A Treatise on the soul and its origin,

 Chapter 1 [I.]—Renatus Had Done Him a Kindness by Sending Him the Books Which Had Been Addressed to Him.

 Chapter 2 [II.]—He Receives with a Kindly and Patient Feeling the Books of a Young and Inexperienced Man Who Wrote Against Him in a Tone of Arrogance.

 Chapter 3 [III]—The Eloquence of Vincentius, Its Dangers and Its Tolerableness.

 Chapter 4 [IV.]—The Errors Contained in the Books of Vincentius Victor. He Says that the Soul Comes from God, But Was Not Made Either Out of Nothing o

 Chapter 5 [V.]—Another of Victor’s Errors, that the Soul is Corporeal.

 Chapter 6 [VI.]—Another Error Out of His Second Book, to the Effect, that the Soul Deserved to Be Polluted by the Body.

 Chapter 7 [VII.]—Victor Entangles Himself in an Exceedingly Difficult Question. God’s Foreknowledge is No Cause of Sin.

 Chapter 8 [VIII.]—Victor’s Erroneous Opinion, that the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful.

 Chapter 9.—Victor Utterly Unable to Explain How the Sinless Soul Deserved to Be Made Sinful.

 Chapter 10 [IX.]—Another Error of Victor’s, that Infants Dying Unbaptized May Attain to the Kingdom of Heaven. Another, that the Sacrifice of the Body

 Chapter 11.—Martyrdom for Christ Supplies the Place of Baptism. The Faith of the Thief Who Was Crucified Along with Christ Taken as Martyrdom and Henc

 Chapter 12 [X.]—Dinocrates, Brother of the Martyr St. Perpetua, is Said to Have Been Delivered from the State of Condemnation by the Prayers of the Sa

 Chapter 13 [XI.]—The Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ Will Not Avail for Unbaptized Persons, and Can Not Be Offered for the Majority of Those

 Chapter 14.—Victor’s Dilemma: He Must Either Say All Infants are Saved, or Else God Slays the Innocent.

 Chapter 15 [XII.]—God Does Not Judge Any One for What He Might Have Done If His Life Had Been Prolonged, But Simply for the Deeds He Actually Commits.

 Chapter 16 [XIII.]—Difficulty in the Opinion Which Maintains that Souls are Not by Propagation.

 Chapter 17 [XIV.]—He Shows that the Passages of Scripture Adduced by Victor Do Not Prove that Souls are Made by God in Such a Way as Not to Be Derived

 Chapter 18.—By “Breath” Is Signified Sometimes the Holy Spirit.

 Chapter 19.—The Meaning of “Breath” In Scripture.

 Chapter 20.—Other Ways of Taking the Passage.

 Chapter 21.—The Second Passage Quoted by Victor.

 Chapter 22.—Victor’s Third Quotation.

 Chapter 23.—His Fourth Quotation.

 Chapter 24 [XV.]—Whether or No the Soul is Derived by Natural Descent (Ex Traduce), His Cited Passages Fail to Show.

 Chapter 25.—Just as the Mother Knows Not Whence Comes Her Child Within Her, So We Know Not Whence Comes the Soul.

 Chapter 26 [XVI.]—The Fifth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor.

 Chapter 27 [XVII.]—Augustin Did Not Venture to Define Anything About the Propagation of the Soul.

 Chapter 28.—A Natural Figure of Speech Must Not Be Literally Pressed.

 Chapter 29 [XVIII.]—The Sixth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor.

 Chapter 30—The Danger of Arguing from Silence.

 Chapter 31.—The Argument of the Apollinarians to Prove that Christ Was Without the Human Soul of This Same Sort.

 Chapter 32 [XIX.]—The Self-Contradiction of Victor as to the Origin of the Soul.

 Chapter 33.—Augustin Has No Objection to the Opinion About the Propagation of Souls Being Refuted, and that About Their Insufflation Being Maintained.

 Chapter 34.—The Mistakes Which Must Be Avoided by Those Who Say that Men’s Souls are Not Derived from Their Parents, But are Afresh Inbreathed by God

 Chapter 35 [XX.]—Conclusion.

 Book II.

 Chapter 1 [I.]—Depraved Eloquence an Injurious Accomplishment.

 Chapter 2 [II.]—He Asks What the Great Knowledge is that Victor Imparts.

 Chapter 3.—The Difference Between the Senses of the Body and Soul.

 Chapter 4.—To Believe the Soul is a Part of God is Blasphemy.

