Letter CXVIII.

(a.d. 410.)

Augustin to Dioscorus.

Chap. I.

1. You have sent suddenly upon me a countless multitude of questions, by which you must have purposed to blockade me on every side, or rather bury me completely, even if you were under the impression that I was otherwise unoccupied and at leisure; for how could I, even though wholly at leisure, furnish the solution of so many questions to one in such haste as you are, and, in fact, as you write, on the eve of a journey? I would, indeed, be prevented by the mere number of the questions to be resolved, even if their solution were easy. But they are so perplexingly intricate, and so hard, that even if they were few in number, and engaging me when otherwise wholly at leisure, they would, by the mere time required, exhaust my powers of application, and wear out my strength. I would, however, fain snatch you forcibly away from the midst of those inquiries in which you so much delight, and fix you down among the cares which engage my attention, in order that you may either learn not to be unprofitably curious, or desist from presuming to impose the task of feeding and fostering your curiosity upon men among whose cares one of the greatest is to repress and curb those who are too inquisitive. For if time and pains are devoted to writing anything to you, how much better and more profitably are these employed in endeavours to cut off those vain and treacherous passions (which are to be guarded against with a caution proportioned to the ease with which they impose upon us, by their being disguised and cloaked under the semblance of virtue and the name of liberal studies), rather than in causing them to be, by our service, or rather obsequiousness, so to speak, roused to a more vehement assertion of the despotism under which they so oppress your excellent spirit.

2. For tell me what good purpose is served by the many Dialogues which you have read, if they have in no way helped you towards the discovery and attainment of the end of all your actions? For by your letter you indicate plainly enough what you have proposed to yourself as the end to be attained by all this most ardent study of yours, which is at once useless to yourself and troublesome to me. For when you were in your letter using every means to persuade me to answer the questions which you sent, you wrote these words: “I might importune you at greater length, and through many of your dear friends; but I know your disposition, that you do not desire to be solicited, but show kindness readily to all, if only there be nothing improper in the thing requested: and there is absolutely nothing improper in what I ask. Be this, however, as it may, I beg you to do me this kindness, for I am on the point of embarking on a voyage.” In these words of your letter you are indeed right in your opinion as to myself, that I am desirous of showing kindness to all, if only there be nothing improper in the request made; but it is not my opinion that there is nothing improper in what you ask. For when I consider how a bishop is distracted and overwrought by the cares of his office clamouring on every side, it does not seem to me proper for him suddenly, as if deaf, to withdraw himself from all these, and devote himself to the work of expounding to a single student some unimportant questions in the Dialogues of Cicero. The impropriety of this you yourself apprehend, although, carried away with zeal in the pursuit of your studies, you will by no means give heed to it. For what other construction can I put on the fact that, after saying that in this matter there is absolutely nothing improper, you have immediately subjoined: “Be this, however, as it may, I beg you to do me this kindness, for I am on the point of embarking on a voyage”? For this intimates that in your view, at least, there is no impropriety in your request, but that whatever impropriety may be in it, you nevertheless ask me to do what you ask, because you are about to go on a voyage. Now what is the force of this supplementary plea—“I am on the point of embarking on a voyage”? Do you mean that, unless you were in these circumstances, I ought not to do you service in which anything improper may be involved? You think, forsooth, that the impropriety can be washed away by salt water. But even were it so, my share at least of the fault would remain unexpiated, because I do not propose undertaking a voyage.

3. You write, further, that I know how very painful it is to you to be burdensome to any one, and you solemnly protest that God alone knows how irresistible is the necessity under which you make the application. When I came to this statement in your letter, I turned my attention eagerly to learn the nature of the necessity; and, behold, you bring it before me in these words: “You know the ways of men, how prone they are to censure, and how any one will be regarded as illiterate and stupid who, when questions are addressed to him, can return no answer.” On reading this sentence, I felt a burning desire to reply to your letter; for, by the morbid weakness of mind which this indicated, you pierced my inmost heart, and forced your way into the midst of my cares, so that I could not refuse to minister to your relief, so far as God might enable me—not by devising a solution of your difficulties, but by breaking the connection between your happiness and the wretched support on which it now insecurely hangs, viz. the opinions of men, and fastening it to a hold which is firm and immovable. Do you not, O Dioscorus, remember an ingenious line of your favourite Persius, in which he not only rebukes your folly, but administers to your boyish head, if you have only sense to feel it, a deserved correction, restraining your vanity with the words, “To know is nothing in your eyes unless another knows that you know”?961    “Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.”—Persius, Sat. i. 27. You have, as I said before, read so many Dialogues, and devoted your attention to so many discussions of philosophers—tell me which of them has placed the chief end of his actions in the applause of the vulgar, or in the opinion even of good and wise men? But you,—and what should make you the more ashamed,—you, when on the eve of sailing away from Africa, give evidence of your having made signal progress, forsooth, in your studies here, when you affirm that the only reason why you impose the task of expounding Cicero to you upon bishops, who are already oppressed with work and engrossed with matters of a very different nature, is, that you fear that if, when questioned by men prone to censure, you cannot answer, you will be regarded by them as illiterate and stupid. O cause well worthy to occupy the hours which bishops devote to study while other men sleep!

4. You seem to me to be prompted to mental effort night and day by no other motive than ambition to be praised by men for your industry and acquisitions in learning. Although I have ever regarded this as fraught with danger to persons who are striving after the true and the right, I am now, by your case, more convinced of the danger than before. For it is due to no other cause than this same pernicious habit that you have failed to see by what motive we might be induced to grant to you what you asked; for as by a perverted judgment you yourself are urged on to acquire a knowledge of the things about which you put questions, from no other motive than that you may receive praise or escape censure from men, you imagine that we, by a like perversity of judgment, are to be influenced by the considerations alleged in your request. Would that, when we declare to you that by your writing such things concerning yourself we are moved, not to grant your request, but to reprove and correct you, we might be able to effect for you also complete emancipation from the influence of a boon so worthless and deceitful as the applause of men! “It is the manner of men,” you say, “to be prone to censure.” What then? “Any one who can make no reply when questions are addressed to him,” you say, “will be regarded as illiterate and stupid.” Behold, then, I ask you a question not concerning something in the books of Cicero, whose meaning, perchance, his readers may not be able to find, but concerning your own letter and the meaning of your own words. My question is: Why did you not say, “Any one who can make no reply will be proved to be illiterate and stupid,” but prefer to say, “He will be regarded as illiterate and stupid “? Why, if not for this reason, that you yourself already understand well enough that the person who fails to answer such questions is not in reality, but only in the opinion of some, illiterate and stupid? But I warn you that he who fears to be subjected to the edge of the pruning-hook by the tongues of such men is a sapless log, and is therefore not only regarded as illiterate and stupid, but is actually such, and proved to be so.

5. Perhaps you will say, “But seeing that I am not stupid, and that I am specially earnest in striving not to be stupid, I am reluctant even to be regarded as stupid.” And rightly so; but I ask, What is your motive in this reluctance? For in stating why you did not hesitate to burden us with those questions which you wish to have solved and explained, you said that this was the reason, and that this was the end, and an end so necessary in your estimation that you said it was of overwhelming urgency,—lest, forsooth, if you were posed with these questions and gave no answer, you should be regarded as illiterate and stupid by men prone to censure. Now, I ask, is this [jealousy as to your own reputation] the whole reason why you beg this from us, or is it because of some ulterior object that you are unwilling to be thought illiterate and stupid? If this be the whole reason, you see, as I think, that this one thing [the praise of men] is the end pursued by that vehement zeal of yours, by which, as you admit, a burden is imposed on us. But, from Dioscorus, what can be to us a burden, except that burden which Dioscorus himself unconsciously bears,—a burden which he will begin to feel only when he attempts to rise,—a burden of which I would fain believe that it is not so bound to him as to defy his efforts to shake his shoulders free? And this I say not because these questions engage your studies, but because they are studied by you for such an end. For surely you by this time feel that this end is trivial, unsubstantial, and light as air. It is also apt to produce in the soul what may be likened to a dangerous swelling, beneath which lurk the germs of decay, and by it the eye of the mind becomes suffused, so that it cannot discern the riches of truth. Believe this, my Dioscorus, it is true: so shall I enjoy thee in unfeigned longing for truth, and in that essential dignity of truth by the shadow of which you are turned aside. If I have failed to convince you of this by the method which I have now used, I know no other that I can use. For you do not see it; nor can you possibly see it so long as you build your joys on the crumbling foundation of human applause.

6. If, however, this be not the end aimed at in these actions and by this zeal of yours, but there is some other ulterior reason for your unwillingness to be regarded as illiterate and stupid, I ask what that reason is. If it be to remove impediments to the acquisition of temporal riches, or the obtaining of a wife, or the grasping of honours, and other things of that kind which are flowing past with a headlong current, and dragging to the bottom those who fall into them, it is assuredly not our duty to help you towards that end, nay, rather we ought to turn you away from it. For we do not so forbid your fixing the aim of your studies in the precarious possession of renown as to make you leave, as it were, the waters of the Mincius and enter the Eridanus, into which, perchance, the Mincius would carry you even without yourself making the change. For when the vanity of human applause has failed to satisfy the soul, because it furnishes for its nourishment nothing real and substantial, this same eager desire compels the mind to go on to something else as more rich and productive; and if, nevertheless, this also belong to the things which pass away with time, it is as when one river leads us into another, so that there can be no rest from our miseries so long as the end aimed at in our discharge of duty is placed in that which is unstable. We desire, therefore, that in some firm and immutable good you should fix the home of your most stedfast efforts, and the perfectly secure resting-place of all your good and honourable activity. Is it, perchance, your intention, if you succeed by the breath of propitious fame, or even by spreading your sails for its fitful gusts, in reaching that earthly happiness of which I have spoken, to make it subservient to the acquisition of the other—the sure and true and satisfying good? But to me it does not seem probable—and truth itself forbids the supposition—that it should be reached either by such a circuitous way when it is at hand, or at such cost when it is freely given.

7. Perhaps you think that we ought to turn the praise of men itself to good account as an instrument for making others accessible to counsels regarding that which is good and useful; and perhaps you are anxious lest, if men regard you as illiterate and stupid, they think you unworthy to receive their earnest or patient attention, if you were either exhorting any one to do well, or reproving the malice and wickedness of an evil-doer. If, in proposing these questions, you contemplated this righteous and beneficent end, we have certainly been wronged by your not giving the preference to this in your letter as the consideration by which we might be moved either to grant willingly what you asked, or, if declining your request, to do so on the ground of some other cause which might perchance prevent us, but not on the ground of our being ashamed to accept the position of serving or even not resisting the aspirations of your vanity. For, I pray you, consider how much better and more profitable it is for you to receive from us with far more certainty and with less loss of time those principles of truth by which you can for yourself refute all that is false, and by so doing be prevented from cherishing an opinion so false and contemptible as this—that you are learned and intelligent if you have studied with a zeal in which there is more pride than prudence the worn-out errors of many writers of a bygone age. But this opinion I do not suppose you now to hold, for surely I have not in vain spoken so long to Dioscorus things so manifestly true; and from this, as understood, I proceed with my letter.

Chap. II.

8. Wherefore, seeing that you do not consider a man illiterate and stupid merely on the ground of ignorance of these things, but only if he be ignorant of the truth itself, and that, consequently, the opinions of any one who has written or may have written on these subjects are either true, and therefore are already held by you, or false, and therefore you may be content not to know them, and need not be consumed with vain solicitude about knowing the variety of the opinions of other men under the fear of otherwise remaining illiterate and stupid,—seeing, I say, that this is the case, let us now, if you please, consider whether, in the event of other men, who are, as you say, prone to censure, finding you ignorant of these things, and therefore regarding you, though falsely, as an illiterate and stupid person, this mistake of theirs ought to have so much weight with you as to make it not unseemly for you to apply to bishops for instruction in these things. I propose this on the assumption that we now believe you to be seeking this instruction in order that by it you may be helped in recommending the truth to men, and in reclaiming men who, if they supposed you to be illiterate and stupid in regard to those books of Cicero, would regard you as a person from whom they considered it unworthy of them to receive any useful or profitable instruction. Believe me, you are under a mistake.

