speak of them as having no connection with God, the author of all good things, is to lose sight of the excellence of the order in the things, and of the great evil of the error which leads to such a conclusion. CHAP. 30.-THE NUMBER OF GOOD THINGS IN THOSE NATURES WHICH MANICHEUS PLACES Beyond this were muddy turbid waters, with their inhabitants; and inside of them winds terrible and violent, with their prince and their progenitors. Then, again, a fiery region of destruction, with its chiefs and peoples. And, similarly, inside of this a race full of smoke and gloom, where abode the dreadful prince and chief of all, having around him innumerable princes, himself the mind and source of them all. Such are the five natures of the 33. "But," is the reply, "the orders of pestiferous region." We find here five na- beings inhabiting those five natures were tures mentioned as part of one nature, which fierce and destructive." As if I were praishe calls the pestiferous region. The natures ing their fierceness and destructiveness. I, are darkness, waters, winds, fire, smoke; you see, join with you in condemning the which he so arranges as to make darkness evils you attribute to them; join you with first, beginning at the outside. Inside of me in praising the good things which you darkness he puts the waters; inside of the ascribe to them: so it will appear that waters, the winds; inside of the winds, the there is a mixture of good and evil in what fire; inside of the fire, the smoke. And each of these natures had its peculiar kind of inhabitants, which were likewise five in number. For to the question, Whether there was only one kind in all, or different kinds corresponding to the different natures; the reply is, that they were different: as in other books we find it stated that the darkness had serpents; the waters swimming creatures, such as fish; the winds flying creatures, such as birds; the fire quadrupeds, such as horses, lions, and the like; the smoke bipeds, such as men. CHAP. 29.—THE REFUTATION OF THIS ABSURD ITY. 66 you call the last extremity of evil. If I join you in condemning what is mischievous in this region, you must join with me in praising what is beneficial. For these beings could not have been produced, or nourished, or have continued to inhabit that region, without some salutary influence. I join with you in condemning the darkness; join with me in praising the productiveness. For while you call the darkness immeasurable, you speak of suitable productions." Darkness, indeed, is not a real substance, and means no more than the absence of light, as nakedness means the want of clothing, and emptiness the want of material contents: so that darkness could produce nothing, although a region in darkness-that is, in the absence of light-might produce something. But passing over this for the present, it is certain that where productions arise there must be a beneficent adaptation of substances, as well as a symmetrical arrangement and construction in unity of the members of the beings produced, 32. Whose arrangement, then, is this? Who made the distinctions and the classification? Who gave the number, the qualities, the forms, the life? For all these things are in themselves good, nor could each of the natures have them except from the bestowal of God, the author of all good things. For this is not like the descriptions or suppositions of poets about an imaginary chaos, as being a wise adjustment making them agree with a shapeless mass, without form, without quality, without measurement, without weight and number, without order and variety; a confused something, absolutely destitute of qualities, so that some Greek writers call it ἄποιον, So far from being like this is the Manichæan description of the region of darkness, as they call it, that, in a directly contrary style, they add side to side, and join border to border; they number five natures; they separate, arrange, and assign to each its own qualities. Nor do they leave the natures barren or waste, but people them with their proper inhabitants; and to these, again, they give suitable forms, and adapted to their place of habitation, besides giving the chief of all endowments, life. To recount such good things as these, and to one another. And who will deny that all these things are more to be praised than darkness is to be condemned? If I join with you in condemning the muddiness of the waters, you must join with me in praising the waters as far as they possessed the form and quality of water, and also the agreement of the members of the inhabitants swimming in the waters, their life sustaining and directing their body, and every particular adaptation of substances for the benefit of health. For though you find fault with the waters as turbid and muddy, still, in allowing them the quality of producing and maintaining their living inhabitants, you imply that there was some kind of bodily form, and similarity of parts, giving unity and congruity of character; otherwise there could be no body at all: and, you must allow to be commendable? For he had a soul and a body; the soul life-giving, and the body endowed with life. Since the soul governed and the body obeyed, the soul took the lead and the body followed; the soul gave consistency, the body was not dissolved; the soul gave harmonious motion, and the body was constructed of a well-proportioned framework of members. In this single prince are you not induced to express approval of And what applies to one applies to all the rest. You say he was fierce and cruel to others. This is not what I commend, but as a rational being, you must see that all these things are to be praised. And however great you make the ferocity of these inhabitants, and their massacrings and devastations in their assaults, you still leave them the regular limits of form, by which the members of each body are made to agree together, and their beneficial adaptations, and the regulating power of the living principle binding together the parts of the body in a friendly and harmonious union. And if all these are regarded the orderly peace or the peaceful order? with common sense it will be seen that they are more to be commended than the faults are to be condemned. I join with you in condemning the frightfulness of the