Letter XXVI.

(a.d. 395.)

To Licentius69    Licentius, son of Romanianus, had been a pupil of Augustin when he was in retirement at Cassiacum. In this letter and in the next we see proofs of Augustin’s pious solicitude for his welfare.from Augustin.

1. I have with difficulty found an opportunity for writing to you: who would believe it? Yet Licentius must take my word for it. I do not wish you to search curiously for the causes and reasons of this; for though they could be given, your confidence in me acquits me of obligation to furnish them. Moreover, I received your letters by messengers who were not available for the carrying back of my reply. And as to the thing which you asked me to ask, I attended to it by letter as far as it seemed to me right to bring it forward; but with what result you may have seen. If I have not yet succeeded, I will press the matter more earnestly, either when the result comes to my knowledge, or when you yourself remind me of it. Thus far I have spoken to you of the things in which we hear the sound of the chains of this life. I pass from them. Receive now in a few words the utterance of my heart’s anxieties concerning your hope for eternity, and the question how a way may be opened for you to God.

2. I fear, my dear Licentius, that you, while repeatedly rejecting and dreading the restraints of wisdom, as if these were bonds, are becoming firmly and fatally in bondage to mortal things. For wisdom, though at first it restrains men, and subdues them by some labours in the way of discipline, gives them presently true freedom, and enriches them, when free, with the possession and enjoyment of itself; and though at first it educates them by the help of temporary restraints, it folds them afterwards in its eternal embrace, the sweetest and strongest of all conceivable bonds. I admit, indeed, that these initial restraints are somewhat hard to bear; but the ultimate restraints of wisdom I cannot call grievous, because they are most sweet; nor can I call them easy, because they are most firm: in short, they possess a quality which cannot be described, but which can be the object of faith, and hope, and love. The bonds of this world, on the other hand, have a real harshness and a delusive charm, certain pain and uncertain pleasure, hard toil and troubled rest, an experience full of misery, and a hope devoid of happiness. And are you submitting neck and hands and feet to these chains, desiring to be burdened with honours of this kind, reckoning your labours to be in vain if they are not thus rewarded, and spontaneously aspiring to become fixed in that to which neither persuasion nor force ought to have induced you to go? Perhaps you answer, in the words of the slave in Terence,

“So ho, you are pouring out wise words here.”

Receive my words, then, that I may pour them out without wasting them. But if I sing, while you prefer to dance to another tune, even thus I do not regret my effort to give advice; for the exercise of singing yields pleasure even when the song fails to stir to responsive motion the person for whom it is sung with loving care. There were in your letters some verbal mistakes which attracted my attention, but I judge it trifling to discuss these when solicitude about your actions and your whole life disturbs me.

3. If your verses were marred by defective arrangement, or violated the laws of prosody, or grated on the ears of the hearer by imperfect rhythm, you would doubtless be ashamed, and you would lose no time, you would take no rest, until you arranged, corrected, remodelled, and balanced your composition, devoting any amount of earnest study and toil to the acquisition and practice of the art of versification: but when you yourself are marred by disorderly living, when you violate the laws of God, when your life accords neither with the honourable desires of friends on your behalf, nor with the light given by your own learning, do you think this is a trifle to be cast out of sight and out of mind? As if, forsooth, you thought yourself of less value than the sound of your own voice, and esteemed it a smaller matter to displease God by ill-ordered life, than to provoke the censure of grammarians by ill-ordered syllables.

4. You write thus: “Oh that the morning light of other days could with its gladdening chariot bring back to me bright hours that are gone, which we spent together in the heart of Italy and among the high mountains, when proving the generous leisure and pure privileges which belong to the good! Neither stern winter with its frozen snow, nor the rude blasts of Zephyrs and raging of Boreas, could deter me from following your footsteps with eager tread. You have only to express your wish.”70    Extract from a long poem, by Licentius, forming § 3 of the text.

Woe be to me if I do not express this wish, nay, if I do not compel and command, or beseech and implore you to follow me. If, however, your ear is shut against my voice, let it be open to your own voice, and give heed to your own poem: listen to yourself, O friend, most unyielding, unreasonable, and unimpressible. What care I for your tongue of gold, while your heart is of iron? How shall I, not in verses, but in lamentations, sufficiently bewail these verses of yours, in which I discover what a soul, what a mind that is which I am not permitted to seize and present as an offering to our God? You are waiting for me to express the wish that you should become good, and enjoy rest and happiness: as if any day could shine more pleasantly on me than that in which I shall enjoy in God your gifted mind, or as if you did not know how I hunger and thirst for you, or as if you did not in this poem itself confess this. Return to the mind in which you wrote these things; say to me now again, “You have only to express your wish.” Here then is my wish, if my expression of it be enough to move you to comply: Give yourself to me—give yourself to my Lord, who is the Lord of us both and who has endowed you with your faculties: for what am I but through Him your servant, and under Him your fellow-servant?