9. For, in the first place, I do not at all see that, in the countries in which you are so afraid of being esteemed deficient in education and acuteness, there are any persons who will ask you a single question about these matters. Both in this country, to which you came to learn these things, and at Rome, you know by experience how little they are esteemed, and that, in consequence, they are neither taught nor learned; and throughout all Africa, so far are you from being troubled by any such questioner, that you cannot find any one who will be troubled with your questions, and are compelled by the dearth of such persons to send your questions to bishops to be solved by them: as if, indeed, these bishops, although in their youth, under the influence of the same ardour—let me rather say error—which carries you away, they were at pains to learn these things as matters of great moment, permitted them still to remain in memory now that their heads are white with age and they are burdened with the responsibilities of episcopal office; or as if, supposing them to desire to retain these things in memory, greater and graver cares would not in spite of their desire banish them from their hearts; or as if, in the event of some of these things lingering in recollection by the force of long habit, they would not wish rather to bury in utter oblivion what was thus remembered, than to answer senseless questions at a time when, even amidst the comparative leisure enjoyed in the schools and in the lecture-rooms of rhetoricians, they seem to have so lost both voice and vigour that, in order to have instruction imparted concerning them, it is deemed necessary to send from Carthage to Hippo,—a place in which all such things are so unwonted and so wholly foreign, that if, in taking the trouble of writing an answer to your question, I wished to look at any passage to discover the order of thought in the context preceding or following the words requiring exposition, I would be utterly unable to find a manuscript of the works of Cicero. However, these teachers of rhetoric in Carthage who have failed to satisfy you in this matter are not only not blamed, but, on the contrary, commended by me, if, as I suppose, they have not forgotten that the scene of these contests was wont to be, not the Roman forum, but the Greek gymnasia. But when you have applied your mind to these gymnasia, and have found even them to be in such things bare and cold, the church of the Christians of Hippo occurred to you as a place where you might lay down your cares, because the bishop now occupying that see at one time took fees for instructing boys in these things. But, on the one hand, I do not wish you to be still a boy, and, on the other hand, it is not becoming for me, either for a fee or as a favour, to be dealing now in childish things. This, therefore, being the case—seeing, that is to say, that these two great cities, Rome and Carthage, the living centres of Latin literature, neither try your patience by asking you such questions as you speak of, nor care patiently to listen to you when you propound them, I am amazed in a degree beyond all expression that a young man of your good sense should be afraid lest you should be afflicted with any questioner on these subjects in the cities of Greece and of the East. You are much more likely to hear jackdaws962    Corniculas. The lapse of centuries may have introduced into the north of Africa birds unknown in Augustin’s time. The translator has seen these birds in Egypt. in Africa than this manner of conversation in those lands.

10. Suppose, however, in the next place, that I am wrong, and that perchance some one should arise putting questions like these,—a phenomenon the more unwelcome because in those parts peculiarly absurd,—are you not much more afraid lest far more readily men arise who, being Greeks, and finding you settled in Greece, and acquainted with the Greek language as your mother tongue, may ask you some things in the original works of their philosophers which Cicero may not have put into his treatises? If this happen, what reply will you make? Will you say that you preferred to learn these things from the books of Latin rather than of Greek authors? By such an answer you will, in the first place, put an affront upon Greece; and you know how men of that nation resent this. And in the next place, they being now wounded and angry, how readily will you find what you are too anxious to avoid, that they will count you on the one hand stupid, because you preferred to learn the opinions of the Greek philosophers, or, more properly speaking, some isolated and scattered tenets of their philosophy, in Latin dialogues, rather than to study the complete and connected system of their opinions in the Greek originals, and, on the other hand, illiterate, because, although ignorant of so many things written in your language, you have unsuccessfully laboured to gather some of them together from writings in a foreign tongue. Or will you perhaps reply that you did not despise the Greek writings on these subjects, but that you devoted your attention first to the study of Latin works, and now, proficient in these, are beginning to inquire after Greek learning? If this does not make you blush, to confess that you, being a Greek, have in your boyhood learned Latin, and are now, like a man of some foreign nation,963    Barbarum. desirous of studying Greek literature, surely you will not blush to own that in the department of Latin literature you are ignorant of some things, of which you may perceive how many versed in Latin learning are equally ignorant, if you will only consider that, although living in the midst of so many learned men in Carthage, you assure me that it is under the pressure of necessity that you impose this burden on me.

11. Finally, suppose that you, being asked all those questions which you have submitted to me, have been able to answer them all. Behold! you are now spoken of as most learned and most acute; behold! now this insignificant breath of Greek laudation raises you to heaven. Be it yours now to remember your responsibilities and the end for which you coveted these praises, namely, that to men who have been easily won to admire you by these trifles, and who are now hanging most affectionately and eagerly on your lips, you may impart some truly important and wholesome instruction; and I should like to know whether you possess, and can rightly impart to others, that which is truly most important and wholesome. For it is absurd if, after learning many unnecessary things with a view to preparing the ears of men to receive what is necessary, you be found not to possess those necessary things for the reception of which you have by these unnecessary things prepared the way; it is absurd if, while busying yourself with learning things by which you may win men’s attention, you refuse to learn that which may be poured into their minds when their attention is secured. But if you reply that you have already learned this, and say that the truth supremely necessary is Christian doctrine, which I know that you esteem above all other things, placing in it alone your hope of everlasting salvation, then surely this does not demand a knowledge of the Dialogues of Cicero, and a collection of the beggarly and divided opinions of other men, in order to your persuading men to give it a hearing. Let your character and manner of life command the attention of those who are to receive any such teaching from you. I would not have you open the way for teaching truth by first teaching what must be afterwards unlearned.

12. For if the knowledge of the discordant and mutually contradictory opinions of others is of any service to him who would obtain an entrance for Christian truth in overthrowing the opposition of error, it is useful only in the way of preventing the assailant of the truth from being at liberty to fix his eye solely on the work of controverting your tenets, while carefully hiding his own from view. For the knowledge of the truth is of itself sufficient both to detect and to subvert all errors, even those which may not have been heard before, if only they are brought forward. If, however, in order to secure not only the demolition of open errors, but also the rooting out of those which lurk in darkness, it is necessary for you to be acquainted with the erroneous opinions which others have advanced, let both eye and ear be wakeful, I beseech you,—look well and listen well whether any of our assailants bring forward a single argument from Anaximenes and from Anaxagoras, when, though the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies were more recent and taught largely, even their ashes are not so warm as that a single spark can be struck out from them against the Christian faith. The din which resounds in the battle-field of controversy now comes from innumerable small companies and cliques of sectaries, some of them easily discomfited, others presuming to make bold resistance,—such as the partisans of Donatus, Maximian, and Manichæus here, or the unruly herds of Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, and Cataphrygians and other pests which abound in the countries to which you are on your way. If you shrink from the task of acquainting yourself with the errors of all these sects, what occasion have we in defending the Christian religion to inquire after the tenets of Anaximenes, and with idle curiosity to awaken anew controversies which have slept for ages, when already the cavillings and arguments even of some of the heretics who claimed the glory of the Christian name, such as the Marcionites and the Sabellians, and many more, have been put to silence? Nevertheless, if it be necessary, as I have said, to know beforehand some of the opinions which war against the truth, and become thoroughly conversant with these, it is our duty to give a place in such study to the heretics who call themselves Christians, much rather than to Anaxagoras and Democritus.

Chap. III.

13. Again, whoever may put to you the questions which you have propounded to us, let him understand that, under the guidance of deeper erudition and greater wisdom, you are ignorant of things like these. For if Themistocles regarded it as a small matter that he was looked upon as imperfectly educated when he had declined to play on the lyre at a banquet, and at the same time, when, after he had confessed ignorance of this accomplishment, one said, “What, then, do you know?” gave as his reply, “The art of making a small republic great”—are you to hesitate about admitting ignorance in trifles like these, when it is in your power to answer any one who may ask, “What, then, do you know?”—“The secret by which without such knowledge a man may be blessed”? And if you do not yet possess this secret, you act in searching into those other matters with as blind perversity as if, when labouring under some dangerous disease of the body, you eagerly sought after dainties in food and finery in dress, instead of physic and physicians. For this attainment ought not to be put off upon any pretext whatever, and no other knowledge ought, especially in our age, to receive a prior place in your studies. And now see how easily you may have this knowledge if you desire it. He who inquires how he may attain a blessed life is assuredly inquiring after nothing else than this: where is the highest good? in other words, wherein resides man’s supreme good, not according to the perverted and hasty opinions of men, but according to the sure and immovable truth? Now its residence is not found by any one except in the body, or in the mind, or in God, or in two of these, or in the three combined. If, then, you have learned that neither the supreme good nor any part whatever of the supreme good is in the body, the remaining alternatives are, that it is in the mind, or in God, or in both combined. And if now you have also learned that what is true of the body in this respect is equally true of the mind, what now remains but God Himself as the One in whom resides man’s supreme good?—not that there are no other goods, but that good is called the supreme good to which all others are related. For every one is blessed when he enjoys that for the sake of which he desires to have all other things, seeing that it is loved for its own sake, and not on account of something else. And the supreme good is said to be there because at this point nothing is found towards which the supreme good can go forth, or to which it is related. In it is the resting-place of desire; in it is assured fruition; in it the most tranquil satisfaction of a will morally perfect.

14. Give me a man who sees at once that the body is not the good of the mind, but that the mind is rather the good of the body: with such a man we would, of course, forbear from inquiring whether the highest good of which we speak, or any part of it, is in the body. For that the mind is better than the body is a truth which it would be utter folly to deny. Equally absurd would it be to deny that that which gives a happy life, or any part of a happy life, is better than that which receives the boon. The mind, therefore, does not receive from the body either the supreme good or any part of the supreme good. Men who do not see this have been blinded by that sweetness of carnal pleasures which they do not discern to be a consequence of imperfect health. Now, perfect health of body shall be the consummation of the immortality of the whole man. For God has endowed the soul with a nature so powerful, that from that consummate fulness of joy which is promised to the saints in the end of time, some portion overflows also upon the lower part of our nature, the body,—not the blessedness which is proper to the part which enjoys and understands, but the plenitude of health, that is, the vigour of incorruption. Men who, as I have said, do not see this war with each other in unsatisfactory debates, each maintaining the view which may please his own fancy, but all placing the supreme good of man in the body, and so stir up crowds of disorderly carnal minds, of whom the Epicureans have flourished in pre-eminent estimation with the unlearned multitude.

15. Give me a man who sees at once, moreover, that when the mind is happy, it is happy not by good which belongs to itself, else it would never be unhappy: and with such a man we would, of course, forbear from inquiring whether that highest and, so to speak, bliss-bestowing good, or any part of it, is in the mind. For when the mind is elated with joy in itself, as if in good which belongs to itself, it is proud. But when the mind perceives itself to be mutable,—a fact which may be learned from this, even though nothing else proved it, that the mind from being foolish may be made wise,—and apprehends that wisdom is unchangeable, it must at the same time apprehend that wisdom is superior to its own nature, and that it finds more abundant and abiding joy in the communications and light of wisdom than in itself. Thus desisting and subsiding from boasting and self-conceit, it strives to cling to God, and to be recruited and reformed by Him who is unchangeable; whom it now understands to be the Author not only of every species of all things with which it comes in contact, either by the bodily senses or by intellectual faculties, but also of even the very capacity of taking form before any form has been taken, since the formless is defined to be that which can receive a form. Therefore it feels its own instability more, just in proportion as it clings less to God, whose being is perfect: it discerns also that the perfection of His being is consummate because He is immutable, and therefore neither gains nor loses, but that in itself every change by which it gains capacity for perfect clinging to God is advantageous, but every change by which it loses is pernicious, and further, that all loss tends towards destruction; and although it is not manifest whether any thing is ultimately destroyed, it is manifest to every one that the loss brings destruction so far that the object no longer is what it was. Whence the mind infers that the one reason why things suffer loss, or are liable to suffer loss, is, that they were made out of nothing; so that their property of being, and of permanence, and the arrangement whereby each finds even according to its imperfections its own place in the complex whole, all depend on the goodness and omnipotence of Him whose being is perfect,964    Qui summe est. and who is the Creator able to make out of nothing not only something, but something great; and that the first sin, i.e. the first voluntary loss, is rejoicing in its own power: for it rejoices in something less than would be the source of its joy if it rejoiced in the power of God, which is unquestionably greater. Not perceiving this, and looking only to the capacities of the human mind, and the great beauty of its achievements in word and deed, some, who would have been ashamed to place man’s supreme good in the body, have, by placing it in the mind, assigned to it unquestionably a lower sphere than that assigned to it by unsophisticated reason. Among Greek philosophers who hold these views, the chief place both in number of adherents and in subtlety of disputation has been held by the Stoics, who have, however, in consequence of their opinion that in nature everything is material, succeeded in turning the mind rather from carnal than material objects.

16. Among those, again, who say that our supreme and only good is to enjoy God, by whom both we ourselves and all things were made, the most eminent have been the Platonists, who not unreasonably judged it to belong to their duty to confute the Stoics and Epicureans—the latter especially, and almost exclusively. The Academic School is identical with the Platonists, as is shown plainly enough by the links of unbroken succession connecting the schools. For if you ask who was the predecessor of Arcesilas, the first who, announcing no doctrine of his own, set himself to the one work of refuting the Stoics and Epicureans, you will find that it was Polemo; ask who preceded Polemo, it was Xenocrates; but Xenocrates was Plato’s disciple, and by him appointed his successor in the academy. Wherefore, as to this question concerning the supreme good, if we set aside the representatives of conflicting views, and consider the abstract question, you find at once that two errors confront each other as diametrically opposed—the one declaring the body, and the other declaring the mind to be the seat of the supreme good of men. You find also that truly enlightened reason, by which God is perceived to be our supreme good, is opposed to both of these errors, but does not impart the knowledge of what is true until it has first made men unlearn what is false. If now you consider the question in connection with the advocates of different views, you will find the Epicureans and Stoics most keenly contending with each other, and the Platonists, on the other hand, endeavouring to decide the controversy between them, concealing the truth which they held, and devoting themselves only to prove and overthrow the vain confidence with which the others adhered to error.

