254 GOD, THE SATISFACTION of the SOUL. I ་ CHAPTER VI. What he loves, when he loves God; and how God is known from his Creatures. HAVE no doubtful, but a sure consciousness Thou hast wounded I my heart with Thy word, and I loved Thee. Moreover, "the heaven and the earth and all that therein is," lo, on every side, they call me to love Thee, nor do they cease to call to all "that they may be without excuse." But more loudly "wilt Thou have mercy on whom Thou wilt have mercy, and wilt have compassion on whom Thou hast had compassion;" else to the deaf would heaven and earth tell out Thy praises. But what do I love, when I love Thee? not beauty of body, not harmony of time, not radiance of light—so delightful to our eyes-not sweet melodies of varied strains of music, not the sweet odour of flowers and perfumes and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs suggestive of carnal pleasure—I love not such things as these, when I love my God. And yet, when I love my God, I do love a light, a voice, an odour, a food, and an embrace the light, voice, odour, food, embrace of my inward man: where there is the inshining into my soul of that which space cannot contain, and where there is sound which time cannot deprive me of, and where there is an unction whose fragrance the air bears not away, and where there is a taste which eating lessens not, and where there is an embrace which no Rom. i. 20; ix. 15. THE CREATOR ABOVE THE CREATURE 265 satiety ever tears asunder. This is what I love, when I love my God. 66 "2 And what is this? I questioned the earth, and it said, "I am not He;" and all that is in it confessed the same. I questioned the sea and the depths, and the creeping things which have life, and they replied, "We are not thy God, seek above us." I questioned the blowing winds, and the whole air with its inhabitants replied, "Anaximenes1 is wrong; I am not God." I questioned the heavens, sun, moon, stars; "Neither are we," say they, " God Whom you seek." And I said to all those things which stand about the doors of my flesh, Ye have told me of my God, that ye are not He; tell me now something of Him.” And they cried out with a loud voice, "He made us.' My questioning was the directing of my mind towards them; their beauty, their reply. And I directed my thoughts to myself, and questioned myself, "Who art thou?" And I answered, "A man." And behold in me there are present a body and a soul; the one outward, the other inward. In which of these ought I thence to seek my God? I have already sought Him by means of the body, from earth even to heaven, as far as I could send those messengers, the beams of mine eyes. But the inner is the better part; all bodily messengers report to it as president and judge, the answer of heaven and earth, and of all those things which said, "We are not God, but ' He made us." The inward man knows these things through the instrumentality of the outward; I, the inward, knew them; I, I the Anaximenes died about 504 B.C. He taught that the air was the cause of every created being, and a self-existent divinity. 2 Ps. c. 3. 266 CREATION REVEALS GOD mind, through the senses of my body. I questioned the whole fabric of the world about my God; and it replied to me, "I am not He, but 'He made me.'” Is not this beauty manifest to all whose senses are perfect? Why, then, does it not convey the same truth to all? The animals, small and great, see it, but are unable to interrogate it; because there is no reason set over their senses, to receive from them, as a judge, their messages. But men are able to question, so that “the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made;" but they are enslaved by their love of them, and so, subject to them, are unable to judge. Neither do these creatures make reply to those who question them, unless they can judge; not that they change their voice, that is, their appearance, because one man sees only, another sees and questions, so as to appear in one light to one man, in another to another; but appearing in the same way to both, it is mute to one, it speaks to the other-yea, it speaks to all; but they alone understand, who compare the utterance received from without with the truth within. For the truth saith to me, "Thy God is neither heaven, nor earth, nor any body." This, their nature declares to him who regards them, “They are a mass; a mass is less in a part than in the whole." Now thou art the better part, to thee I speak, O soul; since thou animatest the mass of my body, giving it life, which no body can give to a body; but Thy God is even the Life of life to thee. 1 Rom. i. 20. BY WHAT POWER IS he discerNED? 267 CHAPTER VII. God is not found by any corporeal or sensitive WH Faculty. WHAT, then, do I love, when I love my God? Who is He, Who is over the head of my soul? By my soul itself will I ascend to Him. I will pass beyond that power, by which I cleave to my body, and fill its fabric with life. Not by that power do I find my God; for then "horse and mule, that have no understanding," might find Him, for the same power animates their bodies and ours. There is another power, not that only by which I animate, but that too whereby I endow with sense my flesh, which the Lord hath formed for me; commanding the eye not to hear, and the ear not to see, but the former to be the instrument of seeing, the latter of hearing; and to each of the other senses, assigning their respective positions and offices, which-diverse as they are—I, the one mind, act by means of them. And I will pass beyond this my power, for horse and mule likewise have it; for they also perceive through the body. I CHAPTER VIII. The Power of Memory. WILL pass, then, beyond this power of my nature, mounting up by degrees unto Him Who made And I enter upon the broad fields and vast palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of me. 268 HOW THE MEMORY IS EMPLOYED countless impressions, imported into it from all sorts of sensible objects. There is laid up every reflection we make every enlargement, diminution, or variation of those things which the senses have attained to; and whatever else hath been committed and stored up, which oblivion hath not yet absorbed and buried. When I am there, I ask what I will, to be produced, and some things instantly present themselves; others are longer in coming, and have to be drawn out, as it were, from more secret recesses; some rush forward in crowds, and while one thing is sought and inquired for, they spring into the midst as if saying, “Perhaps you want me?" And I brush them with the hand of my heart from the face of my memory, until what I want comes forth to view, and stands out cloudless from its hiding-place. Other things are suggested easily and in unbroken order, as they are sought— those which come first yielding to those which follow, and having thus given place, retire, again to come when I shall wish. And all this takes place when I relate a thing from memory. There all things are preserved distinctly and in their several kinds, each having obtained an entrance by its own gateway: thus light, and all colours and forms of bodies, entered by the eyes; all kinds of sounds, by the ears; all smells, by the passage of the nose; all tastes, by that of the mouth; and by the sense of feeling in every part of the body, what is hard, what is soft, what is hot or cold, what is smooth or rough, what is heavy or light, whether within or without the body. All these does the great treasure-house of memory, with its mysterious and indescribable recesses, receive; to be recalled and re-presented at |