5. Nay, has not He given expression to His will? Hear the gospel: it declares, “Jesus stood and cried.”71    John vii. 37. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: so shall ye find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”72    Matt. xi. 28–30. If these words are not heard, or are heard only with the ear, do you, Licentius, expect Augustin to issue his command to his fellow-servant, and not rather complain that the will of his Lord is despised, when He orders, nay invites, and as it were entreats all who labour to seek rest in Him? But to your strong and proud neck, forsooth, the yoke of the world seems easier than the yoke of Christ; yet consider, in regard to the yoke which He imposes, by whom and with what recompense it is imposed. Go to Campania, learn in the case of Paulinus, that eminent and holy servant of God, how great worldly honours he shook off, without hesitation, from neck truly noble because humble, in order that he might place it, as he has done, beneath the yoke of Christ; and now, with his mind at rest, he meekly rejoices in Him as the guide of his way. Go, learn with what wealth of mind he offers to Him the sacrifice of praise, rendering unto Him all the good which he has received from Him, lest, by failing to store all that he has in Him from whom he received it, he should lose it all.

6. Why are you so excited? why so wavering? why do you turn your ear away from us, and lend it to the imaginations of fatal pleasures? They are false, they perish, and they lead to perdition. They are false, Licentius. “May the truth,” as you desire, “be made plain to us by demonstration, may it flow more clear than Eridanus.” The truth alone declares what is true: Christ is the truth; let us come to Him that we may be released from labour. That He may heal us, let us take His yoke upon us, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart, and we shall find rest unto our souls: for His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. The devil desires to wear you as an ornament. Now, if you found in the earth a golden chalice, you would give it to the Church of God. But you have received from God talents that are spiritually valuable as gold; and do you devote these to the service of your lusts, and surrender yourself to Satan? Do it not, I entreat you. May you at some time perceive with what a sad and sorrowful heart I have written these things; and I pray you, have pity on me if you have ceased to be precious in your own eyes.

EPISTOLA XXVI . Augustinus Licentium juvenem nobilem et doctum, quondam ipsius discipulum, hortatur ad mundi contemptum, abutens ad hoc ipsius Licentii carmine, quod ad praeceptorem scripserat.

LICENTIO AUGUSTINUS.

1. Vix reperi occasionem scribendi tibi; quis credat? Sed mihi tamen Licentium necesse est credere. Nolo te causas rationesque rimari, quae etiamsi reddi possent, fidei tamen, qua mihi credis, non eas debeo. Nam et litteras tuas non per eos accepi, per quos possem scripta redhibere. Quae autem petisti ut peterem, curavi per epistolam quantum promendum videbatur; sed quid effecerim tu videris. Quod si nondum effectum est, vel cum sciero, agam instantius, vel cum rursus ipse admonueris. Hactenus quae hujus vitae vincula perstrepunt, tecum locutus sim: nunc paucis accipe pectoris mei aestus de spe tua non transitoria, quonam modo via tibi patescat in Deum.

2. Mi Licenti, etiam atque etiam recusantem et formidantem compedes sapientiae, timeo te rebus mortalibus validissime et perniciosissime compediri. Nam sapientia quos primo alligaverit, et exercitatoriis quibusdam laboribus edomuerit, solvit postea , liberatisque sese donat ad fruendum; et quos primo temporalibus nexibus erudiverit, post aeternis amplexibus alligat; quo vinculo nec jucundius nec solidius 0104 cogitari quidquam potest. Prima haec aliquantulum dura esse confiteor; illa vero ultima nec dura dixerim, quia dulcissima sunt; nec mollia, quia firmissima: quid igitur nisi quod dici non potest, sed credi tamen et sperari et amari potest? Vincula vero hujus mundi asperitatem habent veram, jucunditatem falsam; certum dolorem, incertam voluptatem; durum laborem, timidam quietem; rem plenam miseriae, spem beatitudinis inanem. Hisne tu inseris et collum et manus et pedes, cum et honoribus hujuscemodi subjugari affectas, et facta tua non aliter fructuosa existimas, et ambis inhaerere, quo non modo invitatus, sed nec compulsus quidem ire debuisti? Hic tu fortasse Terentiani servi mihi responsum dederis: Ohe, tu verba fundis hic sapientia! (Terentius in Adelphis.)Cape igitur ut fundam potius quam effundam. Aut si ego canto, tu autem ad aliam vocem saltas, nec sic quidem me poenitet. Habet enim suam hilaritatem ipsa cantatio, etiam cum ad eam membra non movet, cui plena charitatis modulatione cantatur. Verba quaedam in epistolis tuis me moverunt, sed de his tractare, cum factorum vitaeque totius tuae cura excoquat, ineptum putavi.