 Chapter 5 [III.]—In What Sense Created Beings are Out of God.

 Chapter 6.—Shall God’s Nature Be Mutable, Sinful, Impious, Even Eternally Damned.

 Chapter 7.—To Think the Soul Corporeal an Error.

 [IV.] Nor shall I find fault if your humble thanks to your instructor were further earned by your having acquired from discussions with him some other

 Chapter 8.—The Thirst of the Rich Man in Hell Does Not Prove the Soul to Be Corporeal.

 Chapter 9 [V.]—How Could the Incorporeal God Breathe Out of Himself a Corporeal Substance?

 Chapter 10 [VI.]—Children May Be Found of Like or of Unlike Dispositions with Their Parents.

 Chapter 11 [VII.]—Victor Implies that the Soul Had a “State” And “Merit” Before Incarnation.

 Chapter 12 [VIII.]—How Did the Soul Deserve to Be Incarnated?

 Chapter 13 [IX.]—Victor Teaches that God Thwarts His Own Predestination.

 Chapter 14 [X.]—Victor Sends Those Infants Who Die Unbaptized to Paradise and the Heavenly Mansions, But Not to the Kingdom of Heaven.

 Chapter 15 [XI.]—Victor “Decides” That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die Unbaptized.

 Chapter 16 [XII.]—Victor Promises to the Unbaptized Paradise After Their Death, and the Kingdom of Heaven After Their Resurrection, Although He Admits

 Chapter 17.—Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism.

 Chapter 18 [XIII.]—Victor’s Dilemma and Fall.

 Chapter 19 [XIV.]—Victor Relies on Ambiguous Scriptures.

 Chapter 20.—Victor Quotes Scriptures for Their Silence, and Neglects the Biblical Usage.

 Chapter 21 [XV.]—Victor’s Perplexity and Failure.

 Chapter 22 [XVI.]—Peter’s Responsibility in the Case of Victor.

 Chapter 23 [XVII.]—Who They are that are Not Injured by Reading Injurious Books.

 Book III.

 Chapter 1 [I.]—Augustin’s Purpose in Writing.

 Chapter 2 [II.]—Why Victor Assumed the Name of Vincentius. The Names of Evil Men Ought Never to Be Assumed by Other Persons.

 Chapter 3 [III.]—He Enumerates the Errors Which He Desires to Have Amended in the Books of Vincentius Victor. The First Error.

 Chapter 4 [IV.]—Victor’s Simile to Show that God Can Create by Breathing Without Impartation of His Substance.

 Chapter 5.—Examination of Victor’s Simile: Does Man Give Out Nothing by Breathing?

 Chapter 6.—The Simile Reformed in Accordance with Truth.

 Chapter 7 [V.]—Victor Apparently Gives the Creative Breath to Man Also.

 Chapter 8 [VI.]—Victor’s Second Error. (See Above in Book I. 26 [XVI.].)

 Chapter 9 [VII.]—His Third Error. (See Above in Book II. 11 [VII.].)

 Chapter 10.—His Fourth Error. (See Above in Book I. 6 [VI.] and Book II. 11 [VII.].)

 Chapter 11 [VIII.]—His Fifth Error. (See Above in Book I. 8 [VIII.] and Book II. 12 [VIII.].)

 Chapter 12 [IX.]—His Sixth Error. (See Above in Book I. 10-12 [IX., X.], and in Book II. 13, 14 [IX., X.].)

 Chapter 13 [X]—His Seventh Error. (See Above in Book II. 13 [IX.].)

 Chapter 14.—His Eighth Error. (See Above in Book II. 13 [IX.].)

 Chapter 15 [XI.]—His Ninth Error. (See Above in Book II. 14 [X.].)

 Chapter 16.—God Rules Everywhere: and Yet the “Kingdom of Heaven” May Not Be Everywhere.

 Chapter 17.—Where the Kingdom of God May Be Understood to Be.

 Chapter 18 [XII.]—His Tenth Error. (See Above in Book I. 13 [XI.] and Book II. 15 [XI.]).

 Chapter 19 [XIII.]—His Eleventh Error. (See Above in Book I. 15 [XII.] and Book II. 16.)

 Chapter 20 [XIV.]—Augustin Calls on Victor to Correct His Errors. (See Above in Book II. 22 [XVI.].)

 Chapter 21.—Augustin Compliments Victor’s Talents and Diligence.