17. It was not in the power of the Platonists, however, to be so efficient in supporting the side of reason enlightened by truth, as the others were in supporting their own errors. For from them all there was then withheld that example of divine humility, which, in the fullness of time,965    Opportunissimo tempore. was furnished by our Lord Jesus Christ,—that one example before which, even in the mind of the most headstrong and arrogant, all pride bends, breaks, and dies. And therefore the Platonists, not being able by their authority to lead the mass of mankind, blinded by love of earthly things, into faith in things invisible,—although they saw them moved, especially by the arguments of the Epicureans, not only to drink freely the cup of the pleasures of the body to which they were naturally inclined, but even to plead for these, affirming that they constitute man’s highest good; although, moreover, they saw that those who were moved to abstinence from these pleasures by the praise of virtue found it easier to regard pleasure as having its true seat in the soul, whence the good actions, concerning which they were able, in some measure, to form an opinion, proceeded,—at the same time, saw that if they attempted to introduce into the minds of men the notion of something divine and supremely immutable, which cannot be reached by any one of the bodily senses, but is apprehensible only by reason, which, nevertheless, surpasses in its nature the mind itself, and were to teach that this is God, set before the human soul to be enjoyed by it when purged from all stains of human desires, in whom alone every longing after happiness finds rest, and in whom alone we ought to find the consummation of all good,—men would not understand them, and would much more readily award the palm to their antagonists, whether Epicureans or Stoics; the result of which would be a thing most disastrous to the human race, namely, that the doctrine, which is true and profitable, would become sullied by the contempt of the uneducated masses. So much in regard to Ethical questions.

18. As to Physics, if the Platonists taught that the originating cause of all natures is immaterial wisdom, and if, on the other hand, the rival sects of philosophers never got above material things, while the beginning of all things was attributed by some to atoms, by others to the four elements, in which fire was of special power in the construction of all things,—who could fail to see to which opinion a favourable verdict would be given, when the great mass of unthinking men are enthralled by material things, and can in no wise comprehend that an immaterial power could form the universe?

19. The department of dialectic questions remains to be discussed; for, as you are aware, all questions in the pursuit of wisdom are classified under three heads,—Ethics, Physics, and Dialectics. When, therefore, the Epicureans said that the senses are never deceived, and, though the Stoics admitted that they sometimes are mistaken, both placed in the senses the standard by which truth is to be comprehended, who would listen to the Platonists when both of these sects opposed them? Who would look upon them as entitled to be esteemed men at all, and much less wise men, if, without hesitation or qualification, they affirmed not only that there is something which cannot be discerned by touch, or smell, or taste, or hearing, or sight, and which cannot be conceived of by any image borrowed from the things with which the senses acquaint us, but that this alone truly exists, and is alone capable of being perceived, because it is alone unchangeable and eternal, but is perceived only by reason, the faculty whereby alone truth, in so far as it can be discovered by us, is found?

20. Seeing, therefore, that the Platonists held opinions which they could not impart to men enthralled by the flesh; seeing also that they were not of such authority among the common people as to persuade them to accept what they ought to believe until the mind should be trained to that condition in which these things can be understood,—they chose to hide their own opinions, and to content themselves with arguing against those who, although they affirmed that the discovery of truth is made through the senses of the body, boasted that they had found the truth. And truly, what occasion have we to inquire as to the nature of their teaching? We know that it was not divine, nor invested with any divine authority. But this one fact merits our attention, that whereas Plato is in many ways most clearly proved by Cicero to have placed both the supreme good and the causes of things, and the certainty of the processes of reason, in Wisdom, not human, but divine, whence in some way the light of human wisdom is derived—in Wisdom which is wholly immutable, and in Truth always consistent with itself; and whereas we also learn from Cicero that the followers of Plato laboured to overthrow the philosophers known as Epicureans and Stoics, who placed the supreme good, the causes of things, and the certainty of the processes of reason, in the nature either of body or of mind,—the controversy had continued rolling on with successive centuries, so that even at the commencement of the Christian era, when the faith of things invisible and eternal was with saving power preached by means of visible miracles to men, who could neither see nor imagine anything beyond things material, these same Epicureans and Stoics are found in the Acts of the Apostles to have opposed themselves to the blessed Apostle Paul, who was beginning to scatter the seeds of that faith among the Gentiles.

21. By which thing it seems to me to be sufficiently proved that the errors of the Gentiles in ethics, physics, and the mode of seeking truth, errors many and manifold, but conspicuously represented in these two schools of philosophy, continued even down to the Christian era, notwithstanding the fact that the learned assailed them most vehemently, and employed both remarkable skill and abundant labour in subverting them. Yet these errors we see in our time to have been already so completely silenced, that now in our schools of rhetoric the question what their opinions were is scarcely ever mentioned; and these controversies have been now so completely eradicated or suppressed in even the Greek gymnasia, notably fond of discussion, that whenever now any school of error lifts up its head against the truth, i.e. against the Church of Christ, it does not venture to leap into the arena except under the shield of the Christian name. Whence it is obvious that the Platonist school of philosophers felt it necessary, having changed those few things in their opinions which Christian teaching condemned, to submit with pious homage to Christ, the only King who is invincible, and to apprehend the Incarnate Word of God, at whose command the truth which they had even feared to publish was immediately believed.

22. To Him, my Dioscorus, I desire you to submit yourself with unreserved piety, and I wish you to prepare for yourself no other way of seizing and holding the truth than that which has been prepared by Him who, as God, saw the weakness of our goings. In that way the first part is humility; the second, humility; the third, humility: and this I would continue to repeat as often as you might ask direction, not that there are no other instructions which may be given, but because, unless humility precede, accompany, and follow every good action which we perform, being at once the object which we keep before our eyes, the support to which we cling, and the monitor by which we are restrained, pride wrests wholly from our hand any good work on which we are congratulating ourselves.966    We give the original of this exquisite sentence, both for its intrinsic value, and because it is a good example of that antithetic style of writing which makes the exact and felicitous rendering of Augustin’s words into any other language peculiarly difficult: Nisi humilitas omnia quæcumque bene facimus et præcesserit, et comitetur, et consecuta fuerit, et proposita quam intueamur, et apposita cui adhæreamus, et imposita qua reprimamur, jam nobis de aliquo bono facto gaudentibus totum extorquet de manu superbia. All other vices are to be apprehended when we are doing wrong; but pride is to be feared even when we do right actions, lest those things which are done in a praiseworthy manner be spoiled by the desire for praise itself. Wherefore, as that most illustrious orator, on being asked what seemed to him the first thing to be observed in the art of eloquence, is said to have replied, Delivery; and when he was asked what was the second thing, replied again, Delivery; and when asked what was the third thing, still gave no other reply than this, Delivery; so if you were to ask me, however often you might repeat the question, what are the instructions of the Christian religion, I would be disposed to answer always and only, “Humility,” although, perchance, necessity might constrain me to speak also of other things.

Chap. IV.

23. To this most wholesome humility, in which our Lord Jesus Christ is our teacher—having submitted to humiliation that He might instruct us in this—to this humility, I say, the most formidable adversary is a certain kind of most unenlightened knowledge, if I may so call it, in which we congratulate ourselves on knowing what may have been the views of Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Democritus, and others of the same kind, imagining that by this we become learned men and scholars, although such attainments are far removed from true learning and erudition. For the man who has learned that God is not extended or diffused through space, either finite or infinite, so as to be greater in one part and less in another, but that He is wholly present everywhere, as the Truth is, of which no one in his senses will affirm that it is partly in one place, partly in another—and the Truth is God Himself—such a man will not be moved by the opinions of any philosopher soever who believes [like Anaximenes] that the infinite air around us is the true God. What matters it to such a man though he be ignorant what bodily form they speak of, since they speak of a form which is bounded on all sides? What matters it to him whether it was only as an Academician, and merely for the purpose of confuting Anaximenes, who had said that God is a material existence,—for air is material,—that Cicero objected that God must have form and beauty?967    The words of Cicero are: “Post, Anaximenes æra Deum statuit, eumque gigni, esseque immensum, et infinitum, et semper in motu: quasi aut ær sine ulla forma Deus esse possit, cum præsertim Deum non modo aliqua sed pulcherrima specie esse deceat: aut non omne quod ortum sit mortalitas consequatur.”—De Natura Deorum, Book 1. or himself perceived that truth has immaterial form and beauty, by which the mind itself is moulded, and by which we judge all the deeds of the wise man to be beautiful, and therefore affirmed that God must be of the most perfect beauty, not merely for the purpose of confuting an antagonist, but with profound insight into the fact that nothing is more beautiful than truth itself, which is cognisable by the understanding alone, and is immutable? Moreover, as to the opinion of Anaximenes, who held that the air is generated, and at the same time believed it to be God, it does not in the least move the man who understands that, since the air is certainly not God, there is no likeness between the manner in which the air is generated, that is to say, produced by some cause, and the manner, understood by none except through divine inspiration, in which He was begotten who is the Word of God, God with God. Moreover, who does not see that even in regard to material things he speaks most foolishly in affirming that air is generated, and is at the same time God, while he refuses to give the name of God to that by which the air has been generated,—for it is impossible that it could be generated by no power? Yet once more, his saying that the air is always in motion will have no disturbing influence as proof that the air is God upon the man who knows that all movements of body are of a lower order than movements of the soul, but that even the movements of the soul are infinitely slow compared with His who is supreme and immutable Wisdom.

24. In like manner, if Anaxagoras or any other affirm that the mind is essential truth and wisdom,968    Ipsam veritatem atque sapientiam. what call have I to debate with a man about a word? For it is manifest that mind gives being to the order and mode of all things, and that it may be suitably called infinite with respect not to its extension in space, but to its power, the range of which transcends all human thought. Nor [shall I dispute his assertion] that this essential wisdom is formless; for this is a property of material things, that whatever bodies are infinite are also formless. Cicero, however, from his desire to confute such opinions, as I suppose, in contending with adversaries who believed in nothing immaterial, denies that anything can be annexed to that which is infinite, because in things material there must be a boundary at the part to which anything is annexed. Therefore he says that Anaxagoras “did not see that motion joined to sensation and to it” (i.e. linked to it in unbroken connection) “is impossible in the infinite” (that is, in a substance which is infinite), as if treating of material substances, to which nothing can be joined except at their boundaries. Moreover, in the succeeding words—“and that sensation of which the whole system of nature is not sensible when struck is an impossibility”969    The words of Cicero are these: “Nec vidit neque motum sensui junctum et continentem in infinito ullum esse posse, neque sensum omnino quo non tota natura pulsa sentiret.” Augustin, quoting probably from memory (see § 9), gives infinto as the dative of possession instead of in infinito.—Cicero speaks as if Anaxagoras had said that mind—to which he ascribed the power of ordering and fashioning all things—had sensation such as the soul has by means of the body. For it is manifest that the whole soul has sensation when it feels anything by means of the body; for whatever is perceived by sensation is not concealed from the whole soul. Now, Cicero’s design in saying that the whole system of nature must be conscious of every sensation was, that he might, as it were, take from the philosopher that mind which he affirms to be infinite. For how does the whole of nature experience sensation if it be infinite? Bodily sensation begins at some point, and does not pervade the whole of any substance unless it be one in which it can reach an end; but this, of course, cannot be said of that which is infinite. Anaxagoras, however had not said anything about bodily sensation. The word “whole,” moreover, is used differently when we speak of that which is immaterial, because it is understood to be without boundaries in space, so that it may be spoken of as a whole and at the same time as infinite—the former because of its completeness, the latter because of its not being limited by boundaries in space.

25. “Furthermore,” says Cicero, “if he will affirm that the mind itself is, so to speak, some kind of animal, there must be some principle from within from which it receives the name ‘animal,’”—so that mind, according to Anaxagoras, is a kind of body, and has within it an animating principle, because of which it is called “animal.” Observe how he speaks in language which we are accustomed to apply to things corporeal,—animals being in the ordinary sense of the word visible substances,—adapting himself, as I suppose, to the blunted perceptions of those against whom he argues; and yet he has uttered a thing which, if they could awake to perceive it, might suffice to teach them that everything which presents itself to our minds as a living body must be thought of not as itself a soul, but as an animal having a soul. For having said, “There must be something within from which it receives the name animal,” he adds, “But what is deeper within than mind?” The mind, therefore, cannot have any inner soul, by possessing which it is an animal; for it is itself that which is innermost. If, then, it is an animal, let it have some external body in relation to which it may be within; for this is what he means by saying, “It is therefore girt round by an exterior body,” as if Anaxagoras had said that mind cannot be otherwise than as belonging to some animal. And yet Anaxagoras held the opinion that essential supreme Wisdom is mind, although it is not the peculiar property of any living being, so to speak, since Truth is near to all souls alike that are able to enjoy it. Observe, therefore, how wittily he concludes the argument: “Since this is not the opinion of Anaxagoras” (i.e. seeing that he does not hold that that mind which he calls God is girt about with an external body, through its relation to which it could be an animal), “we must say that mind pure and simple, without the addition of anything” (i.e. of any body) “through which it may exercise sensation, seems to be beyond the range and conceptions of our intelligence.”970    Cicero, de Natura Deorum, lib. 1.

