Letter CLIX.

(a.d. 415.)

To Evodius, My Lord Most Blessed, My Venerable and Beloved Brother and Partner in the Priestly Office, and to the Brethren Who are with Him, Augustin and the Brethren Who are with Him Send Greeting in the Lord.

1. Our brother Barbarus, the bearer of this letter, is a servant of God, who has now for a long time been settled at Hippo, and has been an eager and diligent hearer of the word of God. He requested from us this letter to your Holiness, whereby we commend him to you in the Lord, and convey to you through him the salutations which it is our duty to offer. To reply to those letters of your Holiness, in which you have interwoven questions of great difficulty, would be a most laborious task, even for men who are at leisure, and who are endowed with much greater ability in discussing and acuteness in apprehending any subject than we possess. One, indeed, of the two letters in which you ask many great questions has gone amissing, I know not how, and though long sought for cannot be found; the other, which has been found, contains a very pleasing account of a servant of God, a good and chaste young man, stating how he departed from this life, and by what testimonies, communicated through visions of the brethren, his merits were, as you state, made known to you. Taking occasion from this young man’s case, you propose and discuss an extremely obscure question concerning the soul,—whether it is associated when it goes forth from this body with some other kind of body, by means of which it can be carried to or confined in places having material boundaries? The investigation of this question, if indeed it admits of satisfactory investigation by beings such as we are, demands the most diligent care and labour, and therefore a mind absolutely at leisure from such occupations as engross my time. My opinion, however, if you are willing to hear it, summed up in a sentence, is, that I by no means believe that the soul in departing from the body is accompanied by another body of any kind.

2. As to the question how these visions and predictions of future events are produced, let him attempt to explain them who understands by what power we are to account for the great wonders which are wrought in the mind of every man when his thoughts are busy. For we see, and we plainly perceive, that within the mind innumerable images of many objects discernible by the eye or by our other senses are produced,—whether they are produced in regular order or in confusion matters not to us at present: all that we say is, that since such images are beyond all dispute produced, the man who is found able to state by what power and in what way these phenomena of daily and perpetual experience are to be accounted for is the only man who may warrantably venture to conjecture or propound any explanation of these visions, which are of exceedingly rare occurrence. For my part, as I discover more plainly my inability to account for the ordinary facts of our experience, when awake or asleep, throughout the whole course of our lives, the more do I shrink from venturing to explain what is extraordinary. For while I have been dictating this epistle to you, I have been contemplating your person in my mind,—you being, of course, absent all the while, and knowing nothing of my thoughts,—and I have been imagining from my knowledge of what is in you how you will be affected by my words; and I have been unable to apprehend, either by observation or by inquiry, how this process was accomplished in my mind. Of one thing, however, I am certain, that although the mental image was very like something material, it was not produced either by masses of matter or by qualities of matter. Accept this in the meantime from one writing under pressure of other duties, and in haste. In the twelfth of the books which I have written on Genesis this question is discussed with great care, and that dissertation is enriched with a forest of examples from actual experience or from trustworthy report. How far I have been competent to handle the question, and what I have accomplished in it, you will judge when you have read that work; if indeed the Lord shall be pleased in His kindness to permit me now to publish those books systematically corrected to the best of my ability, and thus to meet the expectation of many brethren, instead of deferring their hope by continuing further the discussion of a subject which has already engaged me for a long time.

3. I will narrate briefly, however, one fact which I commend to your meditation. You know our brother Gennadius, a physician, known to almost every one, and very dear to us, who now lives at Carthage, and was in other years eminent as a medical practitioner at Rome. You know him as a man of religious character and of very great benevolence, actively compassionate and promptly liberal in his care of the poor. Nevertheless, even he, when still a young man, and most zealous in these charitable acts, had sometimes, as he himself told me, doubts as to whether there was any life after death. Forasmuch, therefore, as God would in no wise forsake a man so merciful in his disposition and conduct, there appeared to him in sleep a youth of remarkable appearance and commanding presence, who said to him: “Follow me.” Following him, he came to a city where he began to hear on the right hand sounds of a melody so exquisitely sweet as to surpass anything he had ever heard. When he inquired what it was, his guide said: “It is the hymn of the blessed and the holy.” What he reported himself to have seen on the left hand escapes my remembrance. He awoke; the dream vanished, and he thought of it as only a dream.