 Chapter 22 [XV.]—A Summary Recapitulation of the Errors of Victor.

 Chapter 23.—Obstinacy Makes the Heretic.

 Book IV.

 Chapter 1 [I.]—The Personal Character of This Book.

 Chapter 2 [II.]—The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustin.

 Chapter 3.—How Much Do We Know of the Nature of the Body?

 Chapter 4 [III.]—Is the Question of Breath One that Concerns the Soul, or Body, or What?

 Chapter 5 [IV.]—God Alone Can Teach Whence Souls Come.

 Chapter 6 [V.]—Questions About the Nature of the Body are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not Higher Than Those of the Soul.

 Chapter 7 [VI.]—We Often Need More Teaching as to What is Most Intimately Ours Than as to What is Further from Us.

 Chapter 8.—We Have No Memory of Our Creation.

 Chapter 9 [VII.]—Our Ignorance of Ourselves Illustrated by the Remarkable Memory of One Simplicius.

 Chapter 10.—The Fidelity of Memory The Unsearchable Treasure of Memory The Powers of a Man’s Understanding Sufficiently Understood by None.

 Chapter 11.—The Apostle Peter Told No Lie, When He Said He Was Ready to Lay Down His Life for the Lord, But Only Was Ignorant of His Will.

 Chapter 12 [VIII.]—The Apostle Paul Could Know the Third Heaven and Paradise, But Not Whether He Was in the Body or Not.

 Chapter 13 [IX.]—In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us.

 Chapter 14 [X.]—It is More Excellent to Know That the Flesh Will Rise Again and Live for Evermore, Than to Learn Whatever Scientific Men Have Been Abl

 Chapter 15 [XI.]—We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written.

 Chapter 16.—Ignorance is Better Than Error. Predestination to Eternal Life, and Predestination to Eternal Death.

 Chapter 17 [XII.]—A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul Is It “Body”? and is It “Spirit”? What Body is.

 Chapter 18.—The First Question, Whether the Soul is Corporeal Breath and Wind, Nothing Else Than Air in Motion.

 Chapter 19 [XIII.]—Whether the Soul is a Spirit.

 Chapter 20 [XIV.]—The Body Does Not Receive God’s Image.

 Chapter 21 [XV.]—Recognition and Form Belong to Souls as Well as Bodies.

 Chapter 22.—Names Do Not Imply Corporeity.

 Chapter 23 [XVI.]—Figurative Speech Must Not Be Taken Literally.

 Chapter 24.—Abraham’s Bosom—What It Means.

 Chapter 25 [XVII.]—The Disembodied Soul May Think of Itself Under a Bodily Form.

 Chapter 26 [XVIII.]—St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned into a Man, and Then Have Wrestled with a Certain Egyptian.

 Chapter 27.—Is the Soul Wounded When the Body is Wounded?

 Chapter 28.—Is the Soul Deformed by the Body’s Imperfections?

 Chapter 29 [XIX.]—Does the Soul Take the Body’s Clothes Also Away with It?

 Chapter 30.—Is Corporeity Necessary for Recognition?

 Chapter 31 [XX.]—Modes of Knowledge in the Soul Distinguished.

 Chapter 32.—Inconsistency of Giving the Soul All the Parts of Sex and Yet No Sex.

 Chapter 33.—The Phenix After Death Coming to Life Again.

 Chapter 34 [XXI.]—Prophetic Visions.

 Chapter 35.—Do Angels Appear to Men in Real Bodies?

 Chapter 36 [XXII.]—He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit.

 Chapter 37 [XXIII.]—Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word “Spirit.”

 Chapter 38 [XXIV.]—Victor’s Chief Errors Again Pointed Out.

 Chapter 39.—Concluding Admonition.

Chapter 23 [XVII.]—Who They are that are Not Injured by Reading Injurious Books.

