were to meet him especially, by whom they were wont to be suspected of stealing the goods lost out of the marketplace, that they might show him at last by whom these thefts were committed. He, however, had frequently seen Alypius at a certain senator's house, to whom he often went to pay his respects; and recognizing him immediately, he took him aside by the hand, and inquiring the occasion of so great a calamity, heard the whole matter, and bade all present, amid much uproar and threats, to go with him. So they came to the house of the young man, who had done the deed. There, before the door, was a boy, so young, as to be likely, not apprehending any harm to his master, to disclose the whole. For he had attended his master to the market-place. Whom, so soon as Alypius remembered, he told the architect: and he, showing the hatchet to the boy, asked him "Whose that was?" — " Ours," quoth he, presently: and being further questioned, he discovered everything. Thus the crime was transferred to that house, and the multitude which had begun to insult over Alypius, was ashamed; and he who was to be a dispenser of Thy Word, and an examiner of many causes in Thy Church, went away better experienced and instructed.

X. 16. This Alypius I found at Rome, and he clave to me by a strong tie, and went with me to Milan, both that he might not leave me, and might practise something of the law he had studied, more to please his parents than himself. There he had 134 Alypius's unusual honesty.

thrice sat as assessor with an uncorruptness much wondered at by others, he wondering at others, rather, who could prefer gold to honesty. His character was tried, besides, not only with the bait of covetousness, but with the goad of fear. At Rome he was assessor to the Count of the Italian Treasury. There was at that time a very powerful senator, to whose favors many stood indebted, and whom many much feared. He would needs do, by abuse of power, what by the laws was unallowed. Alypius resisted it: a bribe was promised; with all his heart he scorned it: threats were held out; he trampled upon them: all wondering at so unwonted a spirit, which neither desired the friendship, nor feared the enmity of one so great and so renowned for innumerable means of doing good or evil. And the very judge also, whose counsellor Alypius was, although unwilling it should be, yet did not openly refuse, but put the matter off upon Alypius, alleging that he would not allow him to do it: for in truth had the judge done it, Alypius would have decided otherwise. With this one thing in the way of learning, however, was he well-nigh seduced, namely, that he might have books copied for him at the city's expense; but consulting justice, he altered his deliberation for the better; esteeming equity whereby he was hindered more gainful than the power whereby he were allowed. These are slight things, but he that is faithful in little, is faithful also in much^} Nor can that be void which proceeded out of the mouth of Thy Augustine's longing after amendment. 13d

1 Luke xvi. 10.

Truth; If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust true riches f And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?¹ He being such, did at that time cleave to me, and with me wavered in purpose, what course of life was to be taken.

17. Nebridius, also, who, having left his native country near Carthage, yea, and Carthage itself, where he had lived some time, leaving his excellent familyestate and house, and a mother behind, who was not to follow him, had come to Milan, for no other reason but that with me he might live in a most ardent search after truth and wisdom. Like me he sighed, like me he wavered, an ardent searcher after true life, and a most acute examiner of the most difficult questions. Thus were there the mouths of three indigent persons sighing out their wants one to another, and waiting upon Thee that Thou mightest give them their meat in due season? And in all the bitterness, which by Thy mercy followed our worldly affairs, as we looked towards the end, and asked why we should suffer all this, darkness met us; and we turned away groaning, and saying, How long shall these things be? This, too, we often said: and yet, so saying, forsook not these worldly things; for as yet there dawned nothing certain which we might embrace in the place of them.

XI. 18. And I, viewing and reviewing things, wondered extremely at the length of time that had 136 Augustine's longing after amendment.

1 Luke xvi. 11,12. 2 Ps. cxlv. 15.

elapsed since my nineteenth year, when I first began to kindle with the desire of wisdom, resolving when I had found it to abandon all the empty hopes and lying frenzies of vain desires. And lo! I was now in my thirtieth year, sticking in the same mire, greedy of enjoying present things, which passed away and wasted my soul; while I said to myself, "To-morrow I shall find it; it will appear manifestly, and I shall grasp it; lo! Faustus the Manichee will come, and clear up everything! O you great men, ye Academicians, it is true then that no certainty can be attained for the ordering of life! Nay, let me search the more diligently, and despair not. Lo! things in the ecclesiastical books are not absurd to me now, which sometimes seemed absurd, and may be otherwise taken, and in a good sense. I will take my stand where, as a child, my parents placed me, until the clear truth be found out. But where shall it be sought, or when? Ambrose has no leisure; I have no leisure to read; where shall I find even the books? Whence, or when procure them? from whom borrow them? Let set times be appointed, and certain hours ordered for the health of my soul. Great hope has dawned; the Catholic Faith teaches not what I thought, and vainly accused it of; her instructed members hold it profane to believe God to be bounded by the figure of a human body: and shall I hesitate to 'knock,' that the rest 'may be opened?' The forenoons my scholars take up; what do I during the rest of the day? Why not examine this subject? But when shall I pay court to my Augustine's perplexities and vacillations. 137

great friends, whose favor I need? When compose what I may sell to scholars? When refresh myself, unbending my mind from this intenseness of care?