Carmen Licentii ad Augustinum praeceptorem.

3. Arcanum Varronis iter scrutando profundi Mens hebet, adversamque fugit conterrita lucem. Nec mirum, jacet omnis enim mea cura legendi Te non dante manum, et consurgere sola veretur. Nam simul ut perplexa viri compendia tanti Volvere suasit amor, sacrosque attingere sensus, Quis numerûm dedit ille tonos, mundumque tonando Disseruit canere, et pariles agitare choreas, Implicuit varia nostrum caligine pectus, Induxitque animo rerum violentia nubem. Inde figurarum positas sine pulvere formas Posco amens, aliasque graves offendo tenebras. Ad summam , astrorum causas clarosque meatus, Obscuros quorum ille situs per nubila monstrat. Sic jacui nutans, ut talem omnino ruinam, Nec qui nos prohibet latebras agnoscere coeli, Nec persona daret tunctorum treta cavernis. Protea namque ferunt veterum commenta Pelasgum, Qui dum sollicitis non vult aperire futura, Spumat aper, fluit unda, fremitleo, sibilat anguis, Captum aliquando tamen in munera parva volucrum. At mihi, qui nimium curis gravioribus angor, Dulcia quaeque animae, subdulcia pabula quaero, Varronis responsa latent. Quod supplice cantu Praesidium nymphamve rogem et flumina poscam? An te voce vocem, clari quem rector Olympi Fontibus infantum praefecit, et abdita jussit Ubertate animi longe ructare fluenta? Ferto magister opem, ac tu tu ne desere vires Invalidas, mecumque sacras subvertere glebas Incipe: tempus enim, nisi me mortalia fallunt, Labitur, in seniumque trahit. Tibi noster Apollo Corda replet, patremque suum patremque deorum Conciliat, legemque bonam, pacemque cruentam Monstrat, et abducto velamine singula pandit. Viginti emensus nam longos forsitan orbes Solis eras, cum te ratio pulcherrima mundi, Ditior imperiis, et nectare dulcior omni Corripuit, statuitque vagum, medioque locavit, Omnibus unde aciem posses intendere rebus. O bone, carpe iter annorum, sapientia quantum Crescit amore sui, inveniens nova culmina semper. Perge viam qua te soboles praeclara tonantis Perducit, sternens in planos ardua campos. Et cum luciferos praecordia vesper in ortus Distulerit, sanctumque super benedixerit ignem, 0105 Sis memor ipse mei: bibulam qui ponitis aurem Legibus invictis, contundite pectora palmis, Sternite membra solo, meritosque ciete dolores, Et prohibete nefas, Deus imperat omnibus unum, Admonet antistes, venturaque fulmina terrent. O mihi transactos revocet si pristina soles Laetificis aurora rotis, quos libera tecum Otia tentantes, et candida jura bonorum, Duximus Italiae medio, montesque per altos! Non me dura gelu prohiberent frigora cano, Nec fera tempestas Zephyrûm, fremitusque Borini, Quin tua sollicito premerem vestigia passu. Hoc opus ut jubeas tantum, cruor irriget artus, Solstitio Neuros, bruma sectabimur Istrum. Ignotus Garamas solvet mihi vincula gentis . Xampaeosque lacus fugiens Hypaneius amnis Callipidum Scythicas resonat spumosus ad undas. Ibimus et Leucos, qua Leucia solis in ortus Tenditur: et vasti deserta cacumina Cassi, Queis Epidamneas aequat sibi Cassia rupes, Unde quiescentem auroram, currusque solutos, Sopitamque diem media sub nocte viderem, Te suadente petam: nec enim labor aut metus ullus Terret, ubi insontes precibus Deus audit apertis. Et nunc Romulidum sedes et inania tecti Culmina, bacchatasque domus, vanosque tumultus Desererem, et totus semel in tua corda venirem, Ni mens conjugio incumbens retineret euntem. Crede meis, o docte, malis, veroque dolori, Quod sine te nullos promittunt carbasa portus, Erramusque procul turbata per aequora