4. On a second night, however, the same youth appeared to Gennadius, and asked whether he recognised him, to which he replied that he knew him well, without the slightest uncertainty. Thereupon he asked Gennadius where he had become acquainted with him. There also his memory failed him not as to the proper reply: he narrated the whole vision, and the hymns of the saints which, under his guidance, he had been taken to hear, with all the readiness natural to recollection of some very recent experience. On this the youth inquired whether it was in sleep or when awake that he had seen what he had just narrated. Gennadius answered: “In sleep.” The youth then said: “You remember it well; it is true that you saw these things in sleep, but I would have you know that even now you are seeing in sleep.” Hearing this, Gennadius was persuaded of its truth, and in his reply declared that he believed it. Then his teacher went on to say: “Where is your body now?” He answered: “In my bed.” “Do you know,” said the youth, “that the eyes in this body of yours are now bound and closed, and at rest, and that with these eyes you are seeing nothing?” He answered: “I know it.” “What, then,” said the youth, “are the eyes with which you see me?” He, unable to discover what to answer to this, was silent. While he hesitated, the youth unfolded to him what he was endeavoring to teach him by these questions, and forthwith said: “As while you are asleep and lying on your bed these eyes of your body are now unemployed and doing nothing, and yet you have eyes with which you behold me, and enjoy this vision, so, after your death, while your bodily eyes shall be wholly inactive, there shall be in you a life by which you shall still live, and a faculty of perception by which you shall still perceive. Beware, therefore, after this of harbouring doubts as to whether the life of man shall continue after death.” This believer says that by this means all doubts as to this matter were removed from him. By whom was he taught this but by the merciful, providential care of God?

5. Some one may say that by this narrative I have not solved but complicated the question. Nevertheless, while it is free to every one to believe or disbelieve these statements, every man has his own consciousness at hand as a teacher by whose help he may apply himself to this most profound question. Every day man wakes, and sleeps, and thinks; let any man, therefore, answer whence proceed these things which, while not material bodies, do nevertheless resemble the forms, properties, and motions of material bodies: let him, I say, answer this if he can. But if he cannot do this, why is he in such haste to pronounce a definite opinion on things which occur very rarely, or are beyond the range of his experience, when he is unable to explain matters of daily and perpetual observation? For my part, although I am wholly unable to explain in words how those semblances of material bodies, without any real body, are produced, I may say that I wish that, with the same certainty with which I know that these things are not produced by the body, I could know by what means those things are perceived which are occasionally seen by the spirit, and are supposed to be seen by the bodily senses; or by what distinctive marks we may know the visions of men who have been misguided by delusion, or, most commonly, by impiety, since the examples of such visions closely resembling the visions of pious and holy men are so numerous, that if I wished to quote them, time, rather than abundance of examples, would fail me.

May you, through the mercy of the Lord grow in grace, most blessed lord and venerable and beloved brother!

EPISTOLA CLIX . Augustinus Evodio, respondens ad quaestiones de anima soluta corpore, et de visis prodigiosis.

Domino beatissimo, et venerabili ac desiderabili fratri ac consacerdoti meo EVODIO, et tecum fratribus, AUGUSTINUS, et mecum fratres, in Domino salutem.

1. Frater iste nomine Barbarus, servus Dei est jam diu apud Hipponem constitutus, et verbi Dei fervidus ac studiosus auditor. Desideravit ad tuam Sanctitatem litteras nostras; in quibus tibi eum in Domino commendamus, tibique per eum salutem debitam dicimus. Litteris autem Sanctitatis tuae, quibus ingentes texuisti quaestiones, respondere operosissimum est, etiam otiosis, et multo majore quam nos sumus, praeditis facultate disserendi et acrimonia intelligendi. Duarum sane epistolarum tuarum, quibus multa et magna conquiris, una nescio quomodo aberravit, et diu quaesita non potuit reperiri: altera vero, quae inventa est, habet commendationem suavissimam servi Dei boni et casti adolescentis, quomodo ex hac vita migraverit, et quibus visionum fraternarum attestationibus 0699 meritum ejus vobis insinuari potuerit. Deinde ex hac occasione proponis et versas de anima obscurissimam quaestionem, utrum cum aliquo corpore egrediatur e corpore, quo possit ad corporalia loca ferri, vel locis corporalibus contineri. Hujus igitur rei tractatus, si tamen ad liquidum a talibus quales nos sumus, examinari potest, curam atque operam negotiosissimam postulat, ac per hoc mentem ab his occupationibus otiosissimam. Si autem breviter vis audire quid mihi videatur, nullo modo arbitror animam e corpore exire cum corpore.

2. Visiones autem illae, futurorumque praedictiones quomodo fiant, ille jam explicare conetur, qui novit qua vi efficiantur in unoquoque animo tanta, cum cogitat. Videmus enim, planeque cernimus in eo fieri rerum multarum visibilium, et ad caeteros corporis sensus pertinentium, innumerabiles imagines: quae non interest quam ordinate vel turbide fiant; sed tantum quia fiunt, quod manifestum est, qua vi et quomodo fiant quisquis potuerit explicare (quae omnia certe quotidiana sunt atque continua), audeat praesumere aliquid ac definire etiam de illis rarissimis visis. Ego autem tanto minus hoc audeo, quanto minus id quoque in nobis quod vita continua vigilantes dormientesque experimur, quo pacto fiat explicare sufficio. Non cum ad te dictarem hanc epistolam, teipsum animo contuebar, te utique absente atque nesciente, et quomodo possis his verbis moveri, secundum notitiam quae mihi de te inest, imaginabar; atque id quonam modo in animo meo fieret, capere ac investigare non poteram, certus tamen non fieri corporeis molibus, nec corporeis qualitatibus, cum corpori simillimum fieret: hoc interim habeas, ut ab occupato et festinante dictatum. In duodecimo autem libro eorum quos de Genesi scripsi, versatur haec quaestio vehementer, et ex multis rerum expertarum atque credibiliter auditarum exemplis disputatio illa silvescit. Quid in ea potuerimus vel effecerimus, cum legeris, judicabis; si tamen Dominus dignabitur donare ut eos mihi libros, quantum possum congruenter emendatos, jam liceat edere, et multorum fratrum exspectationem non jam longa disputatione suspendere.

