self to be admirable and desirable, what is this but to be cheated and misled by unreal goods? The man, then, who is temperate in such mortal and transient things has his rule of life confirmed by both Testaments, that he should love none of these things, nor think them desirable for their own sakes, but should use them as far as is required for the purposes and duties of life, with the moderation of an employer instead of the ardor of a lover. These remarks on temperance are few in proportion to the greatness of the theme, but perhaps too many in view of the task on hand. CHAP. 22.-FORTITUDE COMES FROM THE LOVE

OF GOD.

I

the New Testament, where it is said, "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience and experience, hope;" and where, in addition to these words, there is proof and confirmation of them from the example of those who spoke them; I will rather summon an example of patience from the Old Testament, against which the Manichæans make fierce assaults. Nor will I refer to the man who, in the midst of great bodily suffering, and with a dreadful disease in his limbs, not only bore human evils, but discoursed of things divine. Whoever gives considerate attention to the utterances of this man, will learn from every one of them what value is to be attached to those things which men try to keep in their power, 40. On fortitude we must be brief. The and in so doing are themselves brought by love, then, of which we speak, which ought passion into bondage, so that they become with all sanctity to burn in desire for God, is the slaves of mortal things, while seeking igcalled temperance, in not seeking for earthly norantly to be their masters. This man, in things, and fortitude, in bearing the loss of the loss of all his wealth, and on being sudthem. But among all things which are pos- denly reduced to the greatest poverty, kept sessed in this life, the body is, by God's most his mind so unshaken and fixed upon God, righteous laws, for the sin of old, man's as to manifest that these things were not great heaviest bond, which is well known as a fact, in his view, but that he was great in relation but most incomprehensible in its mystery. to them, and God to him. If this mind were Lest this bond should be shaken and dis- to be found in men in our day, we should not turbed, the soul is shaken with the fear of be so strongly cautioned in the New Testatoil and pain; lest it should be lost and de- ment against the possession of these things in stroyed, the soul is shaken with the fear of order that we may be perfect; for to have death. For the soul loves it from the force these things without cleaving to them is much of habit, not knowing that by using it well more admirable than not to have them at all.3 and wisely its resurrection and reformation will, by the divine help and decree, be without any trouble made subject to its authority. But when the soul turns to God wholly in this love, it knows these things, and so will not only disregard death, but will even desire it.

41. Then there is the great struggle with pain. But there is nothing, though of iron hardness, which the fire of love cannot subdue. And when the mind is carried up to God in this love, it will soar above all torture free and glorious, with wings beauteous and unhurt, on which chaste love rises to the embrace of God. Otherwise God must allow the lovers of gold, the lovers of praise, the lovers of women, to have more fortitude than the lovers of Himself, though love in those cases is rather to be called passion or lust. And yet even here we may see with what force the mind presses on with unflagging energy, in spite of all alarms, towards that it loves; and we learn that we should bear all things rather than forsake God, since those men bear so much in order to forsake Him.

2

43. But since we are speaking here of bearing pain and bodily sufferings, I pass from this man, great as he was, indomitable as he was: this is the case of a man. But these Scriptures present to me a woman of amazing fortitude, and I must at once go on to her case. This woman, along with seven children, allowed the tyrant and executioner to extract her vitals from her body rather than a profane word from her mouth, encouraging her sons by her exhortations, though she suffered in the tortures of their bodies, and was herself to undergo what she called on them to bear. What patience could be greater than this? And yet why should we be astonished that the love of God, implanted in her inmost heart, bore up against tyrant, and executioner, and pain, and sex, and natural affection? Had she not heard, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?" Had she not heard, "A patient man is better than the mightiest?"6 Had she not heard, "All that is appointed

1 Rom. v. 3. 4.

2 Job. i. 2.

3 [It is interesting to observe how remote Augustin was from atCHAP. 23.-SCRIPTURE PRECEPTS AND EXAM-taching superior merit to voluntary poverty, or to other forms of asceticism as ends in themselves. What he prized was the ability to use without abusing, to have without cleaving to the good things 5 Ps. cxvi. 15. 6 Prov. xvi. 32.