26. Nothing is more certain than that this lies beyond the range and conception of the intelligence of Stoics and Epicureans, who cannot think of anything which is not material. But by the word “our” intelligence he means “human” intelligence; and he very properly does not say, “it lies beyond our intelligence,” but “it seems to lie beyond.” For their opinion is, that this lies beyond the understanding of all men, and therefore they think that nothing of the kind can be. But there are some whose intelligence apprehends, in so far as this is given to man, the fact that there is pure and simple Wisdom and Truth, which is the peculiar property of no living being, but which imparts wisdom and truth to all souls alike which are susceptible of its influence. If Anaxagoras perceived the existence of this supreme Wisdom, and apprehended it to be God, and called it Mind, it is not by the mere name of this philosopher—with whom, on account of his place in the remote antiquity of erudition, all raw recruits in literature971    Litteriones ut militariter loquar. (to adopt a military phrase) delight to boast an acquaintance—that we are made learned and wise; nor is it even by our having the knowledge through which he knew this truth. For truth ought to be dear to me not merely because it was not unknown to Anaxagoras, but because, even though none of these philosophers had known it, it is the truth.

27. If, therefore, it is unbecoming for us to be elated either by the knowledge of the man who peradventure apprehended the truth, by which knowledge we obtain, as it were, the appearance of learning, or even by the solid possession of the truth itself, whereby we obtain real acquisitions in learning, how much less can the names and tenets of those men who were in error assist us in Christian learning and in making known things obscure? For if we be men, it would be more fitting that we should grieve on account of the errors into which so many famous men fell, if we happen to hear of them, than that we should studiously investigate them, in order that, among men who are ignorant of them, we may enjoy the gratification of a most contemptible conceit of knowledge. For how much better would it be that I should never have heard the name of Democritus, than that I should now with sorrow ponder the fact that a man was highly esteemed in his own age who thought that the gods were images which emanated from solid bodies, but were not solid themselves; and that these, circling this way and that way by their independent motion, and gliding into the minds of men, make the divine power enter into the region of their thoughts, although, certainly, that body from which the image emanated may be rightly judged to surpass the image in excellence and proportion, as it surpasses it in solidity. Hence his opinion wavered, as they say, and oscillated, so that sometimes he said that the deity was some kind of nature from which images emanate, and which nevertheless can be thought of only by means of those images which he pours forth and sends out, that is, which from that nature (which he considered to be something material and eternal, and on this very account divine) were borne as by a kind of evaporation or continuous emanation, and came and entered into our minds, so that we could form the thought of a god or gods. For these philosophers conceive of no cause of thought in our minds, except when images from those bodies which are the object of our thoughts come and enter into our minds; as if, forsooth, there were not many things, yea, more than we can number, which, without any material form, and yet intelligible, are apprehended by those who know how to apprehend such things. Take as an example essential Wisdom and Truth, of which if they can frame no idea, I wonder why they dispute concerning it at all; if, however, they do frame some idea of it in thought, I wish they would tell me either from what body the image of truth comes into their minds, or of what kind it is.

28. Democritus, however, is said to differ here also in his doctrine on physics from Epicurus; for he holds that there is in the concourse of atoms a certain vital and breathing power, by which power (I believe) he affirms that the images themselves (not all images of all things, but images of the gods) are endued with divine attributes, and that the first beginnings of the mind are in those universal elements to which he ascribed divinity, and that the images possess life, inasmuch as they are wont either to benefit or to hurt us. Epicurus, however, does not assume anything in the first beginnings of things but atoms, that is, certain corpuscles, so minute that they cannot be divided or perceived either by sight or by touch; and his doctrine is, that by the fortuitous concourse (clashing) of these atoms, existence is given both to innumerable worlds and to living things, and to the souls which animate them, and to the gods whom, in human form, he has located, not in any world, but outside of the worlds, and in the spaces which separate them; and he will not allow of any object of thought beyond things material. But in order to these becoming an object of thought, he says that from those things which he represents as formed of atoms, images more subtle than those which come to our eyes flow down and enter into the mind. For according to him, the cause of our seeing is to be found in certain images so huge that they embrace the whole outer world. But I suppose that you already understand their opinions regarding these images.

29. I wonder that Democritus was not convinced of the error of his philosophy even by this fact, that such huge images coming into our minds, which are so small (if being, as they affirm, material, the soul is confined within the body’s dimensions), could not possibly, in the entirety of their size, come into contact with it. For when a small body is brought into contact with a large one, it cannot in any wise be touched at the same moment by all points of the larger. How, then, are these images at the same moment in their whole extent objects of thought, if they become objects of thought only in so far as, coming and entering into the mind, they touch it, seeing that they cannot in their whole extent either find entrance into so small a body or come in contact with so small a mind? Bear in mind, of course, that I am speaking now after their manner; for I do not hold the mind to be such as they affirm. It is true that Epicurus alone can be assailed with this argument, if Democritus holds that the mind is immaterial; but we may ask him in turn why he did not perceive that it is at once unnecessary and impossible for the mind, being immaterial, to think through the approach and contact of material images. Both philosophers alike are certainly confuted by the facts of vision; for images so great cannot possibly touch in their entirety eyes so small.

30. Moreover, when the question is put to them, how it comes that one image is seen of a body from which images emanate in countless multitudes, their answer is, that just because the images are emanating and passing in such multitudes, the effect produced by their being crowded and massed together is, that out of the many one is seen. The absurdity of this Cicero exposes by saying that their deity cannot be thought of as eternal, for this very reason, that he is thought of through images which are in countless multitudes flowing forth and passing away. And when they say that the forms of the gods are rendered eternal by the innumerable hosts of atoms supplying constant reinforcements, so that other corpuscles immediately take the place of those which depart from the divine substance, and by the same succession prevent the nature of the gods from being dissolved, Cicero replies, “On this ground all things would be eternal as well as the gods,” since there is nothing which has not the same boundless store of atoms by which it may repair its perpetual decays. Again, he asks how their god could be otherwise than afraid of coming to destruction, seeing that he is without a moment’s intermission beaten and shaken by an unceasing incursion of atoms,—beaten, inasmuch as he is struck by atoms rushing upon him, and shaken, inasmuch as he is penetrated by atoms rushing through him. Nay, more; seeing that from himself there emanate continually images (of which we have said enough), what good ground can he have for persuasion of his own immortality?972    Cicero, de Natura Deorum, lib. I.

31. As to all these ravings of the men who entertain such opinions, it is especially deplorable that the mere statement of them does not suffice to secure their rejection without any one controverting them in discussion; instead of which, the minds of men most gifted with acuteness have accepted the task of copiously refuting opinions which, as soon as they were enunciated, ought to have been rejected with contempt even by the slowest intellects. For even granting that there are atoms, and that these strike and shake each other by clashing together as chance may guide them, is it lawful for us to grant also that atoms thus meeting in fortuitous concourse can so make anything as to fashion its distinctive forms, determine its figure, polish its surface, enliven it with color, or quicken it by imparting to it a spirit?—all which things every one sees to be accomplished in no other way than by the providence of God, if only he loves to see with the mind rather than with the eye alone, and asks this faculty of intelligent perception from the Author of his being. Nay, more; we are not at liberty even to grant the existence of atoms themselves, for, without discussing the subtle theories of the learned as to the divisibility of matter, observe how easily the absurdity of atoms may be proved from their own opinions. For they, as is well known, affirm that there is nothing else in nature but bodies and empty space, and the accidents of these, by which I believe that they mean motion and striking, and the forms which result from these. Let them tell us, then, under which category they reckon the images which they suppose to flow from the more solid bodies, but which, if indeed they are bodies, possess so little solidity that they are not discernible except by their contact with the eyes when we see them, and with the mind when we think of them. For the opinion of these philosophers is, that these images can proceed from the material object and come to the eyes or to the mind, which, nevertheless, they affirm to be material. Now, I ask, do these images flow from atoms themselves? If they do, how can these be atoms from which some bodily particles are in this process separated? If they do not, either something can be the object of thought without such images, which they vehemently deny, or we ask, whence have they acquired a knowledge of atoms, seeing that they can in nowise become objects of thought to us? But I blush to have even thus far refuted these opinions, although they did not blush to hold them. When, however, I consider that they have even dared to defend them, I blush not on their account, but for the race of mankind itself whose ears could tolerate such nonsense.

Chap. V.

32. Wherefore, seeing that the minds of men are, through the pollution of sin and the lust of the flesh, so blinded that even these monstrous errors could waste in discussion concerning them the leisure of learned men, will you, Dioscorus, or will any man of an servant mind, hesitate to affirm that in no way could better provision have been made for the pursuit of truth by mankind than that a Man, assumed into ineffable and miraculous union by the Truth Himself, and being the manifestation of His Person on the earth, should by perfect teaching and divine acts move men to saving faith in that which could not as yet be intellectually apprehended? To the glory of Him who has done this we give our service; and we exhort you to believe immoveably and stedfastly in Him through whom it has come to pass that not a select few, but whole peoples, unable to discern these things by reason, do accept them in faith, until, upheld by instruction in saving truth, they escape from these perplexities into the atmosphere of perfectly pure and simple truth. It becomes us, moreover, to yield submission to His authority all the more unreservedly, when we see that in our day no error dares to lift up itself to rally round it the uninstructed crowd without seeking the shelter of the Christian name, and that of all who, belonging to an earlier age, now remain outside of the Christian name, those alone continue to have in their obscure assemblies a considerable attendance who retain the Scriptures by which, however they may pretend not to see or understand it, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was prophetically announced. Moreover, those who, though they are not within the Catholic unity and communion, boast of the name of Christians, are compelled to oppose them that believe, and presume to mislead the ignorant by a pretence of appealing to reason, since the Lord came with this remedy above all others, that He enjoined on the nations the duty of faith. But they are compelled, as I have said, to adopt this policy because they feel themselves most miserably overthrown if their authority is compared with the Catholic authority. They attempt, accordingly, to prevail against the firmly-settled authority of the immoveable Church by the name and the promises of a pretended appeal to reason. This kind of effrontery is, we may say, characteristic of all heretics. But He who is the most merciful Lord of faith has both secured the Church in the citadel of authority by most famous œcumenical Councils and the Apostolic sees themselves, and furnished her with the abundant armour of equally invincible reason by means of a few men of pious erudition and unfeigned spirituality. The perfection of method in training disciples is, that those who are weak be encouraged to the utmost to enter the citadel of authority, in order that when they have been safely placed there, the conflict necessary for their defence may be maintained with the most strenuous use of reason.

33. The Platonists, however, who, amidst the errors of false philosophies assailing them at that time on all sides, rather concealed their own doctrine to be searched for than brought it into the light to be vilified, as they had no divine personage to command faith, began to exhibit and unfold the doctrines of Plato after the name of Christ had become widely known to the wondering and troubled kingdoms of this world. Then flourished at Rome the school of Plotinus, which had as scholars many men of great acuteness and ability. But some of them were corrupted by curious inquiries into magic, and others, recognising in the Lord Jesus Christ the impersonation of that essential and immutable Truth and Wisdom which they were endeavouring to reach, passed into His service. Thus the whole supremacy of authority and light of reason for regenerating and reforming the human race has been made to reside in the one saving Name, and in His one Church.

34. I do not at all regret that I have stated these things at great length in this letter, although perhaps you would have preferred that I had taken another course; for the more progress that you make in the truth, the more will you approve what I have written, and you will then approve of my counsel, though now you do not think it helpful to your studies. At the same time, I have, to the best of my ability, given answers to your questions,—to some of them in this letter, and to almost all the rest by brief annotations on the parchments on which you had sent them. If in these answers you think I have done too little, or done something else than you expected, you do not duly consider, my Dioscorus, to whom you addressed your questions. I have passed without reply all the questions concerning the orator and the books of Cicero de Oratore. I would have seemed to myself a contemptible trifler if I had entered on the exposition of these topics. For I might with propriety be questioned on all the other subjects, if any one desired me to handle and expound them, not in connection with the works of Cicero, but by themselves; but in these questions the subjects themselves are not in harmony with my profession now. I would not, however, have done all that I have done in this letter had I not removed from Hippo for a time after the illness under which I laboured when your messenger came to me. Even in these days I have been visited again with interruption of health and with fever, on which account there has been more delay than might otherwise have been in sending these to you. I earnestly beg you to write and let me know how you receive them.

EPISTOLA CXVIII . Augustinus Dioscoro respondet ejusmodi quaestiones nec decore tractari ab episcopo, nec utiliter disci a christiano. Disputat de studiorum fine ac de summo bono, exhortans Dioscorum ut christianam sectetur philosophiam, quae sola divinae humilitatis exemplo proposito veritatem persuadere potuit. Illustrat demum locos quosdam Ciceronis, philosophorum de Deo sententias reprehendentis.

0432

CAPUT PRIMUM.

