OF TWO TERRITORIES. shows that the countless worlds of Epicurus, CHAP. 20.-REFUTATION OF THE ABSURD IDEA in which his fancy roamed without restraint, are due to the same power of imagination, and, not to multiply examples, that we get from the same source that land of light, with its boundless extent, and the five dens of the race of darkness, with their inmates, in which the fancies of Manichæus have dared to usurp for themselves the name of truth. What then is this power which discerns these things? Clearly, whatever its extent may be, it is greater than all these things, and is conceived of without any such material images. Find, if you can, space for this power; give it a material extension; provide it with a body of huge size. Assuredly if you think well, you cannot. For of everything of this corporeal nature your mind forms an opinion as to its divisibility, and you make of such things one part greater and another less, as much as you like; while that by which you form a judgment of these things you perceive to be above them, not in local loftiness of place, but in dignity of power. 22. But perhaps, instead of thus addressing carnal minds, we should rather descend to the views of those who either dare not or are as yet unfit to turn from the consideration of material things to the study of an immaterial and spiritual nature, and who thus are unable to reflect upon their own power of reflection, so as to see how it forms a judgment of material extension without itself possessing it. Let us descend then to these material ideas, and let us ask in what direction, and on what border of the shining and sacred territory, to use the expressions of Manichæus, was the region of darkness? For he speaks of one direction and border, without saying which, whether the right or the left. In any case, it is clear that to speak of one side implies that there is another. But where there are three or more sides, either the figure is bounded in all directions, or if it extends infinitely in one direction, still it must be limited in the directions where it has sides. If, then, on one side of the region CHAP. 19.—IF THE MIND HAS NO MATERIAL EX- of light there was the race of darkness, what TENSION, MUCH LESS HAS GOD. bounded it on the other side or sides? The Manichæans say nothing in reply to this; but 21. So then, if the mind, so liable to change, when pressed, they say that on the other sides whether from a multitude of dissimilar desires, the region of light, as they call it, is infinite, or from feelings varying according to the that is, extends throughout boundless space. abundance or the want of desirable things, or They do not see, what is plain to the dullest from these endless sports of the fancy, or understanding, that in that case there could from forgetfulness and remembrance, or from be no sides? For the sides are where it is learning and ignorance; if the mind, I say, bounded. What, then, he says, though there exposed to frequent change from these and are no sides? But what you said of one dithe like causes, is perceived to be without any rection or side, implied of necessity the exislocal or material extension, and to have a tence of another direction and side, or other vigor of action which surmounts these ma-directions and sides. For if there was only terial conditions, what must we think or con- one side, you should have said, on the clude of God Himself, who remains superior side, not on one side; as in reference to our to all intelligent beings in His freedom from body we say properly, By one eye, because perturbation and from change, giving to every there is another; or on one breast, because one what is due? Him the mind dares to ex- there is another. But if we spoke of a thing press more easily than to see; and the clearer as being on one nose, or one navel, we should the sight, the less is the power of expression. be ridiculed by learned and unlearned, since And yet this God, if, as the Manichæan fables are constantly asserting, He were limited in extension in one direction and unlimited in others, could be measured by so many subdivisions or fractions of greater or less size, as every one might fancy; so that, for example, a division of the extent of two feet would be less by eight parts than one of ten feet. For this is the property of all natures which have extension in space, and therefore cannot be all in one place. But even with the mind this is not the case; and this degrading and perverted idea of the mind is found among people who are unfit for such investigations. there is only one. But I do not insist on words, for you may have used one in the sense of the only one. sert that all bodies derive their origin from it. How then is it that, dull and carnal as you are, you do not see that unless both regions were material, they could not have their sides joined to one another? How could you ever be so blinded in mind as to say that only the region of darkness was material, and that the so-called region of light was immaterial and spiritual? My good friends, let us open our eyes for once, and see, now that we are told of it, what is most obvious, that two regions cannot be joined at their sides unless both are material. number of parts than to a single one, so that CHAP. 23.