PLES OF FORTITUDE.

42. Instead of quoting here authorities from which God provides.-A. H. N.].

4 2 Mac. vii.

thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience: for in fire are gold and silver tried?" Had she not heard, The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?"'* These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these books, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit

who writes those in the New Testament.

CHAP. 24. OF JUSTICE AND PRUDENCE.

44. What of justice that pertains to God? As the Lord says, "Ye cannot serve two masters," and the apostle denounces those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, was it not said before in the Old Testament, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve?" I need say no more on this, for these books are full of such passages. The lover, then, whom we are describing, will get from justice this rule of life, that he must with perfect readiness serve the God whom he loves, the highest good, the highest wisdom, the highest peace; and as regards all other things, must either rule them as subject to himself, or treat them with a view to their subjection. This rule of life, is, as we have shown, confirmed by the authority of both Testaments.

998

CHAP. 25.-FOUR MORAL DUTIES REGARDING
THE LOVE OF GOD, OF WHICH LOVE THE RE-
WARD IS ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KNOWLEDGE
OF THE TRUTH.

46. I need say no more about right conduct. For if God is man's chief good, which you cannot deny, it clearly follows, since to seek the chief good is to live well, that to live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind; and, as arising from this, that this love must be preserved entire and incorrupt, which is the part of temperance; that it give way before no troubles, which is the part of fortitude; that it serve no other, which is the part of justice; that it be watchful in its inspection of things lest craft or fraud steal in, which is the part of prudence. This is the one perfection of man, by which alone he can succeed in attaining to the purity of truth. This both Testaments enjoin in concert; this is commended on both sides alike. Why do you continue to cast reproaches on Scriptures of which you are ignorant? Do you not see the folly of your attack upon books which only those who do not understand them find fault with, and which only those who find fault fail in understanding? For neither can an enemy know them, nor can one who knows them be other than a friend to them.

45. With equal brevity we must treat of prudence, to which it belongs to discern be47. Let us then, as many as have in view tween what is to be desired and what to be to reach eternal life, love God with all the shunned. Without this, nothing can be done heart, with all the soul, with all the mind. of what we have already spoken of. It is the For eternal life contains the whole reward in part of prudence to keep watch with most the promise of which we rejoice; nor can the anxious vigilance, lest any evil influence reward precede desert, nor be given to a man should stealthily creep in upon us. Thus the before he is worthy of it. What can be more Lord often exclaims, "Watch;" and He unjust than this, and what is more just than says, "Walk while ye have the light, lest God? We should not then demand the redarkness come upon you. And then it is ward before we deserve to get it. Here, said, "Know ye not that a little leaven leav- perhaps, it is not out of place to ask what is eneth the whole lump?" And no passage eternal life; or rather let us hear the Becan be quoted from the Old Testament more stower of it: "This," He says, "is life eterexpressly condemning this mental somno- nal, that they should know Thee, the true lence, which makes us insensible to destruc- God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast tion advancing on us step by step, than those words of the prophet, "He who despiseth small things shall fall by degrees." On this topic I might discourse at length did our haste allow of it. And did our present task demand it, we might perhaps prove the depth of these mysteries, by making a mock of which profane men in their perfect ignorance fall, not certainly by degrees, but with a headlong overthrow.

3 Matt. vi. 24.

Augustin to the Holy Spirit, 7. xxx.

5 Deut. vi. 13.

6 A name given by

8 John xii. 35.

7 Matt. xxiv. 42.

o Ecclus. xix. 1.