1. Tu me innumerabilium quaestionum turba repente circumvallandum, vel potius obruendum putasti, etiamsi vacantem otiosumque credidisti: quando enim ego in quolibet otio, tot rerum nodos tam festinanti, et ut scribis, jam pene proficiscenti possem dissolvere? Numero enim rerum ipsarum impedirer, etiamsi nodi faciles ad solvendum forent. Tanta sunt autem perplexitate involuti, et tenacitate constricti, ut etiamsi pauci essent, otiosissimum me occupantes, magna mora temporis fatigarent intentionem, atque attererent ungues meos. Ego autem vellem te abripere de medio deliciosarum inquisitionum tuarum, et constipare inter curas meas, ut vel disceres non esse inaniter curiosus, vel curiositatem tuam cibandam atque nutriendam imponere non auderes eis, quorum inter curas vel maxima cura est reprimere ac refrenare curiosos. Quanto enim melius, quantoque fructuosius, si in dandis ad te ullis litteris tempus atque opera impenditur, ad hoc potius impenditur, ut resecentur vanae atque fallaces cupiditates tuae, quae tanto magis cavendae sunt, quanto facilius decipiunt, nescio qua umbra honestatis et liberalium studiorum nomine velatae atque palliatae; quam ut nostro ministerio, atque, ut ita dixerim, satellitio, in dominatum , quo tam bonam tuam mentem premant, vehementius excitentur?

2. Ecce enim tot dialogi lecti, si ad videndum finem et capessendum omnium actionum tuarum nihil te adjuverunt, quid prosunt, dic mihi? Nam ubi finem constitueris totius hujus flagrantissimi studii tui, et tibi infructuosi, et nobis molesti, epistola tua satis indicas. Cum enim de solvendis quaestionibus quas misisti, apud me per litteras satageres, ita scripsisti: Possem te, inquis, plus et per multos charos tuos exorare; sed novi animum tuum, qui non rogare desiderat, sed omnibus praestare, si tantum absit quod dedecet, quod in hac re penitus nihil est dedecoris: tamen quodcumque est, peto praestes navigaturo. In his verbis epistolae tuae recte quidem de me existimas, quod omnibus praestare desiderem, si absit quod dedecet; sed in hac re nihil esse dedecoris, non mihi videtur. Non enim decora facies rerum attingit sensum meum, cum cogito episcopum ecclesiasticis curis circumstrepentibus districtum atque distentum, repente quasi obsurdescentem cohibere se ab his omnibus, et dialogorum Tullianorum quaestiunculas uni scholastico exponere. Quod quantum dedeceat, quanquam tuorum studiorum raptus ardore prorsus nolis attendere, tu etiam sentis 0433 tamen. Quid enim aliud indicat, quod cum dixisses in hac re penitus nihil esse dedecoris, statim adjunxisti: Tamen quodcumque est, peto praestes navigaturo. Hoc enim sonat videri tibi quidem nihil in hac re esse dedecoris, tamen quodcumque est dedecoris, petere te ut praestem navigaturo. Sed quid est, quaeso te, quod addidisti, navigaturo? An ego, nisi navigaturus esses, praestare tibi aliquid dedecoris non deberem? Nimirum putas quod aqua marina dedecus abluatur. Quod si ita esset, meum certe qui navigaturus non sum, inexpiatum remaneret.

3. Scribis etiam nosse me quam tibi molestissimum sit oneri esse cuipiam, et attestaris solum Deum nosse quod nimia necessitate impulsus hoc feceris. Hic sane cum epistolam tuam legerem, satis adverti animum cognoscere necessitatem tuam, cum ecce mihi affers et dicis: Mores hominum non ignoratis, qui proclives sunt ad vituperandum, et quam, si interrogatus quis non responderit, indoctus et hebes putabitur. Hoc loco vero exarsi ad rescribendum tibi: hoc enim languore animi tui penetrasti mihi pectus, et irrupisti in curas meas, ut dissimulare non possem, quantum me Deus adjuvaret, mederi tibi; non ut de tuis quaestionibus enodandis explicandisque cogitarem, sed ut felicitatem tuam pendentem ex linguis hominum atque nutantem a tam infelici retinaculo abrumperem, et cuidam sedi omnino inconcussae stabilique religarem. Tune, o Dioscore, nec Persium tuum respicis insultantem tibi contorto versiculo, sed plane puerile caput, si sensus adsit, idoneo colapho contundentem atque coercentem: Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter? (Persius Satyra 1.)Tot, ut superius dixi, legisti dialogos, tot philosophorum altercationibus cor inseruisti. Dic mihi quis eorum finem actionum suarum constituerit in fama vulgi, aut in lingua hominum vel bonorum atque sapientium. Tu autem, et quod magis pudendum est, jam navigaturus, satis praeclare te in Africa profecisse testaris, cum aliam ob causam te oneri non esse asseris negotiosissimis, et in alia longe distantia intentis episcopis, ut tibi exponant Ciceronem, nisi quia times homines proclives ad vituperandum, ne interrogatus ab eis, si non responderis, indoctus et hebes puteris! O rem dignam vigiliis et lucubrationibus episcoporum!

4. Non mihi videris aliunde dies noctesque cogitare, nisi ut in studiis tuis atque doctrina lauderis ab hominibus. Quod etsi semper ad certa et recta tendentibus periculosum esse judicavi, nunc tamen in te maxime experior. Non enim aliunde quam ex eadem pernicie non vidisti qua tandem re possemus moveri, ut tibi quod petebas daremus. Quam enim perverse tu ipse non ob aliud ad ea discenda quae interrogas raperis, nisi ut lauderis, aut non vitupereris ab hominibus; tam perverse etiam nos putas in tua petitione talibus causis allegatis moveri. Et utinam possemus efficere ut tu quoque tam inani atque fallaci humanae laudis bono minime movereris, cum tibi nos indicaremus, 0434 non ad praestandum tibi quod petis, quoniam haec de te scribis, sed ad te corrigendum moveri! Mores hominum, inquis, proclives sunt ad vituperandum. Quid deinde? Si interrogatus quis non responderit, inquis, indoctus et hebes putabitur. Ecce ego te interrogo non de Ciceronis libris aliquid, cujus sensum fortasse legentes indagare non possunt, sed de epistola ipsa tua, et de sententia verborum tuorum. Quaero enim cur non dixeris, Qui non responderit, indoctus et hebes manifestabitur, sed potius dixeris, Indoctus et hebes putabitur; nisi quia satis etiam ipse intelligis, eum qui talia non responderit, non esse indoctum et hebetem, sed putari. At ego te admoneo, eum qui talium putatorum linguis tanquam falcibus concidi timet, lignum esse aridum, et ideo non putari tantum indoctum et hebetem, sed vere esse atque convinci.

5. Fortasse dixeris: Sed cum hebes animo non sim, et praecipue non esse studeam, nolo hebes animo vel putari. Recte; sed quo fine nolis, id quaero. Quod enim in illis quaestionibus aperiendis tibi et explicandis, nec nobis oneri esse dubitasti, hanc causam et hunc finem esse dixisti, et tam necessarium, ut eam nimiam necessitatem appellares, ne scilicet de his interrogatus neque respondens, ab hominibus ad vituperandum proclivibus, hebes indoctusque puteris. Ego autem quaero, hoccine totum sit cur a nobis ista desideres, an etiam indoctus et hebes putari propter aliud aliquid nolis. Si hoc totum est, cernis, ut arbitror, hunc esse finem tam vehementis intentionis tuae, qua nobis quoque oneri es, ut fateris. Quid autem a Dioscoro potest nobis esse oneri, nisi quod ipsum Dioscorum etiam nescientem onerat? quod non sentiet, nisi cum surgere voluerit; atque utinam non sic alligentur haec onera, ut frustra etiam humeros conetur excutere! Quod non ideo dico, quia istae discuntur quaestiones, sed quia tali fine discuntur. Hunc enim finem jam certe sentis esse nugatorium, inanem, ventosum. Habet et tumorem, sub quo etiam tabes gignitur, et pupula mentis ad non videndam opulentiam veritatis offunditur. Crede, sic est, mi Dioscore, ita te fruar in ipsa voluntate, et in ipsa, cujus umbra averteris, dignitate veritatis. Unde enim tibi, nisi vel hoc modo, de hac re fidem faciam, non invenio. Non enim vides eam, aut ullo modo quandiu linguis humanis ruinosa gaudia construis, potes eam videre.

6. Si autem ibi non finis est harum actionum atque intentionis tuae, sed propter aliud aliquid indoctus et hebes non vis putari; quaero quid illud sit? Si propterea ne angustior tibi aditus ad acquirendas temporales divitias, uxorem impetrandam, honores capessendos, et caetera hujusmodi, praecipiti fluxu transcurrentia, atque in se lapsos in imum rapientia; neque ad hunc finem tibi servire nos decet, imo decet etiam hinc te amovere. Non enim sic te prohibemus in incerto famae finem ponere, ut tanquam de Mincio in Eridanum emigres; quo te ipse fortasse Mincius etiam non emigrantem impingeret. Cum enim non satiaverit avidum spiritum vanitas laudis humanae, quia nihil ad cibandum affert nisi inane et inflatum, cogit eam ipsa aviditas 0435 referre in aliud, quasi uberius atque fructuosius; quod nihilominus si temporali lapsu praeterfluit, ita est quasi fluvius ducat in fluvium, ut non sit finis miseriae, quamdiu finis officiorum nostrorum in re instabili collocatur . In aliquo igitur firmo atque incommutabili bono te figere volumus constantissimae intentionis domum, et securissimam requiem omnis bonae atque honestae actionis tuae. An forte istam ipsam terrenam felicitatem quam commemoravi, si prosperi rumoris aura, aut etiam flatibus vela pandendo ad eam potueris pervenire, hanc etiam cogitas referre in aliud certum, et verum et plenum bonum? At mihi non videtur, atque omnino ipsa veritas negat, vel tantis ad se anfractibus, quae tam proxima est, vel tantis sumptibus, quae tam gratuita est, perveniri.

7. An ipsa humana laude, tanquam instrumento utendum existimas, ut aditum per hanc praepares ad animos hominum, persuadendi vera atque salubria; et caves ne te, cum indoctum atque hebetem putaverint, indignum arbitrentur cui aurem vel intentissimam vel patientissimam praebeant, sive ad recte facta quemquam exhorteris, sive malitiam atque nequitiam peccantis objurges? Hunc tu finem justitiae ac beneficentiae, si in illis interrogandis quaestionibus cogitasti, nos de te male meruimus, quibus in epistola tua, non id potius quo moveremur, posuisti, ut aut libenter daremus quod petebas, aut ideo non daremus, quia causa quaelibet alia fortasse prohiberet, non tamen quia tuae vanae cupiditati, non solum servire, verum etiam non resistere puderet. Quanto enim melius atque salubrius, quaeso te, ipsas veritatis regulas, multo certius et brevius per seipsas accipis, quibus falsa omnia possis ipse refellere, ne quod falsum et pudendum est, si multorum annosas et decrepitas falsitates studio jactantiori quam prudentiori didiceris, doctum atque intelligentem te esse arbitreris; quod jam non existimo tibi videri. Non enim frustra tam diu tam vera Dioscoro diximus: ex quo in hac epistola gradimur.

CAPUT II.

8. Quapropter jam illud videamus, cum te istarum rerum ignorantia nequaquam indoctum atque hebetem judices, sed ipsius potius veritatis, ut quisquis de his rebus scripsit vel scripserit, aut ea sint quae jam certus tenes, aut si falsa sunt, securus ignores, neque de diversitate cognoscenda sententiarum alienarum, ne quasi indoctus et hebes remaneas, inani sollicitudine macereris. Cum ergo haec ita sint, etiam illud, si placet, videamus, utrum aliorum falsa existimatio, qui sunt, ut scribis, ad vituperandum proclives, ita ut si te ista ignorare persenserint, indoctum atque hebetem, falso quidem, sed tamen putent, sic te movere debeat ut etiam ab episcopis tibi haec exponi non incongruenter petas; quandoquidem eo fine jam te ista cupere credimus, quo illis consulas ad persuadendam veritatem, vitamque eorum corrigendam, qui te, si in illis Ciceronis libris indoctum hebetemque putaverint, indignum habebunt a quo aliquid utilis salubrisque scientiae sibi 0436 accipiendum esse arbitrentur. Quod non ita est, mihi crede.