19. Perish everything, dismiss these empty vanities, and betake myself to the one search for truth! Life is vain, death uncertain; if it steals upon me on a sudden, in what state shall I depart hence? and where shall I learn what here I have neglected? and shall I not rather suffer the punishment of this negligence? What, if death itself cut off and end all care and feeling? Then must this be ascertained. But God forbid this! It is no vain and empty thing, that the excellent dignity of the authority of the Christian Faith hath overspread the whole world. Never would such and so great things be by God wrought for us, if with the death of the body the life of the soul came to an end. Wherefore do I delay then to abandon worldly hopes, and give myself wholly to seek after God and the blessed life? But wait! Worldly things are pleasant; they have no small sweetness. I must not lightly abandon them, for it were a shame to return again to them. See, it is no difficult matter now to obtain some station, and then what more should I wish for? I have store of powerful friends; if nothing else offer, and I be in much haste, at least a presidentship' may be given me: and a wife with some money, that she increase not my charges: and this shall be the bound of my desire. Many great men and most worthy of imita138 He is ignorant that God gives strength.

1 The government of a province.

tion, have given themselves to the study of wisdom in the state of marriage."

20. While I went over these things, and these winds shifted and drove my heart this way and that, time passed on, but I delayed to turn to the Lord; and from day to day deferred to live in Thee, and so died in myself. Loving a happy life, I feared to seek it in its own true abode, and sought it by fleeing from it. I thought I should be too miserable, unless folded in female arms; and of the medicine of Thy mercy to cure that infirmity I thought not, not having tried it. As for continency, I supposed it must be in our own power (though in myself I did not find that power), being so foolish as not to know what is written, None can be continent unless Thou give it;¹ and that Thou wouldest give it, if with inward groanings I did knock at Thine ears, and with a settled faith did cast my care on Thee.

XII. 21. Alypius indeed kept me from marrying; alleging, that in that case, we could not in undistracted leisure live together in the search after wisdom, as we had long desired. He himself was even then most chaste, so much so that it was wonderful; and all the more, since in the outset of his youth he had entered into that course, but had not stuck fast therein; rather had he felt remorse and revolting nt it, living thenceforth until now most continently. But I opposed him with the examples of those who, as married men, had cherished wisdom, and served God acceptably, and retained their friends, and loved Modes of life. 139

1 Wisd. viii. 2. Vulg.

them faithfully. Of whose greatness of spirit I came far short; and bound with the disease of the flesh, and its deadly sweetness, I drew along my chain, dreading to be loosed, and as if my wound had been fretted, put back his good persuasions, as it were the hand of one that would unchain me. Moreover, by me did the serpent speak unto Alypius himself, by my tongue weaving and laying in his path pleasurable snares, wherein his virtuous and free feet might be entangled.

22. For when he wondered that I, whom he esteemed not slightly, should stick so fast in the birdlime of that pleasure, as to protest (so oft as we discussed it) that I could never lead a single life; and urged in my defence, when I saw him wonder, that there was a great difference between his momentary and scarce-remembered knowledge of that life, which so he might easily despise, and my continued acquaintance with it, whereto if but the honorable name of marriage were added, he ought not to wonder why I could not condemn it; he began also to desire to be married, — not as overcome with desire of such pleasure, but out of curiosity. For he would fain know, he said, what that should be, without which my life, to him so pleasing, would to me seem not life but a punishment. For his mind, free from that chain, was amazed at my thraldom; and through that amazement was going on to a desire of trying' i', thence to the trial itself, and thence perhaps to sink into that bondage whereat he wondered, seeing ho was willing to make a covenant with death;¹ and, 140 marriage.

1 X xxviii. 15.

he that loves danger shall fall into it} For whatever honor there be in the office of a well-ordered married life and a family, moved us but slightly. The habit of satisfying an insatiable appetite tormented me, while it held me captive; and an admiring wonder was leading him captive. Thus were we, until Thou, O Most High, not forsaking our dust, commiserating us miserable, didst come to our help, by wondrous and secret ways.

