Chapter IV.—That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.

7. Doth, then, O Lord God of truth, whosoever knoweth those things therefore please Thee? For unhappy is the man who knoweth all those things, but knoweth Thee not; but happy is he who knoweth Thee, though these he may not know.261    What a contrast does his attitude here present to his supreme regard for secular learning before his conversion! We have constantly in his writings expressions of the same kind. On Psalm ciii. he dilates lovingly on the fount of happiness the word of God is, as compared with the writings of Cicero, Tully, and Plato; and again on Psalm xxxviii. he shows that the word is the source of all true joy. So likewise in De Trin. iv. 1: “That mind is more praiseworthy which knows even its own weakness, than that which, without regard to this, searches out and even comes to know the ways of the stars, or which holds fast such knowledge already acquired, while ignorant of the way by which itself to enter into its own proper health and strength.…Such a one has preferred to know his own weakness, rather than to know the walls of the world, the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles of heaven.” See iii. sec. 9, note, above.    He similarly exalts the claims of the Christian Church over Manichæanism in his Reply to Faustus (xxxii. 19): “If you submit to receive a load of endless fictions at the bidding of an obscure and irrational authority, so that you believe all those things because they are written in the books which your misguided judgment pronounces trustworthy, though there is no evidence of their truth, why not rather submit to the evidence of the gospel, which is so well-founded, so confirmed, so generally acknowledged and admired, and which has an unbroken series of testimonies from the apostles down to our own day, that so you may have an intelligent belief, and may come to know that all your objections are the fruit of folly and perversity?” And again, in his Reply to Manichæus’ Fundamental Epistle (sec. 18), alluding to the credulity required in those who accept Manichæan teaching on the mere authority of the teacher: “Whoever thoughtlessly yields this becomes a Manichæan, not by knowing undoubted truth, but by believing doubtful statements. Such were we when in our inexperienced youth we were deceived.” But he who knoweth both Thee and them is not the happier on account of them, but is happy on account of Thee only, if knowing Thee he glorify Thee as God, and gives thanks, and becomes not vain in his thoughts.262    Rom. i. 21.    He has a like train of thought in another place (De Fide Rer. quæ non Vid. sec. 4): “If, then (harmony being destroyed), human society itself would not stand if we believe not that we see not, how much more should we have faith in divine things, though we see them not; which if we have it not, we do not violate the friendship of a few men, but the profoundest religion—so as to have as its consequence the profoundest misery.” Again, referring to belief in Scripture, he argues (Con. Faust. xxxiii. 6) that, if we doubt its evidence, we may equally doubt that of any book, and asks, “How do we know the authorship of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varro, and other similar writers, but by the unbroken chain of evidence?” And once more he contends (De Mor. Cath. Eccles. xxix. 60) that, “The utter overthrow of all literature will follow and there will be an end to all books handed down from the past, if what is supported by such a strong popular belief, and established by the uniform testimony of so many men and so many times, is brought into such suspicion that it is not allowed to have the credit and the authority of common history.” But as he is happier who knows how to possess a tree, and for the use thereof renders thanks to Thee, although he may not know how many cubits high it is, or how wide it spreads, than he that measures it and counts all its branches, and neither owns it nor knows or loves its Creator; so a just man, whose is the entire world of wealth,263    Prov. xvii. 6, in the LXX.    See i. sec. 10, note, above. and who, as having nothing, yet possesseth all things264    2 Cor. vi. 10.    Matt. vii. 13. by cleaving unto Thee, to whom all things are subservient, though he know not even the circles of the Great Bear, yet it is foolish to doubt but that he may verily be better than he who can measure the heavens, and number the stars, and weigh the elements, but is forgetful of Thee, “who hast set in order all things in number, weight, and measure.”265    Wisd. xi. 20.

CAPUT IV. Sola Dei cognitio beat.

7. Numquid, Domine Deus veritatis, quisquis novit ista, jam placet tibi? Infelix enim homo qui scit illa omnia, te autem nescit: beatus autem qui te scit, etiamsi illa nesciat. Qui vero et te ut illa novit, non propter illa beatior, sed propter te solum beatus est, si cognoscens te, sicut Deum glorificet, et gratias agat, et non evanescat in cogitationibus suis. Sicut enim melior est qui novit possidere arborem, et de usu ejus tibi gratias agit, quamvis nesciat vel quot 0709 cubitis alta sit, vel quanta latitudine diffusa; quam ille qui eam metitur, et omnes ramos ejus numerat, et neque possidet eam, neque creatorem ejus novit aut diligit: sic fidelis homo, cujus totus mundus divitiarum est, et quasi nihil habens, omnia possidet, inhaerendo tibi cui serviunt omnia, quamvis nec saltem septentrionum gyros noverit; dubitare stultum est quin utique melior sit quam mensor coeli, et numerator siderum, et pensor elementorum, et negligens tui, qui omnia in mensura et numero et pondere disposuisti (Sap. XI, 21).