9. Primum quia esse aliquos in illis terris, ubi imperitus minimeque acutus videri times, qui te de istis quaestionibus quidquam interrogent, omnino non video: quandoquidem hic, quo ad ea discenda venisti, et Romae expertus es quam negligenter habeantur, et ob hoc neque doceantur neque discantur; et in Africa usque adeo de his interrogatorem pateris neminem, ut nec teipsum qui patiatur invenias, eaque inopia episcopis exponenda ea mittere cogaris: quasi vero episcopi isti, etiamsi adolescentes, eodem quo tu raperis animi ardore, vel potius errore, quasi aliquid magnum haec discere curarunt, usque ad canos episcopales, et usque ad cathedras ecclesiasticas, ea sibi in memoria durare paterentur; aut si ipsi vellent, non illa, etiam de invitorum cordibus, curae majores gravioresque secluderent; aut si aliqua ex eis in animis eorum nimia consuetudine remanerent, non etiam ipsa oblivione sepeliri mallent recordata, quam ad inepta respondere quaesita, cum in ipsa etiam scholari levitate et rhetoricis cathedris, ita obmutuisse atque obtorpuisse videantur, ut a Carthagine Hipponem, quo exponi possint, mittenda existimentur; ubi tam insolita atque omnino peregrina sunt, ut si vellem respondendi cura inspicere aliquid, volens videre quomodo ad sententiam quae mihi exponenda esset, desuper veniatur, aut ab ea deinceps quae contexeretur oratio, codicem prorsus invenire non possem. Illi autem Carthaginenses rhetores, si huic tuo studio defuerunt, non modo a me non reprehenduntur, sed etiam approbantur, si forte jam recolunt, non Romanorum fororum, sed Graecorum gymnasiorum ista solere esse certamina. Tu vero cum et in gymnasia cogitationem injecisti, et ea quoque ipsa invenisti talibus rebus nuda atque frigida, ubi has curas tuas deponeres, christianorum tibi basilica Hipponensis occurrit, quia in ea nunc sedet episcopus qui aliquando ista pueris vendidit. Sed nec te volo esse adhuc puerum; et me jam esse puerilium rerum, sicut non venditorem, ita nec largitorem decet. Quae cum ita sint, id est, cum duae tantae urbes, latinarum litterarum artifices, Roma atque Carthago, nec taedio tibi sint, ut a te ista perquirant, nec taedia tua curent, ut te ista perquirentem exaudiant; miror tantum quantum dici non potest, vereri te, tam boni ingenii juvenem, ne in Graecis atque Orientalibus urbibus quemquam de his rebus molestum interrogatorem feras. Facilius quippe corniculas in Africa audieris, quam in illis partibus hoc genus vocis.

10. Deinde si fallor, et quisquam ibi forte hujusmodi quaestionum tanto utique odiosior, quanto in illis locis ineptior percontator extiterit; nonne magis caves ne multo facilius existant, qui te graeci homines in Graecia constitutum, et graeca imbutum primitus lingua, de ipsis philosophorum libris aliqua interrogent, quae Cicero in suis litteris non posuit? Quod si acciderit, quid responsurus es? potius te ista in latinorum auctorum libris, quam in graecorum nosse voluisse? Qua responsione 0437 primo Graeciae facies injuriam, et nosti quam illi homines hoc non ferant. Deinde jam exulcerati et irati, quam cito te, quod nimis non vis, et habetem judicabunt, qui graecorum philosophorum dogmata, vel potius dogmatum particulas quasdam discerptas atque dispersas in latinis dialogis, quam in ipsorum auctorum libris graecis tota atque contexta discere maluisti; et indoctum, qui cum tam multa in tua lingua nescias, earum rerum frustra in aliena colligere ambisti. An forte illud respondebis, non te graecos de his rebus libros contempsisse, sed prius latinos curasse cognoscere, nunc autem velle te in latinis doctum, jam graeca quaerere? Si hoc non pudet hominem graecum latina puerum didicisse, nunc velle discere graeca barbarum, pudebitne tandem in ipsis latinis ignorare aliqua, quae quam multi latini docti tecum nesciant, vel hoc ipso sentis, quod te nobis magna necessitate dicis onerosum, in tanta doctorum multitudine apud Carthaginem constitutus?

11. Postremo fac te de omnibus quae a nobis quaeris, interrogatum respondere potuisse. Ecce jam doctissimus atque acutissimus diceris, ecce jam te laudibus in coelum graeculus flatus attollit; tu tantum memento gravitatis tuae, et illam mereri laudem quo fine volueris, ut scilicet eos leviter levia ista miratos, et benevolentissime atque avidissime jam in tua ora suspensos, gravissimum aliquid et saluberrimum doceas: idipsum quidquid est gravissimum et saluberrimum, utrum teneas, et recte tradere noveris, vellem cognoscere. Ridiculum est enim cum propterea superflua multa didiceris, ut tibi aures hominum ad necessaria praeparentur, ipsa necessaria non tenere, quibus excipiendis eas per superflua praeparaveris; et dum occuparis ut discas unde facias intentos, nolle discere quod infundatur intentis. Sed si hoc te scire jam dicis, idque ipsum christianam doctrinam esse respondes, quam te omnibus praeponere novimus, et in ea sola esse praesumere spem salutis aeternae, non opus est ei cognitione dialogorum Ciceronis, et collectione emendicatarum discordantium sententiarum alienarum procurari auditores. Moribus tuis intenti fiant, qui abs te aliquid tale accepturi sunt. Nolo prius aliquid doceas quod dediscendum est, ut vera doceas.

12. Nam si alienarum sententiarum dissidentium et repugnantium cognitio aliquid adjuvat insinuatorem christianae veritatis, ut noverit quomodo adversantes destruat falsitates, ad hoc duntaxat, ne quis contra disserens, nonnisi in refellendis tuis figat oculum, sua vero sedulo occultet. Nam cognitio veritatis omnia falsa, si modo proferantur, etiam quae prius inaudita erant, et dijudicare et subvertere idonea est. Sed ut non solum aperta feriantur, sed etiam abscondita eruantur, si alienos opus est cognoscere errores, erige oculos auresque, oro te, et vide atque ausculta utrum aliquis adversus nos de Anaximene et de Anaxagora proferat aliquid; quando jam ne ipsorum quidem multo recentiorum, multumque loquacium Stoicorum aut Epicureorum cineres caleant, unde aliqua contra fidem christianam scintilla excitetur: sed circuli atque 0438 conventicula partim fugacia, partim etiam audacter prompta, vel Donatistarum, vel Maximianensium, vel Manichaeorum, vel etiam ad quorum greges turbamque venturus es Arianorum, Eunomianorum, Macedonianorum, Cataphrygarum, caeterarumque pestium innumerabiliter perstrepant; quorum omnium errores si cognoscere piget, quid nobis est, propter defensionem christianae religionis, quaerere quid senserit Anaximenes, et olim sopitas lites inani curiositate recoquere, cum quorumdam etiam haereticorum, qui nomine christiano gloriari voluerunt, ut Marcionitarum et Sabellianorum, multorumque praeterea, jam dissensiones quaestionesque sileantur? Tamen si opus est, ut dixi, veritati adversantes praenoscere aliquas, et pertractatas habere sententias; de haereticis potius, qui se christianos vocant, quam de Anaxagora et Democrito nobis cogitandum fuit.

CAPUT III.

13. Ille autem quisquis abs te quaesiverit quae tu a nobis quaeris, audiat quod ea doctius et prudentius nescias. Si enim Themistocles non curavit quod est habitus indoctior, cum canere nervis in epulis recusasset, ubi cum se nescire illa dixisset, atque ei dictum esset, Quid igitur nosti? respondit, Rempublicam ex parva magnam facere: dubitandum est tibi dicere te ista nescire, cum ei qui rogarit quid noveris, respondere possis, nosse te quomodo etiam sine istis homo esse possit beatus? Quod si adhuc non tenes, tam perverse ista conquiris, quam perverse si aliquo corporis periculoso morbo gravareris, delicias et tenerrimas vestes potius quam medicamenta medicosque conquireres. Non enim ullo modo differenda est ista cognitio, aut ulla huic a te, praesertim jam in hac aetate, vel discendi ordine praeferenda est. Vide autem quam facile posses hoc scire, si velles. Qui enim quaerit quomodo ad beatam vitam perveniat, nihil aliud profecto quaerit, nisi ubi sit finis boni, hoc est ubi constitutum sit, non prava opinione atque temeraria, sed certa atque inconcussa veritate, summum hominis bonum: quod a quolibet ubi constituatur non invenitur, nisi aut in corpore, aut in animo, aut in Deo, aut in duobus aliquibus horum, aut certe in omnibus. Quod si didiceris, neque summum bonum, nec aliquam partem summi boni omnino esse in corpore, duo restabunt, animus et Deus, quorum vel in uno vel in ambobus sit. Si autem adjeceris et didiceris hoc idem de animo quod de corpore, quid aliud jam nisi Deus occurret, in quo summum hominis bonum constitutum sit; non quo alia bona non sint, sed summum id dicitur, quo cuncta referuntur. Eo enim fruendo quisque beatus est, propter quod caetera vult habere, cum illud jam non propter aliud, sed propter seipsum diligatur. Et ideo finis ibi dicitur, quia jam quo excurrat, et quo referatur, non invenitur. Ibi requies appetendi, ibi fruendi securitas, ibi tranquillissimum gaudium optimae voluntatis.

14. Da igitur qui cito videat, non corpus esse animi bonum, sed animum potius esse corporis bonum; recedetur 0439 jam ab inquirendo utrum summum illud bonum, vel aliqua ejus pars sit in corpore. Quod enim stultissime negatur, melior est animus corpore. Item stultissime negatur meliorem esse eum qui dat beatam vitam, vel partem aliquam beatae vitae, quam eum qui accipit. Non igitur accipit animus a corpore vel summum bonum, vel partem aliquam summi boni. Hoc qui non vident caecati sunt dulcedine carnalium voluptatum, quam ex indigentia sanitatis venire non intuentur. Sanitas autem perfecta corporis, illa extrema totius hominis immortalitas erit. Tam potenti enim natura Deus fecit animam, ut ex ejus plenissima beatitudine quae in fine temporum sanctis promittitur, redundet etiam in inferiorem naturam, quod est corpus, non beatitudo quae fruentis et intelligentis est propria, sed plenitudo sanitatis, id est incorruptionis vigor. Quod qui non vident, ut dixi, bellant inquietis altercationibus, varie pro suo quisque captu, in corpore constituentes summum hominis bonum, et carnalium seditiosorum turbas concitant; inter quos Epicurei apud indoctam multitudinem excellentiore auctoritate viguerunt.

15. Da item qui cito videat animum quoque ipsum, non suo bono beatum esse, cum beatus est, alioquin nunquam esset miser; et recedetur a quaerendo utrum in animo sit summum illud atque, ut ita dixerim, beatificum bonum, vel aliqua pars ejus. Nam cum seipso sibi quasi suo bono animus gaudet, superbus est. Cum vero perspicit se esse mutabilem, vel hoc uno saltem quod de stulto sapiens efficitur, sapientiamque esse incommutabilem cernit, simul oportet cernat esse illam supra suam naturam, ejusque participatione atque illustratione se uberius et certius gaudere quam seipso. Ita cessans atque detumescens a jactatione atque inflatione propria, inhaerere Deo, atque ab illo incommutabili refici et reformari nititur, a quo esse jam capit non solum omnem speciem rerum omnium, sive quae sensu corporis, sive quae intelligentia mentis attinguntur, sed etiam ipsam capacitatem formationis ante formationem, cum vel informe aliquid dicitur, quod formari potest. Itaque tanto minus se esse stabilem sentit, quanto minus haeret Deo qui summe est: et ideo illum summe esse, quia nulla mutabilitate proficit seu deficit; sibi autem illam commutationem expedire qua proficit, ut perfecte illi cohaereat, eam vero commutationem quae in defectu est, esse vitiosam; omnem autem defectum ad interitum vergere, quo utrum aliqua res perveniat tametsi non appareat, tamen apparere omnibus eo ducere interitum ut non sit quod erat. Unde colligit non ob aliud res deficere, vel posse deficere, nisi quod ex nihilo factae sunt: ut quod in eis est quod sunt et manent, et pro defectibus etiam suis ad universitatis complexum ordinantur, ad ejus bonitatem omnipotentiamque pertineat, qui summe est et conditor, qui potens est etiam ex nihilo, non tantum aliquid, sed etiam magnum aliquid facere: primum autem peccatum, hoc est primum voluntarium defectum, esse gaudere ad propriam potestatem; ad minus enim gaudet, quam 0440 si ad potestatem Dei gaudeat, quae utique major est. Hoc non videntes, et potentias intuentes animi humani, magnamque pulchritudinem factorum atque dictorum, etiamsi in corpore puduit ponere summum bonum, in ipso tamen animo ponentes, infra utique posuerunt, quam ubi sincerissima ratione ponendum est. Inter hos qui ita sentiunt apud graecos philosophos, et numero et disputandi subtilitate Stoici praevaluerunt, qui tamen in naturalibus corporea omnia esse arbitrantes, magis a carne quam a corpore animum avertere potuerunt.

16. Inter eos autem qui fruendum Deo, a quo et nos et omnia facta sunt, unum atque summum bonum nostrum esse dicunt, apud illos eminuerunt Platonici, qui non immerito ad officium suum pertinere arbitrati sunt, Stoicis, et Epicureis maxime et prope solis omnino resistere. Iidem quippe Academici qui Platonici, quod docet auditorum ipsa successio. Arcesilas enim qui primus occultata sententia sua, nihil aliud istos quam refellere statuit, quaere cui successerit, Polemonem invenies; quaere cui Polemon, Xenocratem: Xenocrati autem discipulo Academiam scholam suam reliquit Plato. Quantum igitur pertinet ad quaestionem de summo hominis bono, remove personas hominum, atque ipsam disceptationem constitue; profecto reperies duos errores inter se adversa fronte collidi: unum constituentem in corpore, alium constituentem in animo summum bonum. Rationem autem veritatis, qua summum bonum nostrum Deus esse intelligitur, utrique resistere, sed non prius docentem vera quam prava dedocentem. Idipsum rursum adjunctis personis constitue, reperies Epicureos et Stoicos inter se acerrime dimicantes; eorum vero litem conantes dijudicare Platonicos, occultantes sententiam veritatis, et illorum vanam in falsitate fiduciam convincentes et redarguentes.