XIII. 23. Continual effort was made to have me married. I wooed, I was promised, chiefly through my mother's pains, that so once married, the healthgiving baptism might cleanse me, towards which she rejoiced that I was becoming daily more disposed, and observed that her prayers, and Thy promises, were being fulfilled in my faith. At which time, verily, botlrat my request and her own longing, with strong cries of heart she daily begged of Thee, that Thou wouldest by a vision discover unto her something concerning my future marriage; but Thou never wouldest. She saw indeed certain vain and fantastic things, such as the energy of the human spirit, busied thereon, brought together; and these she told me of, not with that confidence she was wont, when Thou showedst her anything, but slighting them. For she could, she said, through a certain feeling, which in words she could not express, discern betwixt Thy revelations, and the dreams of her own soul. Yet the matter was pressed on, and a maiden asked in marriage, two years under the fit age; but, as I liked her, I waited for her.

1 l-v.-Vs jii 27.

Proposed recluse life. 141

XIV. 24. And many of us friends conferring about, and detesting the turbulent turmoils of human life, had debated' and now almost resolved on living apart from business and the bustle of men; and this was to be thus obtained; we were to bring whatever we might severally procure, and make one household of all; so that through the truth of our friendship nothing should belong especially to any; but the whole thus derived from all, should as a whole belong to each, and all to all. We thought there might be some ten persons in this society; some of us were very rich, especially Romanianus, our townsman, from childhood a very familiar friend of mine, whom the grievous perplexities of his affairs had brought up to court. He was the most earnest for this project; and his voice was of great weight, because his ample estate far exceeded any of the rest. We had settled, also, that two annual officers, as it were, should provide all things necessary, the rest being undisturbed. But when we began to consider whether the wives, which some of us already had, and others hoped to have, would allow this, all that plan, which was being so well moulded, fell to pieces in our hands, and was utterly dashed and cast aside. Thence we betook us to sighs, and groans, and to follow the broad and beaten ways of the world.¹ Many were the thoughts in our heart, but Thy counsel standeth forever? Out of which counsel Thou didst deride ours, and preparedst Thine own; purposing to give us meat in due season, and 142 his inveterate sins.

1 Matt. vii. 13. 2Ps.xxxiii.il.

to open Thy hand, and to Jill our souls with blessing}

XV. 25. Meanwhile my sins were multiplied, and my concubine being torn from my side as a hindrance to my marriage, my heart, which clave unto her, was torn and wounded and bleeding. And she returned to Africa, vowing unto Thee never to know any other man, leaving with me my son by her. But unhappy I, who could not imitate a very woman, impatient because not till after two years^was I to obtain my wife, and not being so much a lover of marriage as a slave to lust, procured another concubine, that so, by the servitude of an enduring custom, the disease of my soul might be kept up and carried on in its vigor, or even augmented, into the dominion of marriage. Nor was my wound cured, which had been made by the previous incision, but after inflammation and most acute pain, it mortified, and then my pains became less acute, but more desperate.

XVI. 26. Praise be to Thee, glory to Thee, O Fountain of mercies. I was becoming more miserable, and Thou becoming nearer. Thy right hand was continually ready to pluck me out of the mire, and to wash me thoroughly, and I knew it not; nor did anything call me back from a yet deeper gulf of carnal pleasures, but the fear of death, and of Thy judgment to come; which, amid all my changes, never departed from my breast. And in my disputes with my friends, Alypius and Nebridius, concerning the nature of good and evil, I held that

1 l's. cxlv. I5, 16.

His inveterate sins. 143

Epicurus would have, in my mind, won the palm, had I not believed that after death there remained a life for the soul, and places of requital according to men's deserts, which Epicurus would not believe. And I asked, " were we immortal, and to live in perpetual bodily pleasure, without fear of losing it, why should we not be happy, or what else should we seek?" not knowing that great misery was involved in this very thing, that, being thus sunk and blinded, I could not discern that light of excellence and beauty, to be embraced for its own sake, which the eye of flesh cannot see, and which is seen only by the inner man. Nor did I, unhappy, consider from what source it sprung, that even on these things, foul as they were, I with pleasure discoursed with my friends; nor could I, even according to the notions I then had of happiness, be happy without friends, amid what abundance soever of carnal pleasures. And yet these friends I loved for themselves only, and I felt that I was beloved of them again for myself only.

O crooked paths! Woe to the audacious soul, which hoped, by forsaking Thee, to gain some better thing! Tossed up and down, upon back, sides, and breast, it found only pain; for Thou alone art rest. And behold, Thou art at hand, and deliveredst us from our wretched wanderings, and places us in Thy way, and dost comfort us, and say, "Run; I will carry you; yea, I will bring you through; beyond also will I carry you."