91 Cor. v. 6.

sent." " So eternal life is the knowledge of the truth. See, then, how perverse and preposterous is the character of those who think that their teaching of the knowledge of God will make us perfect, when this is the reward of those already perfect! What else, then, have we to do but first to love with full affection Him whom we desire to know? 12 Hence arises that principle on which we have all

when it is in his power, and as it is for these things which no loving man would do that men are called wicked, all that is required is, I think, proved by these words, "The love

CHAP. 26.-LOVE OF OURSELVES AND OF OUR of our neighbor worketh no ill." And if we

NEIGHBOR.

cannot attain to good unless we first desist from working evil, our love of our neighbor is a sort of cradle of our love to God, so that, as it is said, "the love of our neighbor worketh no ill," we may rise from this to these other words, "We know that all things issue in good to them that love God." 4

48. To proceed to what remains. It may be thought that there is nothing here about man himself, the lover. But to think this, shows a want of clear perception. For it is impossible for one who loves God not to love himself. For he alone has a proper love for 51. But there is a sense in which these himself who aims diligently at the attainment either rise together to fullness and perfection, of the chief and true good; and if this is or, while the love of God is first in beginning, nothing else but God, as has been shown, the love of our neighbor is first in coming to what is to prevent one who loves God from perfection. For perhaps divine love takes loving himself? And then, among men should hold on us more rapidly at the outset, but there be no bond of mutual love? Yea, verily; we reach perfection more easily in lower so that we can think of no surer step towards the love of God than the love of man to man. 49. Let the Lord then supply us with the other precept in answer to the question about the precepts of life; for He was not satisfied with one as knowing that God is one thing and man another, and that the difference is nothing less than that between the Creator and the thing created in the likeness of its Creator. He says then that the second precept is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection. For you do not love him as yourself, unless you try to draw him to that good which you are yourself pursuing. For this is the one good which has room for all to pursue it along with thee. From this precept proceed the duties of human society, in which it is hard to keep But the first thing to aim at is, that we should be benevolent, that is, that we cherish no malice and no evil design against another. For man is the nearest neighbor of

from error.

man.

66

50. Hear also what Paul says: "The love of our neighbor," he says, worketh no ill.'' 3 The testimonies here made use of are very short, but, if I mistake not, they are to the point, and sufficient for the purpose. And every one knows how many and how weighty are the words to be found everywhere in these books on the love of our neighbor. But as a man may sin against another in two ways, either by injuring him or by not helping him

[By authority Augustin does not mean the authority of the Church or of Scripture, but he refers to the loving recognition of the authority of God as the condition of true discipleship.-A. H. N.] 3 Rom. xiii. 10.

2 Matt. xxii. 39.

things. However that may be, the main point is this, that no one should think that while he despises his neighbor he will come to happiness and to the God whom he loves. And would that it were as easy to seek the good of our neighbor, or to avoid hurting him, as it is for one well trained and kindhearted to love his neighbor! These things require more than mere good-will, and can be done only by a high degree of thoughtfulness and prudence, which belongs only to those to whom it is given by God, the source of all good. On this topic-which is one, I think, of great difficulty--I will try to say a few words such as my plan admits of, resting all my hope in Him whose gifts these are.

CHAP. 27.-ON DOING GOOD TO THE BODY OF

OUR NEIGHBOR.

52. Man, then, as viewed by his fellowman, is a rational soul with a mortal and Therefore he earthly body in its service. the man's body, and partly to his soul. What who loves his neighbor does good partly to benefits the body is called medicine; what benefits the soul, discipline. Medicine here includes everything that either preserves or restores bodily health. It includes, theremedical men, properly so called, but also fore, not only what belongs to the art of food and drink, clothing and shelter, and every means of covering and protection to guard our bodies against injuries and mishaps from without as well as from within. For violence from without, produce loss of that hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and all health which is the point to be considered.