17. Sed non sicut illi errorum suorum, ita Platonici verae rationis personam implere potuerunt. Omnibus enim defuit divinae humilitatis exemplum, quod opportunissimo tempore per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum illustratum est; cui uni exemplo in cujusvis animo ferociter arrogantis, omnis superbia cedit et frangitur et emoritur. Ideoque non valentes illi auctoritate turbas terrenarum rerum dilectione caecatas ad invisibilium fidem ducere, cum eas viderent Epicureis maxime contentionibus commoveri, non solum ad hauriendam, quo ultro ferebantur, sed etiam ad defensitandam corporis voluptatem, ut in ea summum bonum hominis constitueretur; eos autem qui adversus hanc voluptatem virtutis laude moverentur, minus difficulter eam contemplari in animis hominum, unde facta bona, de quibus utcumque poterant judicare, procederent: simul videbant si eis conarentur insinuare aliquam rem divinam et super omnia incommutabilem, quae nullo attingeretur corporis sensu, sed sola mente intelligeretur, quae tamen etiam naturam ipsius mentis excederet, eumque esse Deum propositum 0441 animo humano ad fruendum, purgato ab omni labe humanarum cupiditatum, in quo uno acquiesceret omnis beatitudinis appetitus, et in quo nobis uno bonorum omnium finis esset, non eos intellecturos, et repugnantibus vel Epicureis vel Stoicis multo quam sibi facilius palmam daturos, ita ut vera salubrisque sententia, quod perniciosissimum est generi humano, imperitorum populorum irrisione sordesceret: et hoc in moralibus.

18. In naturalibus autem quaestionibus, si isti dicerent effectricem omnium naturarum esse incorpoream Sapientiam, illi autem a corpore nusquam discederent, cum alii atomis, alii quatuor elementis, in quibus ad efficienda omnia ignis praevaleret, principia rerum darent; quis non videret stultorum abundantiam corpori deditam, cum in corpoream potentiam conditricem rerum nequaquam valeret intueri, in quorum potius suffragium raperetur?

19. Restabat pars rationalium quaestionum. Nosti enim quidquid propter adipiscendam sapientiam quaeritur, aut de moribus, aut de natura, aut de ratione quaestionem habere. Cum ergo Epicurei nunquam sensus corporis falli dicerent, Stoici autem falli aliquando concederent, utrique tamen regulam comprehendendae veritatis in sensibus ponerent; quis istis contradicentibus audiret Platonicos? Quis non modo in sapientium, sed omnino in hominum numero habendos putaret, si ab eis prompte diceretur, non solum esse aliquid quod neque tactu corporis, neque olfactu vel gustatu, neque his auribus aut oculis percipi possit, neque omnino talium rerum, quae ita sentirentur, aliqua imaginatione cogitari; sed id solum vere esse, atque id solum posse percipi, quia incommutabile et sempiternum est; percipi autem sola intelligentia, qua una veritas, quomodo attingi potest, attingitur?

20. Cum ergo talia sentirent Platonici, quae neque docerent carni deditos homines, neque tanta essent auctoritate apud populos, ut credenda persuaderent, donec ad eum habitum perduceretur animus quo ista capiuntur, elegerunt occultare sententiam suam, et contra eos disserere, qui verum se invenisse jactarent, cum inventionem ipsam veri in carnis sensibus ponerent. Et eorum quidem consilium quale fuerit quid attinet quaerere? divinum certe vel divina aliqua auctoritate praeditum non fuit. Tantum illud attende, quoniam Plato a Cicerone multis modis apertissime ostenditur, in sapientia non humana, sed plane divina, unde humana quodammodo accenderetur, in illa utique sapientia prorsus immutabili, atque eodem modo semper se habente veritate , constituisse et finem boni, et causas rerum, et ratiocinandi fiduciam: oppugnatos autem esse nomine Epicureorum et Stoicorum a Platonicis eos, qui in corporis vel in animi natura ponerent et finem boni, et causas rerum, et ratiocinandi fiduciam; eo rem successione temporum esse devolutam, ut christianae jam aetatis exordio, cum rerum invisibilium atque aeternarum fides 0442 per visibilia miracula salubriter praedicaretur hominibus, qui nec videre nec cogitare aliquid praeter corpora poterant, beato apostolo Paulo, qui eamdem finem Gentibus praeseminabat, iidem ipsi Epicurei et Stoici, in Actibus Apostolorum contradixisse inveniantur.

21. Qua in re satis mihi videtur demonstratum esse errores Gentium, sive de moribus, sive de natura rerum, sive de ratione investigandae veritatis, qui quamvis essent multi atque multiplices, in his tamen maxime duabus sectis eminebant, expugnantibus doctis et tanta disserendi subtilitate atque copia subvertentibus, durasse tamen usque in tempora christiana. Quos jam certe nostra aetate sic obmutuisse conspicimus, ut vix jam in scholis rhetorum commemoretur tantum quae fuerint illorum sententiae: certamina tamen etiam de loquacissimis Graecorum gymnasiis eradicata atque compressa sunt, ita ut si qua nunc erroris secta contra veritatem, hoc est, contra Ecclesiam Christi emerserit, nisi nomine cooperta christiano, ad pugnandum prosilire non audeat. Ex quo intelligitur ipsos quoque Platonicae gentis philosophos, paucis mutatis quae christiana improbat disciplina, invictissimo uni regi Christo pias cervices oportere submittere, et intelligere Verbum Dei homine indutum, qui jussit, et creditum est quod illi vel proferre metuebant.

22. Huic te, mi Dioscore, ut tota pietate subdas velim, nec aliam tibi ad capessendam et obtinendam veritatem viam munias, quam quae munita est ab illo qui gressuum nostrorum tanquam Deus vidit infirmitatem. Ea est autem prima, humilitas; secunda, humilitas; tertia, humilitas: et quoties interrogares hoc dicerem; non quo alia non sint praecepta, quae dicantur, sed nisi humilitas omnia quaecumque bene facimus et praecesserit et comitetur et consecuta fuerit, et proposita quam intueamur, et apposita cui adhaereamus, et imposita qua reprimamur, jam nobis de aliquo bono facto gaudentibus totum extorquet de manu superbia. Vitia quippe caetera in peccatis, superbia vero etiam in recte factis timenda est, ne illa quae laudabiliter facta sunt, ipsius laudis cupiditate amittantur. Itaque sicut rhetor ille nobilissimus cum interrogatus esset quid ei primum videretur in eloquentiae praeceptis observari oportere, Pronuntiationem dicitur respondisse; cum quaereretur quid secundo, eamdem pronuntiationem; quid tertio, nihil aliud quam pronuntiationem dixisse: ita si interrogares, et quoties interrogares de praeceptis christianae religionis, nihil me aliud respondere nisi humilitatem liberet, etsi forte alia dicere necessitas cogeret.

CAPUT IV.

23. Huic humilitati saluberrimae, quam Dominus noster Jesus Christus ut doceret humiliatus est; huic, inquam, maxime adversatur quaedam, ut ita dicam, imperitissima scientia, dum nos scire gaudemus quid Anaximenes, quid Anaxagoras, quid Pythagoras, quid Democritus senserint, et caetera hujusmodi, ut docti eruditique videamur, cum hoc a vera doctrina et eruditione longe absit. Qui 0443 enim didicerit Deum non distendi aut diffundi per locos, neque finitos neque infinitos, quasi in aliqua parte major sit, in aliqua minor, sed totum ubique esse praesentem, sicut veritatem cujus nemo sobrie dicit partem esse in isto loco, et partem in illo, quoniam veritas utique Deus est; nequaquam eum movebit quod de infinito aere sensit, quicumque sensit quod ipse Deus esset. Quid ad illum, si nesciat quam dicant isti corporis formam; eam quippe dicunt quae undique finita sit: et utrum refellendi causa tanquam Academicus, Anaximeni Cicero objecerit formam et pulchritudinem Deum habere oportere , quasi corpoream speciem cogitans, quia ille corporeum Deum esse dixerat, aer enim corpus est; an ipse sentiebat esse formam, et pulchritudinem incorpoream veritati, qua ipse animus informatur, et per quam omnia sapientis facta pulchra esse judicamus, ut non tantum refellendi gratia, sed etiam verissime dixerit quod Deum pulcherrima specie deceat esse, quia nihil est pulchrius ipsa intelligibili atque incommutabili veritate? Quod autem ait ille gigni aerem, quem tamen Deum esse censebat, nullo modo movet hunc virum qui intelligit, non sicut aer gignitur, id est aliqua causa ut sit efficitur, cum omnino Deus non sit, ita genitum esse Verbum Dei, Deum apud Deum, sed longe alio modo, quem nemo, nisi cui ipse Deus inspirarit, intelligit. Illum autem etiam in ipsis corporalibus desipere quis non videat, cum aerem gigni dicat, et Deum velit; eum autem a quo aer gignitur, non enim a nullo gigni potest, non dicat Deum? Cum autem dicitur aer esse semper in motu, nequaquam conturbabit hominem, ut propterea illum Deum putet, qui novit omnis corporis motum inferiorem esse quam est motus animi; motum autem animi longe pigriorem, quam est motus summae atque incommutabilis Sapientiae.

24. Item Anaxagoras, sive quilibet, si mentem dicit ipsam veritatem atque sapientiam, quid mihi est de verbo cum homine contendere? Manifestum est enim omnium rerum descriptionem et modum ab illa fieri, eamque non incongrue dici infinitam, non per spatia locorum, sed per potentiam, quae cogitatione humana comprehendi non potest; neque quod informe aliquid sit ipsa sapientia, hoc enim corporum est, ut quaecumque infinita fuerint, sint et informia. Cicero autem studio refellendi, quantum videtur, propter adversarios corporaliter sentientes negat infinito aliquid jungi posse, quia ex ea parte qua quidquam adjungitur, necesse esse in corporibus aliquem finem. Ideo ait non eum vidisse, neque motum sensui junctum et continentem, id est continua copulatione adhaerentem, infinito, id est infinitae rei, ullum esse posse, quasi de corporibus ageret, quibus nihil jungi nisi per fines locorum 0444 potest. Sic autem addidit: Neque sensum omnino, quo non tota natura pulsa sentiret; quasi ille dixisset mentem illam ordinatricem et moderatricem rerum omnium habere sensum, qualem habet anima per corpus. Nam manifestum est totam sentire animam, cum per corpus aliquid sentit: nam totam utique non latet, quidquid illud est quod sentitur. Ad hoc autem dixit totam naturam sentire, ut illi quasi auferret quod ait mentem infinitam. Quomodo enim tota sentit, si infinita est? Sensus enim corporis ab aliquo loco incipit, nec percurrit totum, nisi ad cujus finem pervenerit; quod in infinito dici non potest. Sed neque ille de sensu corporis aliquid dixerat. Et aliter dicitur totum quod incorporeum est, quia sine finibus locorum intelligitur, ut et totum et infinitum dici possit: totum propter integritatem; infinitum, quia locorum finibus non ambitur.

25. Deinde, inquit, si mentem ipsam quasi animal aliquod esse voluit, erit aliquid interius ex quo illud animal nominetur; ut mens ista quasi corpus sit, et habeat intus animam unde animal appelletur. Vide quemadmodum corporali consuetudine loquitur, quomodo solent videri animalia, propter sensum crassum, ut opinor, eorum contra quos disserit: et tamen dixit rem quae illos, si evigilare possent, satis admoneret, omne quod sicut corpus vivum animo occurrit, magis animam habere et esse animal, quam animam esse cogitari oportere. Hoc est enim quod ait: Erit aliquid interius, ex quo illud animal nominetur. Sed adjungit: Quid autem interius mente? Non ergo potest mens habere interiorem animam ut sit animal, quia ipsa est interior. Ergo corpus habeat extrinsecus, cui sit interior, ut sit animal. Hoc est enim quod ait, Cingitur igitur corpore externo; quasi Anaxagoras dixerit, nisi animalis alicujus esset, mentem esse non posse. Si mentem ipsam summam sapientiam esse sentiebat, quae nullius quasi animantis propria est, quia omnibus animis se frui valentibus veritas communiter praesto est. Et ideo vide quam urbane concludat: Quod quoniam non placet, inquit, hoc est non placet Anaxagorae, ut illa mens, quam dicit Deum, cingatur corpore externo, quo animal esse possit, aperta simplexque mens nulla re adjuncta qua sentire possit, id est nullo corpore adjuncto per quod sentire possit, fugere intelligentiae nostrae vim et notionem videtur (Cicero, l. 1 de Nat. Deorum).