-THE ANTHROPOMORPHITES NOT SO 25. Compare, now, not spiritual men of the Catholic faith, whose mind, as far as is possible in this life, perceives that the divine 23. Or if we are too dull and stupid to see this, let us hear whether the region of dark-substance and nature has no material extenness too has one side, and is boundless in the sion, and has no shape bounded by lines, but other directions, like the region of light. the carnal and weak of our faith, who, when They do not hold this from fear of making it they hear the members of the body used figseem equal to God. Accordingly they make uratively, as, when God's eyes or ears are it boundless in depth and in length; but up- spoken of, are accustomed, in the license of wards, above it, they maintain that there is fancy, to picture God to themselves in a an infinity of empty space. And lest this re- human form; compare these with the Mangion should appear to be a fraction equal in ichæans, whose custom it is to make known amount to half of that representing the region their silly stories to anxious inquirers as if of light, they narrow it also on two sides. As they were great mysteries: and consider who if, to give the simplest illustration, a piece of have the most allowable and respectable ideas bread were made into four squares, three of God, those who think of Him as having white and one black; then suppose the three a human form which is the most excellent of white pieces joined as one, and conceive its kind, or those who think of Him as havthem as infinite upwards and downwards, ing boundless material extension, yet not in and backwards in all directions: this repre- all directions, but with three parts infinite and sents the Manichæan region of light. Then solid, while in one part He is cloven, with an conceive the black square infinite downwards empty void, and with undefined space above, and backwards, but with infinite emptiness while the region of darkness is inserted above it: this is their region of darkness. wedge-like below. Or perhaps the proper But these are secrets which they disclose to expression is, that He is unconfined above very eager and anxious inquirers. CHAP, 22.—THE FORM OF THE REGION OF LIGHT Well, then, if this is so, the region of darkness is clearly touched on two sides by the region of light. And if it is touched on two sides, it must touch on two. So much for its being on one side, as we were told before. 24. And what an unseemly appearance is this of the region of light!—like a cloven arch, with a black wedge inserted below, bounded only in the direction of the cleft, and having a void space interposed where the boundless emptiness stretches above the region of darkness. Indeed, the form of the region of darkness is better than that of the region of light: for the former cleaves, the latter is cloven; the former fills the gap which is made in the latter; the former has no void in it, while the latter is undefined in all directions, except that where it is filled up by the wedge of darkness. In an ignorant and greedy notion of giving more honor to a in His own nature, but encroached on below by a hostile nature. I join with you in laughing at the folly of carnal men, unable as yet to form spiritual conceptions, who think of God as having a human form. Do you too join me, if you can, in laughing at those whose unhappy conceptions represent God as having a shape cloven or cut in such an unseemly and unbecoming way, with such an empty gap above, and such a dishonorable curtailment below. Besides, there is this difference, that these carnal people, who think of God as having a human form, if they are content to be nourished with milk from the breast of the Catholic Church, and do not rush headlong into rash opinions, but cultivate in the Church the pious habit of inquiry, and there ask that they may receive, and knock that it may be opened to them, begin to understand spiritually the figures and parables of the Scriptures, and gradually to perceive that the divine energies are suitably set forth under the name, sometimes of ears, sometimes of eyes, sometimes of hands or feet, or even of wings and feathers a shield too, Or will you say that these three are not of one and sword, and helmet, and all the other in- and the same nature, but that the Father is of numerable things. And the more progress one, the kingdoms of another, and the region they make in this understanding, the more of another, so that each has a peculiar nature are they confirmed as Catholics. The Mani- and substance, and that they are arranged chæans, on the other hand, when they abandon according to their degree of excellence? their material fancies, cease to be Manichæans. If this is true, Manichæus should have taught For this is the chief and special point in their that there are four natures, not two; or if the praises of Manichæus, that the divine mys- Father and the kingdoms have one nature, teries which were taught figuratively in books and the region only one of its own, he should from ancient times were kept for Manichæus, have made three. Or if he made only two, who was to come last, to solve and demon- because the region of darkness does not bestrate; and so after him no other teacher will long to God, in what sense does the region of come from God, for he has said nothing in light belong to God? For if it has a nature figures or parables, but has explained ancient of its own, and if God neither generated nor sayings of that kind, and has himself taught in made it, it does not belong to Him, and the plain, simple terms. Therefore, when the Man- seat of His kingdom is in what belongs to ichæans hear these words of their founder, another. Or if it belongs to Him because of on one side and border of the shining and its vicinity, the region of darkness must do sacred region was the region of darkness, they so too; for it not only borders on the region have no interpretations to fall back on. of light, but penetrates it so as to sever it in Wherever they turn, the wretched bondage two. Again, if God generated it, it cannot of their own fancies brings them upon clefts have a separate nature. For what is genor sudden stoppages and joinings or sunder-erated by God must be what God is, as the ings of the most unseemly kind, which it Catholic Church believes of the only begotten would be shocking to believe as true of any Son. So you are brought back of necessity immaterial nature, even though mutable, like to that shocking and detestable profanity, the mind, not to speak of the immutable that