winds; join the other important things which you will not with me in praising their nature, as giving take notice of. Those things, when perceived breath and nourishment, and their material and considered, after advice by any one who form in its continuousness and diffusion by has without consideration put faith in Manithe connection of its parts: for by these chæus,-lead him to a clear conviction that, things these winds had the power of produc- in speaking of those natures, he speaks of ing and nourishing, and sustaining in vigor things good in a sense, not perfect and unthese inhabitants you speak of; and also in created, like God the one Trinity, nor of the these inhabitants-besides the other things higher rank of created things, like the holy which have already been commended in all angels and the ever-blessed powers; but of animated creatures-this particular power of the lowest class, and ranked according to the going quickly and easily whence and whither small measure of their endowments. These they please, and the harmonious stroke of things are thought to be blameworthy by the their wings in flight, and their regular motion. uninstructed when they compare them with I join with you in condemning the destructive- higher things; and in view of their want of ness of fire; join with me in commending the some good, the good they have gets the name productiveness of this fire, and the growth of of evil, because it is defective. My reason these productions, and the adaptation of the also for thus discussing the natures enufire to the beings produced, so that they had merated by Manichæus is that the things coherence, and came to perfection in measure named are things familiar to us in this world. and shape, and could live and have their We are familiar with darkness, waters, winds, abode there: for you see that all these things fire, smoke; we are familiar, too, with anideserve admiration and praise, not only in mals, creeping, swimming, flying; with quadthe fire which is thus habitable, but in the in- rupeds and biped. With the exception of habitants too. I join with you in condemn- darkness (which, as I have said already, is ing the denseness of smoke, and the savage nothing but the absence of light, and the percharacter of the prince who, as you say, abode ception of it is only the absence of sight, as in it; join with me in praising the similarity the perception of silence is the absence of of all the parts in this very smoke, by which it hearing; not that darkness is anything, but preserves the harmony and proportion of its that light is not, as neither that silence is parts among themselves, according to its own anything, but that sound is not), all the other nature, and has an unity which makes it what things are natural qualities and are familiar it is: for no one can calmly reflect on these to all; and the form of those natures, which things without wonder and praise. Besides, is commendable and good as far as it exists, even to the smoke you give the power and energy of production, for you say that princes inhabited it; so that in that region the smoke is productive, which never happens here, and, moreover, affords a wholesome dwelling place to its inhabitants. CHAP. 31.-THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 34. And even in the prince of smoke himself, instead of mentioning only his ferocity as a bad quality, ought you not to have taken notice of the other things in his nature which no wise man attributes to any other author than God, the author of all good things.' CHAP. 32.-MANICHEUS GOT THE ARRANGE MENT OF HIS FANCIFUL NOTIONS FROM VISI- 35. For in giving to these natures which he has learned from visible things, an arrange 1 [This portion of the argument is conducted with great adroitness. Augustin takes the inhabitants of the region of darkness, as Mani describes them, and proves that they possess so much of good that they can have no other author than God.-A. H. N.] one, is that smoke resembles proud people in rising up into the air, round and swelling. This idea might warrant a figurative description of proud men, or an allegorical expression or explanation, but not the belief that bipeds are born in smoke and of smoke. They might with equal reason be said to be born in dust, for it often rises up to the heaven with a similar circling and lofty motion; or in the clouds, for they are often drawn up from the earth in such a way, that those looking from a distance are uncertain whether they are clouds or smoke. Once more, why, in the case of the waters and the winds, does he suit the inhabitants to the character of the place, as we see swimming things in water, and flying things in the wind; whereas, in the face of fire and smoke, this bold liar is not ashamed to assign to these places the most unlikely inhabitants? For fire burns quadrupeds, and consumes them, and smoke suffocates and kills bipeds. At least he must acknowledge that he has made these natures better in the race of darkness than they are here, though he wishes us to think everything to be worse. For, according to this, the fire there produced and nourished quadrupeds, and gave them a lodging not only harmless, but most convenient. The smoke, too, provided room for the offspring of its own benign bosom, and cherished them up to the rank of prince. Thus we see that these lies, which have added to the number of heretics, arose from the perception by carnal sense, only without care or discernment, of visible objects in this world, and when thus conceived, were brought forth by fancy, and then presumptuously written and published. ment according to his fanciful ideas, to represent the race of darkness, Manichæus is clearly in error. First of all, he makes darkness productive, which is impossible. But, he replies, this darkness was unlike what you are familiar with. How, then, can you make me understand about it? After so many promises to give knowledge, will you force me to take your word for it? Suppose I believe you, this at least is certain, that if the darkness had no form, as darkness usually has not, it could produce nothing; if it had form, it was better than ordinary darkness: whereas, when you call it different from the ordinary kind, you wish us to believe that it is worse. You might as