26. Nihil verius quam fugere hoc vim et notionem intelligentiae Stoicorum et Epicureorum, qui nisi corporalia cogitare non possunt. Quod autem ait, nostrae, humanae intelligi voluit; et bene non ait, Fugit; sed, Fugere videtur. Hoc enim illis videtur, neminem hoc posse intelligere, et ideo nihil tale esse arbitrantur: sed quorumdam intelligentiam, quantum homini datum est, non fugit esse apertam simplicemque sapientiam atque veritatem, quae nullius animantis sit propria, sed qua communiter omnis, quae id potest anima, sapiens et verax efficitur. Quam si sensit esse Anaxagoras, eamque Deum esse vidit, mentemque appellavit, non solum nomen Anaxagorae, quod propter litteratam 0445 vetustatem, omnes, ut militariter loquar, litteriones libenter sufflant, nos doctos et sapientes non facit, sed ne ipsa quidem ejus cognitio, qua id verum esse cognovit. Non enim mihi propterea veritas chara esse debet, quia non latuit Anaxagoram, sed quia veritas est, etiamsi nullus eam cognovisset illorum.

27. Si igitur nec ejus hominis qui verum forsitan vidit, cognitio nos inflare debet, ut ea quasi docti esse videamur, sed nec ipsius veri solida res, qua vere docti esse possumus; quanto minus eorum hominum qui falsa senserunt, nomina et dogmata nostram possunt adjuvare doctrinam, et latentia cognita facere? cum si homines simus, magis nos contristari deceat tot et tam nobilitatorum hominum erroribus, si eos audire contigerit, quam haec propterea studiose quaerere, ut inter eos qui illa nesciunt, jactatione inanissima ventilemur. Quanto enim melius ne audissem quidem nomen Democriti, quam cum dolore cogitarem, nescio quem suis temporibus magnum putatum, qui deos esse arbitraretur imagines, quae de solidis corporibus fluerent, solidaeque ipsae non essent, easque hac atque hac motu proprio circumeundo atque illabendo in animos hominum facere ut vis divina cogitetur; cum profecto illud corpus, unde imago flueret, quanto solidius est, tanto praestantius quoque esse judicetur? Ideoque fluctuavit ejus, sicut isti dicunt, nutavitque sententia, ut aliquando naturam quamdam de qua fluerent imagines Deum esse diceret, qui tamen cogitari non posset, nisi per eas imagines quas fundit ac emittit, id est quae de illa natura, quam nescio quam corpoream et sempiternam, ac etiam per hoc divinam putat, quasi vaporis similitudine continua velut emanatione ferrentur, et venirent atque intrarent in animos nostros, ut Deum vel deos cogitare possemus. Nullam enim aliam causam cujuslibet cogitationis nostrae opinantur isti, nisi cum ab his corporibus quae cogitamus, veniunt atque intrant imagines in animos nostros: quasi non multa ac prope innumerabilia cogitentur incorporaliter atque intelligibiliter ab eis qui talia cogitare noverunt, sicut ipsa sapientia et veritas. Quam si isti non cogitant, miror quomodo de illa utcumque disputent: si autem cogitant, vellem mihi dicerent, vel de quo corpore, vel qualis in eorum animos veniat imago veritatis.

28. Quanquam Democritus etiam hoc distare in naturalibus quaestionibus ab Epicuro dicitur, quod iste sentit inesse concursioni atomorum vim quamdam animalem et spirabilem : qua vi eum credo et imagines ipsas divinitate praeditas dicere, non omnes omnium rerum, sed deorum, et principia mentis esse in universis, quibus divinitatem tribuit, et animantes imagines, quae vel prodesse nobis soleant vel nocere. Epicurus vero neque aliquid in principiis rerum penit 0446 praeter atomos, id est corpuscula quaedam tam minuta, ut jam dividi nequeant, neque sentiri, aut visu, aut tactu possint; quorum corpusculorum concursu fortuito, et mundos innumerabiles, et animantia, et ipsas animas fieri dicit, et deos quos humana forma non in aliquo mundo, sed extra mundos, atque inter mundos constituit: et non vult omnino aliquid praeter corpora cogitare; quae tamen ut cogitet, imagines dicit ab ipsis rebus quas atomis formari putat, defluere, atque in animum introire subtiliores quam sunt illae imagines quae ad oculos veniunt. Nam et videndi causam hanc esse dicit, ingentes quasdam imagines, ita ut universum mundum complectantur extrinsecus. Intelligis autem jam, ut arbitror, quas isti opinentur imagines.

29. Miror non admonuisse Democritum vel hoc ipso falsa esse quae dicit, quia venientes tam magnae imagines in tam brevem animum nostrum, si corporeus, ut illi volunt, tam parvo corpore includitur, totae illum tangere non possunt. A magno enim corpore cum parvum corpus attingitur, a toto simul attingi nullo pacto potest: quomodo igitur totae simul cogitantur, si in tantum cogitantur, in quantum venientes atque intrantes animum attingunt, quae nec totae intrare possunt per tam parvum corpus, nec totae tam parvum animum attingere? Memento me secundum illos haec dicere; non enim ego talem animum sentio: aut si incorporeum Democritus animum existimat, Epicurus quidem solus ista ratione urgeri potest; sed etiam ille quare non vidit, non opus esse nec fieri posse ut incorporeus animus adventu atque contactu corporearum imaginum cogitet ? De visu certe oculorum ambo pariter redarguuntur; tam enim breves oculos, tam grandia imaginum corpora tota attingere nullo modo possunt.

30. Cum autem quaeritur ab eis quare una imago videatur corporis alicujus, a quo innumerabiliter imagines fluunt; respondent, eo ipso quo frequenter fluunt et transeunt imagines, quasi quadam earum constipatione et densitare fieri ut ex multis una videatur. Quam vanitatem Cicero ita refellit, ut eo ipso neget aeternum deum eorum posse cogitari, quo innumerabiliter fluentibus et labentibus imaginibus cogitatur. Et quoniam innumerabilitate atomorum suppeditante, dicunt fieri formas deorum sempiternas, cum ita discedant quaedam corpuscula de divino corpore ut alia succedant, et dissolvi illam naturam eadem successione non sinant: Omnia ergo, inquit, aeterna essent, quia nulli deest ista innumerabilitas atomorum, quae perpetuas ruinas subinde suppleat. Deinde quomodo non vereatur iste deus ne intereat, cum sine ulla intermissione pulsetur, agiteturque atomorum incursione sempiterna? pulsari enim dicit illud corpus quod irruentibus atomis feriatur, et agitari quod penetretur: deinde cum ex ipso imagines, de quibus jam satis dictum est, semper affluant (Lib. 1 de Nat. Deorum), quomodo potest de immortalitate confidere?

31. In cuibus omnibus deliramentis haec opinantium, 0447 illud praecipue dolendum est, quod non sufficit ea narrari, ut nulla cujusquam disputatione adversante respuantur; sed acutissimorum hominum ingenia id etiam negotium susceperunt, ut copiose ista refellerent, quae statim dicta etiam a tardissimis derideri abjicique debuerunt. Si enim concesseris esse atomos, si concesseris etiam concursu fortuito seipsas pellere et agitare; num et illud eis fas est concedere, ut inter se atomi fortuito concurrentes, rem aliquam ita conficiant, ut eam forma modificent , figura determinent, aequalitate poliant, colore illustrent, anima vegetent? quae omnia nullo modo nisi arte divinae providentiae fieri videt, quisquis magis mente quam oculis amat videre, idque ab eo expetit a quo factus est. Nam nec ipsas atomos esse ullo modo concedendum est; quod, omissa subtilitate quae de divisione corporum a doctis traditur, vide quam facile secundum ipsorum opinionem possit ostendi. Certe enim ipsi dicunt omnia quae sint naturae, nihil esse aliud quam corpora et inane, quaeque his accidant; quod credo motum et pulsum dicere et consequentes formas. Dicant ergo in quo genere ponant imagines, quas de corporibus solidioribus affluere putant, ipsas minime solidas, ita ut tactu nisi oculorum cum videmus, et animi cum cogitamus, sentiri non possint, si et ipsa corpora sunt. Nam ita censent, ut exire a corpore et venire ad oculos, vel ad animum possint, quem nihilominus dicunt esse corporeum. Quaero utrum etiam ab ipsis atomis affluant imagines? Si affluunt, quomodo jam sunt atomi, a quibus aliqua corpora separantur? si non affluunt, aut potest aliquid sine imaginibus cogitari, quod vehementer nolunt; aut unde norunt atomos, quas nec cogitare potuerunt? Sed jam pudet me ista refellere, cum eos non puduerit ista sentire. Cum vero ausi sint etiam defendere, non jam eorum, sed ipsius generis humani me pudet, cujus aures haec ferre potuerunt.

CAPUT V.

32. Cum igitur tanta sit caecitas mentium per illuviem peccatorum amoremque carnis, ut etiam ista sententiarum portenta, otia doctorum conterere disputando potuerint, dubitabis tu, Dioscore, vel quisquam vigilanti ingenio praeditus, ullo modo ad sequendam veritatem melius consuli potuisse generi humano, quam ut homo ab ipsa Veritate susceptus ineffabiliter atque mirabiliter, et ipsius in terris personam gerens, recta praecipiendo, et divina faciendo, salubriter credi persuaderet quod nondum prudenter posset intelligi? Hujus nos gloriae servimus, huic te immobiliter atque constanter credere hortamur, per quem factum est, ut non pauci, sed populi etiam, qui non possunt ista dijudicare ratione, fide credant , donec salutaribus praeceptis adminiculati, evadant ab his perplexitatibus in auras purissimae atque sincerissimae veritatis. Cujus auctoritati tanto devotius obtemperari 0448 oportet, quanto videmus nullum jam errorem se audere extollere, ad congregandas sibi turbas imperitorum, qui non christiani nominis velamenta conquirat: eos autem solos ex veteribus, praeter christianum nomen in conventiunculis suis aliquanto frequentius perdurare, qui Scripturas eas tenent, per quas annuntiatum esse ipsum Dominum Jesum Christum, se intelligere et videre dissimulant. Porro illi qui cum in unitate atque communione catholica non sint, christiano tamen nomine gloriantur, coguntur adversari credentibus, et audent imperitos quasi ratione traducere, quando maxime cum ista medicina Dominus venerit, ut fidem populis imperaret. Sed hoc facere coguntur, ut dixi, quia jacere se abjectissime sentiunt, si eorum auctoritas cum auctoritate catholica conferatur. Conantur ergo auctoritatem stabilissimam fundatissimae Ecclesiae quasi rationis nomine et pollicitatione superare. Omnium enim haereticorum quasi regularis est ista temeritas. Sed ille fidei imperator clementissimus, et per conventus celeberrimos populorum atque gentium, sedesque ipsas Apostolorum arce auctoritatis munivit Ecclesiam, et per pauciores pie doctos et vere spirituales viros, copiosissimis apparatibus etiam invictissimae rationis armavit. Verum illa rectissima disciplina est, in arcem fidei quam maxime recipi infirmos, ut pro eis jam tutissime positis, fortissima ratione pugnetur.

33. Platonici vero, qui falsorum philosophorum erroribus illo tempore circumlatrantibus, non habentes divinam personam qua imperarent fidem, sententiam suam tegere quaerendam, quam polluendam proferre maluerunt, cum jam Christi nomen terrenis regnis admirantibus perturbatisque crebresceret, emergere coeperant, ad proferendum atque aperiendum quid Plato sensisset. Tunc Plotini schola Romae floruit, habuitque condiscipulos, multos acutissimos et solertissimos viros. Sed aliqui eorum magicarum artium curiositate depravati sunt, aliqui Dominum Jesum Christum ipsius veritatis atque sapientiae incommutabilis, quam conabantur attingere, cognoscentes gestare personam, in ejus militiam transierunt. Itaque totum culmen auctoritatis lumenque rationis in illo uno salutari nomine atque in una ejus Ecclesia, recreando atque reformando humano generi constitutum est.

34. Haec me tibi diutissime in hac epistola locutum, etsi alia forte tu malles, omnino non poenitet. Probabis enim haec magis, quanto magis in veritate proficies; et tunc probabis consilium meum, quod nunc utilitati studiorum tuorum minus obsecutum putas. Quanquam etiam illis ipsis quaestionibus tuis. non solum quibusdam in hac epistola, sed etiam caeteris pene omnibus in ipsis membranis, in quibus eas misisti ut potui breviter annotando responderim. In quibus si me parum, aut aliud quam volebas egisse arbitraris, non recte cogitas, mi Dioscore, a quo nunc ista quaesieris. Oratoris autem librorumque de Oratore 0449 omnes quaestiones praetermisi. Nescio quis enim nugator mihi esse visus sum, si eas exponendas persequerer. Nam de caeteris possem etiam decenter interrogari, si mihi quisquam res ipsas, non de libris Ciceronis, sed per seipsas tractandas dissolvendasque proferret. In illis autem res ipsae nunc nostrae professioni minus congruunt. Haec autem omnia non facerem, nisi me post aegritudinem, in qua eram cum homo tuus venisset, aliquantum ab Hippone removissem. Quibus item diebus perturbatione valetudinis febribusque repetitus sum. Inde factum est ut tardius quam possent tibi haec mitterentur. Quae quomodo acceperis, rescripta flagito.