the wedge of darkness sunders not a nature of God. And yet if I were unable to rise to higher things, and to bring my thoughts from the entanglement of false imaginations which are impressed on the memory by the bodily senses, into the freedom and purity of spiritual existence, how much better would it be to think of God as in the form of a man, than to fasten that wedge of darkness to His lower edge, and, for want of a covering for the boundless vacuity above to leave it void and unoccupied throughout infinite space! What notion could be worse than this? What darker error can be taught or imagined? region distinct and separate from God, but the very nature of God. Or if God did not generate, but make it, of what did He make it? Or if of Himself, what is this but to generate? If of some other nature, was this nature good or evil? If good, there must have been some good nature not belonging to God; which you will scarcely have the boldness to assert. If evil, the race of darkness cannot have been the only evil nature. Or did God take a part of that region and turn it into a region of light, in order to found His kingdom upon it? If He had, He would have taken the whole, and there would have been no evil nature left. If God, then, did THE NUMBER OF NATURES IN not make the region of light of a substance distinct from His own, He must have made it of nothing.1 CHAP. 24.- -OF 26. Again, I wish to know, when I read of God the Father and His kingdoms founded on the shining and happy region, whether the Father and His kingdoms, and the region, are all of the same nature and substance. If they are, then it is not another nature or sort of body of God which the wedge of the race of darkness cleaves and penetrates, which itself is an unspeakably revolting thing, but it is actually the very nature of God which undergoes this. Think of this, I beseech you: as you are men, think of it, and flee from it; and if by tearing open your breasts you can cast out by the roots such profane fancies from your faith, I pray you to do it. of only a few, there might not be so much difficulty with them, but to this Fundamental Epistle which we are now considering, with which all of you who are called enlightened are usually quite familiar. Here the words are: "On one side the border of the shining and sacred region was the region of darkness, deep and boundless in extent." CHAP. 26.—THE MANICHEANS ARE REDUCED TO THE CHOICE OF A TORTUOUS, OR CURVED, lence from the highest to the lowest are good, and some better than others; and that they were made of nothing, though God, their Maker, made use of His own wisdom as an instrument, so to speak, to give being to what was not, and that as far as it had being it might be good, and that the limitation of its being might show that it was not begotten by God, but made out of nothing. If you examine the matter, you will find nothing to keep you from agreeing to this. For you cannot make your region of light to be what God is, without making the dark section an infringement on the very nature of God. Nor can you say that it was generated by God, with- What more is to be got? we have now out being reduced to the same enormity, from heard what is on the border. Make what the necessity of concluding that as begotten shape you please, draw any kind of lines you of God, it must be what God is. Nor can like, it is certain that the junction of this you say that it was distinct from Him, lest boundless mass of the region of darkness to you should be forced to admit that God placed the region of light must have been either by a His kingdom in what did not belong to Him, straight line, or a curved, or a tortuous one. and that there are three natures. Nor can you If the line of junction is tortuous the side of say that God made it of a substance distinct the region of light must also be tortuous; from His own, without making something otherwise its straight side joined to a tortuous good besides God, or something evil besides one would leave gaps of infinite depth, instead the race of darkness. It remains, therefore of having vacuity only above the land of darkthat you must confess that God made the region of light out of nothing: and you are unwilling to believe this; because if God could make out of nothing some great good which yet was inferior to Himself, He could also, since He is good, and grudges no good, make another good inferior to the former, and again a third inferior to the second, and so on, in order down to the lowest good of created natures, so that the whole aggregate, instead of extending indefinitely without number or measure, should have a fixed and definite consistency. Again, if you will not allow this either, that God made the region of light out of nothing, you will have no escape from the shocking profanities to which your opinions lead. ness, as we were told before. And if there were such gaps, how much better it would have been for the region of light to have been still more distant, and to have had a greater vacuity between, so that the region of darkness might not touch it at all! Then there might have been such a gap of bottomless depth, that, on the rise of any mischief in that race, although the chiefs of darkness might have the foolhardy wish to cross over, they would fall headlong into the gap (for bodies cannot fly without air to support them); and as there is infinite space downwards, they could do no more harm, though they might live for ever, for they would be for ever falling. Again, if the line of junction was a curved one, the re28. Perhaps, since the carnal imagination gion of light must also have had the disfigurecan fancy any shapes it likes, you might be ment of a curve to answer it. Or if the land able to devise some other form for the junc- of darkness were curved inwards like a theation of the two regions, instead of presenting tre, there would be as much disfigurement in