well say that silence, which is the same to the ear as darkness to the eyes, produced some deaf or dumb animals in that region; and then, in reply to the objection that silence is not a nature, you might say that it was different silence from ordinary silence; in a word, you might say what you pleased to those whom you have once misled into believing you. No doubt, the obvious facts relating to the origin of animal life led Manichæus to say that serpents were produced in darkness. However, there are serpents which have such sharp sight, and such pleasure in light, that they seem to give evidence of the most weighty kind against this idea. Then the idea of swimming things in the water might easily be got here, and applied to the fanciful objects in that region; and so of flying things in the winds, for the motion of the lower air in this world, where birds fly, is called wind. Where he got the idea of the quadrupeds in fire, no one can tell. Still he said this deliberately, though without sufficient thought, and from great misconception. The reason usually given is, that quadrupeds are voracious and salacious. But many men surpass any 36. But the consideration we wish most to quadruped in voracity, though they are bi- urge is the truth of the Catholic doctrine, if peds, and are called children of the smoke, they can understand it, that God is the author and not of fire. Geese, too, are as voracious of all natures. I urged this before when I as any animal; and though he might place said, I join with you in your condemnation them in fire as bipeds, or in the water because of destructiveness, of blindness, of dense they love to swim, or in the winds because muddiness, of terrific violence, of perishablethey have wings and sometimes fly, they cer- ness, of the ferocity of the princes, and so tainly have nothing to do with fire in this on; join with me in commending form, classification. As regards salaciousness, I classification, arrangement, harmony, unity suppose he was thinking of neighing horses, of structure, symmetry and correspondence which sometimes bite through the bridle and of members, provision for vital breath and rush at the mares; and writing hastily, with nourishment, wholesome adaptation, regulathis in his mind, he forgot the common spar- tion and control by the mind, and the subjecrow, in comparison of which the hottest stallion tion of the bodies, and the assimilation and is cold. The reason they give for assigning agreement of parts in the natures, both those bipeds to the smoke is, that bipeds are con- inhabiting and those inhabited, and all the ceited and proud, for men are derived from other things of the same kind. From this, if this class; and the idea, which is a plausible they would only think honestly, they would CHAP. 33. EVERY NATURE, AS NATURE, IS question at present is not what can be taken away, and what cannot; but it certainly helps to a clear perception that these natures, as far as they are natures, are good, when we see that the good things can be thought of without these evil things, while without these good things no nature can be conceived of. I can conceive of waters without muddy commotion; but without settled continuity of parts no material form is an object of thought or of sensation in any way. Therefore even these muddy waters could not exist without the good which was the condition of their material existence. As to the reply that these evil things cannot be taken from such natures, I rejoin that neither can the good things be taken away. Why, then, should you call these things natural evils, on account of the evil things which you suppose cannot be taken away, and yet refuse to call them natural good things, on account of the good things which, as has been proved, cannot be taken away? understand that it implies a mixture of good and evil, even in the region where they suppose evil to be alone and in perfection: so that if the evils mentioned were taken away, the good things will remain, without anything to detract from the commendation given to them; whereas, if the good things are taken away, no nature is left. From this every one sees, who can see, that every nature, as far as it is nature, is good; since in one and the same thing in which I found something to praise, and he found something to blame, if the good things are taken away, no nature will remain; but if the disagreeable things are taken away, the nature will remain unimpaired. Take from waters their thickness and muddiness, and pure clear water remains; take from them the consistence of their parts, and no water will be left. If then, after the evil is removed, the nature remains in a purer state, and does not remain at all when the good is taken away, it must be the good which makes the nature of the thing in which it is, while the evil is not nature, but contrary to 38. You may next ask, as you usually do nature. Take from the winds their terrible- for a last resource, whence come these evils ness and excessive force, with which you find which I have said that I too disapprove of. fault, you can conceive of winds as gentle and I shall perhaps tell you, if you first tell me mild; take from them the similarity of their whence are those good things which you too parts which gives them continuity of sub- are obliged to commend, if you would not be stance, and the unity essential to material altogether unreasonable. But why should I existence, and no nature remains to be con- ask this, when we both acknowledge that all ceived of. It would be tedious to go through good things whatever, and how great soever, all the cases; but all who consider the sub- are from the one God, who is supremely good? ject free from party spirit must see that in You must therefore yourselves oppose Manitheir list of natures the disagreeable things chæus who has placed all these important mentioned are additions to the nature; and good things which we have mentioned and when they are removed, the natures remain justly commended,—the continuity and agreebetter than before. This shows that the ment of parts in each nature, the health and natures, as far as they are natures, are good; vigor of the animated creatures, and the other for when you take from them the good in- things which it would be wearisome to repeat, stead of the evil, no natures remain. And —(in an imaginary region of darkness, so as attend, you who wish to arrive at a correct to separate them altogether from that God judgment, to what is said of the fierce prince whom he allows to be the author of all good If you take away his ferocity, see things.) He lost sight of those good things, how many excellent things will remain; his CHAP. 34.