3. Narrabo autem unum aliquid breviter unde cogites. Frater noster Gennadius, notissimus fere omnibus, nobisque charissimus medicus, qui nunc apud Carthaginem degit, et Romae suae artis exercitatione praepolluit, ut hominem religiosum nosti, atque erga pauperum curam impigra misericordia facillimoque animo benignissimum, dubitabat tamen aliquando, ut modo nobis retulit, cum adhuc esset adolescens, et in his eleemosynis ferventissimus, utrum esset ulla vita post mortem. Hujus igitur mentem et opera misericordiae quoniam Deus nullo modo desereret, apparuit illi in somnis conspicuus juvenis et dignus intendi, eique dixit: Sequere me. Quem dum sequeretur, venit ad quamdam civitatem, ubi audire coepit a dextera parte sonos suavissimae cantilenae, ultra solitam notamque suavitatem; tunc ille intento quidnam esset, ait hymnos esse beatorum atque sanctorum: 0700 sinistra autem parte quid se vidisse retulit, non satis memini. Evigilavit, et somnium fugit , tantumque de illo quantum de somnio cogitavit.

4. Alia vero nocte, ecce idem ipse juvenis eidem rursus apparuit, atque ab illo utrum cognosceretur interrogavit: respondit iste quod eum bene planeque cognosceret. Tunc ille quaesivit ubi se nosset. Nec memoriae defuit quid iste identidem responderet; totumque visum illud, hymnosque sanctorum ad quos audiendos eo duce venerat, qua recentissimos recordabatur facilitate narravit. Hic ille percontatus est utrumnam id quod narraverat, in somnis vidisset, an vigilans: respondit, in somnis. At ille, Bene, inquit, recolis: verum est, in somnis illa vidisti; sed etiam nunc in somnis te videre scias. Haec cum audisset iste, ita esse credidit, atque id responsione firmavit. Tunc qui hominem docebat, adjecit et ait: Ubi est modo corpus tuum? Ille respondit: In cubiculo meo. Scisne, inquit ille, in eodem corpusculo nunc illigatos esse, et clausos, et otiosos oculos tuos, nihilque illis oculis te videre? Respondit: Scio. Tunc ille: Qui sunt ergo, inquit, isti oculi quibus me vides? Ad hoc iste non inveniens quid responderet, obticuit. Cui haesitanti, ille quod his interrogationibus docere moliebatur, aperuit; et continuo: Sicut, inquit, illi oculi carnis tuae utique in dormiente atque in lectulo jacente, nunc vacant, nec aliquid operantur, et tamen sunt isti quibus me intueris, et ista uteris visione; ita cum defunctus fueris, nihil agentibus oculis carnis tuae vita tibi inerit qua vivas, sensusque quo sentias. Cave jam deinceps ne dubites vitam manere post mortem. Ita sibi homo fidelis ablatam dicit hujus rei dubitationem: quo docente, nisi providentia et misericordia Dei?

5. Ista narratione dixerit aliquis tantae rei nos non solvisse, sed vinxisse quaestionem. Verumtamen cum his verbis credere, vel non credere, liberum cuique sit; seipsum quisque habet, quo se avocet ad profundissimam quaestionem. Et vigilat homo, et dormit homo quotidie, et cogitat homo: dicat unde fiant ista similia formis, similia qualitatibus, similia motibus corporum, nec tamen materie corporali; dicat si potest. Si autem non potest, quid se praecipitat de rarissimis aut inexpertis quasi definitam ferre sententiam, cum continua et quotidiana non solvat? Ego autem, quamvis quo modo fiant ista veluti corporea sine corpore, verbis prorsus explicare non possim; tamen sicut scio non ea corpore fieri, utinam sic scirem quo modo discernerentur quae videntur aliquando per spiritum, et per corpus videri putantur; quove modo distinguantur visa eorum quos error vel impietas plerumque deludit, quando visis piorum atque sanctorum similia pleraque narrantur! quorum exempla si commemorare voluissem, tempus mihi potius quam copia defuisset. In Domini misericordia vegeteris, 0701 domine beatissime, et venerabilis et desiderabilis frater.