vitae. Praecipites densa veluti caligine nautae, Quos furor australis, stridens et flatus ab Euro Perculit, et raptis privavit turbo magistris; Protinus abruptis miseri volvuntur in undis: Non forus aut prorae, non lintea deinde procellas Ferre valent, ratioque jacet stupefacta regendi: Sic me ventus agit, volvuntque cupidinis aestus In mare lethiferum, nec terrae protinus absunt. Sed mecum reputans, tua candida verba, magister, Haec magis esse reor tibi credere: callida res est, Decipit, atque animis molitur retia nostris. Praeteritos oblitus enim, praesentia praesto Nunc tibi, chare, tuo nos nunc de pectore lapsi. Heu mihi quo ferar, unde velim tibi pandere mentem! Ante sub Aegeo optabunt pia tecta palumbes, Et versa halcyone componet in arbore nidos; Esuriens vitulos alet ante leaena sequaces, Atque impasta diu teneros lupa nutriet agnos, Mutantesque suis divisum partibus orbem, Aut Barcaeus alet taurum, aut Hyrcania sauros : Ante Thyesteis iterum male territa mensis, Interrupta dies refugos vanescet in ortus; Ante dabunt imbres Nilum, super aethera damae Errabunt, montesque canent, et flumina plaudent, Quam mihi post tergum veniant tua dona, magister. Arcet amor, copulamque tenet communis honesti. Hic, hic regnat amicitiae decus hoste fugato. Nam neque propter opes vitreas, aurumque rebelle, Jungimus assensus animorum: nam neque vulgi Nos fortuna ruens, quae separat ardua, junxit. Sed labor interiora legens, vulgata libellis, Atque animis inventa tuis, et nobile dogma Indictum, contraque bonus responsa relatus. Et mea Calliope, quamvis te cominus altum Horreat, et vultus abscondat, inutile tractans: Hoc tamen, hoc animi vinclum, nexusque fideles, Non qui montosis firmatas rupibus Alpes Fregit, et Italicas pressit cum moenibus urbes, Rumperet, aut nostro terreret robore quidquam. Ite procul latices tumidis anfractibus Oxi, Aut ab Aremphaeis Rhiphaeos aut oppida Caspî, Cimmeriasque domos sejungere flumine largo: Maeotidumque plagae, Pontus quas obruit Helles, Europae atque Asiae longe discrimina tendant. Nonne boum per utrumque latus armenta fatigans Finibus abscidit Thalari Dodona Molossos, Cognatosque Arabas? nec pacis foedus amicum Sidonios inter mansit regnumque Pelopum, 0106 Sacrilegosque Phryges, quamvis pro tempore cunctis Hospitio commune fuit. Quid denique fratrum Dissidium, pugnasque canam? quid honesta parentum Verbera, quid matrum furias, natosque superbos? Est etiam superum concors discordia rerum, Totque fluunt ritus, quot dat sententia leges. Nec tenet unus amor, non si mihi murmura centum Det Boreas, totidemque animas, centumque per ora Lingua rigens adamante fremat, memorare valebo Quae sociata prius veterum natura locorum Distulit, et tereti limavit glarea mundo. Sed nos praetereo, quod ab una exsurgimus urbe, Quod domus una tulit, quod sanguine tangimur uno Seclorum, christiana fides connexuit, et quod Nos iter immensum disterminat, et plaga ponti Interfusa coercet; amor contemnit utrumque. Gaudia qui spernens oculorum, semper amico Absenti fruitur; quoniam de corde profundo Pendet, et internae rimatur pabula fibrae. Interea venient quaecumque futura bonorum Scripta salutiferi sermonis, et illa priorum Aequiparanda favis, reputans quae pectore in alto, Conceptum in lucem vomuisti nectareum mel, Praesentem ipsa mihi te reddent, si mihi morem Gesseris, et libros quibus in te lenta recumbit Musica tradideris, nam ferveo totus in illos. Annue, sic nobis verum ratione patescat, Sic plus Eridano fluat, et contagia mundi Nequicquam volitent nostri circum arva coloni.