-NATURE CANNOT BE WITHOUT SOME EVILS. 37. But perhaps you will say that these evils cannot be removed from the natures, and must therefore be considered natural. The while taking notice only of what was disagreeable; as if one, frightened by a lion's roaring, and seeing him dragging away and tearing the bodies of cattle or human beings which he had seized, should from childish pusillanimity be so overpowered with fear as to see nothing but the cruelty and ferocity of the lion; and overlooking or disregarding all the other qualities, should exclaim against the nature of this animal as not only evil, but a great evil, his fear adding to his vehemence. But were he to see a tame lion, with its ferocity subdued, especially if he had never been frightened by a lion, he would have leisure, in the absence of danger and terror, to observe and admire the beauty of the animal. My only remark on this is one closely connected were not corrupted, it would be incorrupt; or with our subject: that any nature may be in if it could not in any way be corrupted, it some case disagreeable, so as to excite hatred would be incorruptible. Now, if corruption towards the whole nature; though it is clear is an evil, both incorruption and incorruptithat the form of a real living beast, even bility must be good things. We are not, when it excites terror in the woods, is far however, speaking at present of incorruptible better than that of the artificial imitation nature, but of things which admit of corrupwhich is commended in a painting on the tion, and which, while not corrupted, may be wall. We must not then be misled into this called incorrupt, but not incorruptible. That error by Manichæus, or be hindered from alone can be called incorruptible which not observing the forms of the natures, by his only is not corrupted, but also cannot in any finding fault with some things in them in such part be corrupted. Whatever things, then, a way as to make us disapprove of them being incorrupt, but liable to corruption, begin entirely, when it is impossible to show that to be corrupted, are deprived of the good they deserve entire disapproval. And when our minds are thus composed and prepared to form a just judgment, we may ask whence come those evils which I have said that I condemn. It will be easier to see this if we class them all under one name. CHAP. 35.—EVIL ALONE IS CORRUPTION. COR- which they had as incorrupt. Nor is this a slight good, for corruption is a great evil. And the continued increase of corruption implies the continued presence of good, of which they may be deprived. Accordingly, the natures supposed to exist in the region of darkness must have been either corruptible or incorruptible. If they were incorruptible, they were in possession of a good than which nothing is higher. If they were corruptible, they were either corrupted or not corrupted. If they were not corrupted, they were incorrupt, to say which of anything is to give it great praise. If they were corrupted, they were deprived of this great good of incorruption; but the deprivation implies the previous possession of the good they are deprived of; and if they possessed this good, they were not the perfection of evil, and consequently CHAP. 36.—THE SOURCE OF EVIL OR OF COR RUPTION OF GOOD. 39. For who can doubt that the whole of that which is called evil is nothing else than corruption? Different evils may, indeed, be called by different names; but that which is the evil of all things in which any evil is perceptible is corruption. So the corruption of an educated mind is ignorance; the corruption of a prudent mind is imprudence; the corruption of a just mind, injustice; the corruption all the Manichæan story is a falsehood. of a brave mind, cowardice; the corruption of a calm, peaceful mind, cupidity, fear, sorrow, pride. Again, in a living body, the corruption of health is pain and disease; the corrup- 41. After thus inquiring what evil is, and tion of strength is exhaustion; the corruption learning that it is not nature, but against naof rest is toil. Again, in any corporeal thing, ture, we must next inquire whence it is. If the corruption of beauty is ugliness; the cor- Manichæus had done this, he might have ruption of straightness is crookedness; the escaped falling into the snare of these serious corruption of order is confusion; the corrup- errors. Out of time and out of order, he tion of entireness is disseverance, or fracture, began with inquiring into the origin of evil, or diminution. It would be long and labori- without first asking what evil was; and so his ous to mention by name all the corruptions inquiry led him only to the reception of foolof the things here mentioned, and of count-ish fancies, of which the mind, much fed by less other things; for in many cases the words may apply to the mind as well as to the body, and in innumerable cases the corruption has a distinct name of its own. But enough has been said to show that corruption does harm only as displacing the natural condition; and so, that corruption is not nature, but against nature. And if corruption is the only evil to be found anywhere, and if corruption is not nature, no nature is evil. 40. But if, perchance, you cannot follow this, consider again, that whatever is corrupted is deprived of some good: for if it the bodily senses, with difficulty rids itself. Perhaps, then, some one, desiring no longer argument, but delivery from error, will ask, Whence is this corruption which we find to be the common evil of good things which are not incorruptible? Such an inquirer will soon find the answer if he seeks for truth with great earnestness, and knocks reverently with sustained assiduity. For while man can use words as a kind of sign for the expression of his thoughts, teaching is the work of the incorruptible Truth itself, who is the one true, the one internal Teacher. He became ex |