53. Hence those who seasonably and wisely supply all the things required for warding off

4 Rom. viii. 28.

But

these evils and distresses are called compas- the high and rare offices of the teacher are sionate, although they may have been so wise that no painful feeling disturbed their mind in the exercise of compassion. No doubt the word compassionate implies suffering in the heart of the man who feels for the sorrow of another. And it is equally true that a wise man ought to be free from all painful emotion when he assists the needy, when he gives food to the hungry and water to the thirsty, when he clothes the naked, when he takes the stranger into his house, when he sets free the oppressed, when, lastly, he extends his charity to the dead in giving them burial. Still the epithet compassionate is a proper one, although he acts with tranquillity of mind, not from the stimulus of painful feeling, but from motives of benevolence. There is no harm in the word compassionate when there is no passion in the case.

not much called for,-as, for instance, in ad-
vice and exhortation to give to the needy the
things already mentioned as required for the
body. To give such advice is to aid the mind
by discipline, as giving the things themselves
is aiding the body by our resources.
there are other cases where diseases of the
mind, many and various in kind, are healed
in a way strange and indescribable. Unless
His medicine were sent from heaven to men,
so heedlessly do they go on in sin, there
would be no hope of salvation; and, indeed,
even bodily health, if you go to the root of
the matter, can have come to men from none
but God, who gives to all things their being
and their well-being.

56. This discipline, then, which is the medicine of the mind, as far as we can gather from the sacred Scriptures, includes two 54. Fools, again, who avoid the exercise of things, restraint and instruction. Restraint compassion as a vice, because they are not implies fear, and instruction love, in the sufficiently moved by a sense of duty without person benefited by the discipline; for in the feeling also distressful emotion, are frozen giver of the benefit there is the love without into hard insensibility, which is very different the fear. In both of these God Himself, by from the calm of a rational serenity. God, whose goodness and mercy it is that we are on the other hand, is properly called com- anything, has given us in the two Testaments passionate; and the sense in which He is so a rule of discipline. For though both are will be understood by those whom piety and found in both Testaments, still fear is promidiligence have made fit to understand. nent in the Old, and love in the New; which There is a danger lest, in using the words of the apostle calls bondage in the one, and libthe learned, we harden the souls of the un- erty in the other. Of the marvellous order learned by leading them away from compas- and divine harmony of these Testaments it sion instead of softening them with the desire would take long to speak, and many pious of a charitable disposition. As compassion, and learned men have discoursed on it. The then, requires us to ward off these distresses theme demands many books to set it forth from others, so harmlessness forbids the in- and explain it as far as is possible for man. fliction of them. He, then, who loves his neighbor endeavors all he can to procure his safety in body and CHAP. 28.—ON DOING GOOD TO THE SOUL OF in soul, making the health of the mind the OUR NEIGHBOR. TWO PARTS OF DISCIPLINE, standard in his treatment of the body. And RESTRAINT AND INSTRUCTION. THROUGH as regards the mind, his endeavors are in this GOOD CONDUCT WE ARRIVE AT THE KNOWL-order, that he should first fear and then love God. This is true excellence of conduct, and thus the knowledge of the truth is acquired which we are ever in the pursuit of.

EDGE OF THE TRUTH.

55. As regards discipline, by which the health of the mind is restored, without which bodily health avails nothing for security against misery, the subject is one of great difficulty. And as in the body we said it is one thing to cure diseases and wounds, which few can do properly, and another thing to meet the cravings of hunger and thirst, and to give assistance in all the other ways in which any man may at any time help another; so in the mind there are some things in which

1 Retract. i. 7. $4:--"This does not mean that there are actual

ly in this life wise men such as are here spoken of. My words are not, although they are so wise,' but although they were so wise."

[Augustin's ideal wise man was evidently the "Gnostic of Clem

ent of Alexandria. The conception is Stoical and Neo-Platonic. -A. H. N.]

Old Testament.

57. The Manichæans agree with me as regards the duty of loving God and our neighbor, but they deny that this is taught in the How greatly they err in this is, I think, clearly shown by the passages quoted above on both these duties. But, in a single word, and one which only stark madness can oppose, do they not see the unreasonableness of denying that these very two precepts which they commend are quoted by the Lord in the Gospel from the Old Testa"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ment, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and the other, "Thou

CHAP. 29.—OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPT-by general agreement; and this being the