to the mind such a disagreeable and painful the corresponding line in the region of light. description as this, that the region of God, Or if the region of darkness had a curved line, whether it be of the same nature as God or not, and the region of light a straight one, they where at least God's kingdoms are founded, cannot have touched at all points. And cerlies through immensity in such a huge mass tainly, as I said before, it would have been that its members stretch loosely to an infinite better if they had not touched, and if there extent, and that on their lower part that wedge was such a gap between that the regions might of the region of darkness, itself of boundless be kept distinctly separate, and that rash evilsize encroaches upon them. But whatever other doers might fall headlong so as to be harmform you contrive for the junction of these less. If, then, the line of junction was a straight two regions, you cannot erase what Manichæus one, there remain, of course, no more gaps has written. I refer not to other treatises or grooves, but, on the contrary, so perfect a where a more particular description is given,-junction as to make the greatest possible peace for perhaps, because they are in the hands and harmony between the two regions. What more beautiful or more suitable than that one side should meet the other in a straight line, without bends or breaks to disturb the natural and permanent connection throughout endless space and endless duration? And even though there was a separation, the straight sides of both regions would be beautiful in themselves, as being straight; and besides, even in spite of an interval, their correspondence, as running parallel, though not meeting, would give a symmetry to both. With the addition of the junction, both regions become perfectly regular and harmonious; for nothing can be devised more beautiful in description or in conception than this junction of two straight lines. not consider. Listen to me; no one forces you, no one quarrels with you, no one taunts you with past errors, unless some one who has not experienced the div ne mercy in de liverance from error: all we desire is that the body, by change of form for the worse, beauty is lost, or rather lessened, and what was called fair before is said to be ugly, and what was pleasing becomes displeasing, so in the mind the seemliness of a right will, which makes a just and pious life, is injured when the will changes for the worse; and by this sin the mind becomes miserable, instead of enjoying as before the happiness which comes from the ornament of a right will, without any gain or loss of substance. 30. Consider, again, that though we admit that the border of the region of darkness was evil for other reasons, such as that it was dim and dark, or any other reason, still it was not evil in being straight. So, if I admit that there was some evil in its color, you must admit that there was some good in its straightness. Whatever the amount of this good, it is not allowable to attribute it to any other than God the Maker, from whom we must believe that all good in whatsoever nature comes, if Wwe are to escape deadly error. It is absurd, then, to say that this region is perfect evil, when in its straightness of border is found the good of not a little beauty of a material kind; and also to make this region to be altogether estranged from the almighty and good God, when this good which we find in it can be attributed to no other but the author of all good things. But this border, too, we are told, was evil. Well, suppose it evil: it would surely have been worse had it been crooked instead of straight. And how can errors should some time or other be aban- that be the perfection of evil than which doned. Think a little without animosity or bitterness. We are all human beings: let us And to be worse implies that there is some something worse than itself can be thought of? hate, not one another, but errors and lies. good, the want of which makes the thing Think a little, I pray you. God of mercy, worse. Here the want of straightness would help them to think, and kindle in the minds make the line worse. Therefore its straightof inquirers the true light. If anything is ness is something good. And you will never plain, is not this, that right is better than wrong? Give me, then, a calm and quiet answer to this, whether making crooked the right line of the region of darkness which joins on to the right line of the region of light, would not detract from its beauty. If you will not be dogged, you must confess that not only is beauty taken from it by its being made crooked, but also the beauty which it might have had from connection with the right line of the region of light. Is it the answer the question whence this goodness comes, without reference to Him from whom we must acknowledge that all good things come, whether small or great. But now we shall pass on from considering this border to something else. CHAP. 28.-MANICHEUS PLACES FIVE NATURES IN THE REGION OF DARKNESS. 66 31. There dwelt," he says, "in that recase, then, that in this loss of beauty, in which gion fiery bodies, destructive races." By right is made crooked, and harmony becomes speaking of dwelling, he must mean that those bodies were animated and in life. But, not discord, and agreement disagreement, there is any loss of substance? Learn, then, from he divides into five classes all these into appear to cavil at a word, let us see how this that substance is not evil; but as in the [This discussion of the lines bounding the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness seems very much like trifling, but Augustin's aim was to bring the Manichæan representations into ridicule.-A. H. N.] habitants of this region. "Here," he says, "was boundless darkness, flowing from the same source in immeasurable abundance, with the productions properly belonging to it. |