4 . Si versus tuus momentis inordinatis perversus esset, si suis legibus non staret, si mensuris imparibus aures auditoris offenderet, puderet te certe, nec differres, nec desisteres donec ordinares, corrigeres, statueres, aequares versum tuum, discendo et agendo artem metricam acerrimo studio, et labore quolibet: quid cum inordinatus ipse perverteris, cum legibus Dei tui ipse non stas, neque in agenda vita honestis tuorum votis, et huic ipsi eruditioni tuae concinis, abjiciendum post tergum putas et negligendum? Quasi prae sono linguae tuae sis tibi vilior, et incompositis moribus quod offendis aures Dei levius sit, quam si incompositis syllabis tuis grammatica succenseret auctoritas. Scribis: O mihi transactos revocet si pristina soles Laetificis aurora rotis, quos libera tecum Otia tentantes, et candida jura bonorum, Duximus Italiae medio, montesque per altos! Non me dura gelu prohiberent frigora cano, Nec fera tempestas Zephyrûm fremitusque Borini, Quin tua sollicito premerem vestigia passu. Hoc opus, ut jubeas tantum.

Me miserum, si ego non jubeo, si non cogo atque impero, si non rogo ac supplico. Sed si aures tuae adversus meas voces clausae sunt, ori tuo pateant, pateant carmini tuo; exaudi teipsum, durissime, immanissime, surdissime. Quo mihi linguam auream et cor ferreum? quibus ego non carminibus, sed lamentationibus sufficiam plangere carmina tua, in quibus video, quam animam, quod ingenium non mihi liceat apprehendere, et immolare Deo nostro? Exspectas ut ego jubeam, sis bonus, sis quietus, sis beatus; quasi quidquam mihi dierum gratius illucescat, quam ut ingenio tuo fruar in Domino, aut vere tu nescias quam te esuriam et sitiam, aut non hoc ipso id carmine fatearis. Revoca animum quo ista scripsisti, nunc mihi dic: Hoc opus, ut jubeas tantum. Ecce jussum meum: da mihi te, si hoc opus est tantum; da Domino meo te, qui omnium nostrum dominus est, qui tibi illud donavit ingenium. Nam ego quid sum, 0107 nisi servus tuus per ipsum, et conservus sub ipso?

5. An ipse non jubet? audi Evangelium: Stabat, inquit, Jesus, et clamabat (Joan. VII, 37): Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego vos reficiam. Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Jugum enim meum lene est, et sarcina mea levis est. (Matth. XI, 28-30). Si haec non audiuntur, aut usque ad aures audiuntur, exspectasne, Licenti, ut Augustinus jubeat conservo suo, et non plangat potius frustra jubere Dominum suum; imo non jubere, sed invitare et rogare quodammodo, ut qui laborant reficiantur ab eo? Sed videlicet fortissimo et praefidenti collo, jugum mundi jugo Christi est jucundius: qui si laborare nos cogeret, vide quis cogeret, qua mercede cogeret. Vade in Campaniam, disce Paulinum egregium et sanctum Dei servum, quam grandem fastum seculi hujus, tanto generosiore, quanto humiliore cervice incunctanter excusserit, ut eam subderet Christi jugo, sicut subdidit; et nunc illo moderatore itineris sui quietus et modestus exsultat. Vade, disce quibus opibus ingenii sacrificia laudis ei offerat, refundens illi quidquid boni accepit ex illo, ne amittat omnia, si non in eo reponat a quo haec habet.

6. Quid aestuas? quid fluctuas? quid imaginationibus mortiferarum voluptatum aurem accommodas, et avertis a nobis? Mentiuntur, moriuntur, in mortem trahunt. Mentiuntur, Licenti: Sic nobis, sicuti optas, verum ratione patescat; Sic plus Eridano fluat. Non dicit verum nisi Veritas: Christus est veritas; veniamus ad eum, ne laboremus. Ut ipse nos reficiat, tollamus jugum ejus super nos, et discamus ab eo quoniam mitis est et humilis corde, et inveniemus requiem animabus nostris. Jugum enim ejus lene est, et sarcina ejus levis est. Ornari abs te diabolus quaerit. Si calicem aureum invenisses in terra, donares illum Ecclesiae Dei. Accepisti a Deo ingenium spiritualiter aureum, et ministras inde libidinibus, et in illo satanae propinas teipsum! Noli, obsecro; sic aliquando sentias quam misero et miserando pectore haec scripserim; et miserearis jam mei, si tibi viluisti.