Forasmuch, then, as he has both commenced and terminated his books with such safeguards, and has placed on your shoulders the religious burden of their correction and emendation, I only trust that he may find in you all that he has asked you for, that you may “correct him righteously in mercy, and reprove him; whilst the oil of the sinner which anoints his head”93    Ps. cxli. 5. is absent from your hands and eyes,—even the indecent compliance of the flatterer, and the deceitful leniency of the sycophant. If, however, you decline to apply correction when you see anything to amend, you offend against love; but if he does not appear to you to require correction, because you think him to be right in his opinions, then you are wise against truth. He, therefore, is a better man (since he is only too ready to be corrected, if a true censurer be at hand) than yourself, if either knowing him to be in error you despise him with derision, or ignorant of his wandering course you at the same time closely follow his error. Everything, therefore, which you find in the books that he has addressed and forwarded to you, I beg you to consider with sobriety and vigilance; and you will perhaps make fuller discoveries than I have myself of statements which deserve to be censured. And as for such of their contents as are worthy of praise and approbation,—whatever good you have learnt therein, and by his instruction, which perhaps you were really ignorant of before, tell us plainly what it is, that all may know that it was for this particular benefit that you expressed your obligations to him, and not for the manifold statements in his books which call for their disapproval,—all, I mean, who, like yourself, heard him read his writings, or who afterwards read the same for themselves: lest in his ornate style they may drink poison, as out of a choice goblet, at your instance, though not after your own example, because they know not precisely what it is you have drunk yourself, and what you have left untasted, and because, from your high character, they suppose that whatever is drunk out of this fountain would be for their health. For what else are hearing, and reading, and copiously depositing things in the memory, than several processes of drinking? The Lord, however, foretold concerning His faithful followers, that even “if they should drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt them.”94    Mark xvi. 18. And thus it happens that they who read with judgment, and bestow their approbation on whatever is commendable according to the rule of faith, and disapprove of things which ought to be reprobated, even if they commit to their memory statements which are declared to be worthy of disapproval, they receive no harm from the poisonous and depraved nature of the sentences. To myself, through the Lord’s mercy, it can never become a matter of the least regret, that, actuated by our previous love, I have given your reverend and religious self advice and warning on these points, in whatever way you may receive the admonition for which I have regarded you as possessing the first claim upon me. Abundant thanks, indeed, shall I give unto Him in whose mercy it is most salutary to put one’s trust, if this letter of mine shall either find or else make your faith both free from the depraved and erroneous opinions which I have been able herein to point out from this man’s books, and sound in catholic integrity.

CAPUT XVII.

23. Isto igitur cum ille suos libros et initio praemuniverit, et termino communiverit, atque tuis humeris imposuerit onus religiosum correctionis et emendationis suae: hoc apud te inveniat quod petivit, ut emendes eum justus in misericordia, et arguas eum; oleum autem peccatoris quo impinguetur caput ejus (Psal. CXL, 5), absit a manibus atque oculis tuis, id est, assentatio indecens 0510 adulantis, et deceptoria lenitudo blandientis. Quod si emendare negligis cum videas emendandum, adversus charitatem facis: si autem tibi emendandus propterea non videtur, quia putas eum recte ista sensisse; adversus veritatem sapis. Et ideo ille melior, qui emendari est paratior, si non defuerit emendator, quam tu, si vel sciens irridenter contemnis errantem, vel nesciens pariter sectaris errorem. Omnia itaque in eisdem libris ad te scriptis et tibi traditis sobrie vigilanterque considera, et plura quam ego invenies fortasse culpanda. Et quaecumque ibi sunt approbanda atque laudanda, si quid in eis revera forsitan ignorabas, atque isto disserente didicisti, evidenter profitere quid illud sit; ut de hoc te gratias egisse, non de his quae illic improbanda tam multa sunt, omnes noverint, qui vel recitante illo tecum simul audierunt, vel eosdem postea libros legerunt: ne in ejus ornato eloquio tanquam in pretioso poculo te invitante, etsi non bibente, venenum bibant, si tu quid inde biberis, et quid non biberis nesciunt, et propter laudem tuam omnia illic bibenda salubriter arbitrantur. Quamvis et audire, et legere, et quae dicta sunt haurire memoria, quid est nisi bibere? Sed praedixit Dominus de fidelibus suis, quod et si mortiferum quid biberint, non eis nocebit (Marc. XVI, 18). Ac per hoc qui cum judicio legunt, et secundum regulam fidei approbanda approbant, et improbant improbanda; etiamsi commendant memoriae quae improbanda dicuntur, nulla venenata sententiarum pravitate laeduntur. Haec me Gravitatem et Religionem tuam, sive mutua, sive praevia charitate monuisse vel commonuisse minime poenitebit, Domino miserante, quomodolibet accipias, quod tibi praerogandum putavi. Agam vero ei uberes gratias, de cujus misericordia saluberrimum est fidere, si ab his pravitatibus et erroribus, quos ex libris hujus hominis ostendere his litteris potui, alienam atque integram fidem tuam, vel invenerit epistola ista, vel fecerit.