The confessions of s. Augustine, 10 books, a new tr. [by W.H. Hutchings].

CONTENTS

CHAP.

XII. Discussion between Alypius and Augustine concerning

Matrimony and Celibacy.

XIII. A Wife is sought for Augustine

XIV. He deliberates upon the Plan of Living with his Friends,

in a Common Household .

XV. One Mistress departs, and another takes her place

XVI. He never could dismiss entirely the Fear of Death and

Augustine brings back to his mind his entrance into man's estate, his

He relates how much he was struck by an argu-

thirty-first year.

ment of Nebridius, though yet enveloped in thick darkness as to the

nature of God, Whom he conceived to be corporeal; he perceives

that the Manichæans have impious ideas, but is unable as yet to

accept the doctrine of the Church; he is recovered from the errors

of astrologers, yet miserably perplexed about the origin of evil; he

derives much profit from the books of the Platonists, but they are

insufficient to give him true notions about the Incarnation of Christ;

but by the study of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of S. Paul,

his doubts are put to an end.

I. He conceives of God under the form of a Body spread

throughout all Space

II. How Nebridius turned the Scale against the Manichæans

III. That Free-will was the Cause of Sin

IV. That God must be Incorruptible

V. He seeks again, whence is Evil, and what is its Root

VI. He rejects the Divinations of Astrologers

VII. What Distress of Mind he suffered on the Question of

the Origin of Evil.

VIII. How Divine Mercy came to Augustine's aid

IX. In the Books of the Platonists he could find the Divinity

of the Eternal Word, not the Humility of His Incarna-

tion.

XI. How Creatures may be said to have being, and yet not

XIV. To a Man of sound Reason, no Creature of God can

XV. How Truth and Falsehood are in Creatures

XVI. All Things are good, although not suitable to all Persons

XVII. What retarded his Knowledge of Divine Things.

XVIII. Christ alone, the Way to Salvation

XIX. What he perceived of the Mystery of the Incarnation

XX. From the Writings of the Platonists, he gained Learning,

but increased thereby in Pride

XXI. What he found in the Holy Scriptures, which were not to

be found in the Books of the Platonists.

He reaches the most memorable part of his life, his thirty-second year,

in which, having consulted Simplicianus, and hearing of the conver-

sion of Victorinus, he burns to imitate it. Then also the things

which he learned concerning Antony, an Egyptian monk, and the

conversion of two courtiers, from Pontitianus, more and more

inflamed him; after a severe conflict between the flesh and the

spirit, admonished by a heavenly oracle, he looks into the book of

the Apostle, and having read the first verse upon which he lighted,

he is entirely changed, and breaking the chains of his passions, is

turned wholly to God.

I. With the desire of entering on a better course of Life,

he determines to go to Simplicianus

II. Of the Conversion of Victorinus, the Rhetorician

III. That God and the Angels rejoice more in the Conversion

of Sinners.

IV. Why we should rejoice more in the Conversion of Nobles

V. What delayed his Return to God

VI. Pontitianus gives an Account of the Life of Antony

VII. He suffered inward Pangs, when he heard what Ponti-

tianus said.

VIII. He retired into a Garden; what happened there

IX. How it is that the Mind commands itself, and yet is

resisted

X. Against the Manichæans, who from two contrary Wills

affirm that there are two contrary Natures

XI. The Struggle between the Spirit and the Flesh in

Augustine.

XII. Admonished by a Voice, how he became entirely con-

He determines to give up the Profession of Rhetoric, and to devote his

life to God alone, but not before the Vintage Vacation, which was

near at hand. In the meanwhile, in the country at Cassiacum, with

his friend Verecundus, he prepares to receive the grace of Baptism;

and at length, with Alypius and his son Adeodatus, he is baptized.

Not long after, on his way to Africa, he reaches Ostia with his

friends, and with his mother Monica, whose life and holy character

he gives a short summary of. She dies there in her fifty-sixth year,

and Augustine's thirty-third.

I. He praises the Goodness of God; acknowledging his

own Misery

II. He defers giving up the Profession of Rhetoric until the

Vintage Vacation

III. Verecundus offers him his Country-house

IV. At Cassiacum some Books were written.

224

Letters sent to

Nebridius. With what heavenly Graces he was

imbued, and with what great Devotion and Piety,

whilst he explained the Psalms. He is suddenly freed

from severe Toothache

V. He consulted Ambrose as to what he was to read

229

235

VI. He is baptized at Milan, with Alypius and Adeodatus

VII. The Institution of Singing in Church at Milan.

237

239

242

Discovery of the Bodies of S. Protasius and S. Gervasius

VIII. The Conversion of Evodius. The Death of Augustine's

Mother, whose early Care he relates

IX. He continues to praise his Mother's Character

X. A Conversation with his Mother concerning the Kingdom

of Heaven.

XI. Her falling into a Swoon, and her Death

XII. How he mourned for the Death of his Mother. The

Sacrifice for the Dead

XIII. He prays for his deceased Mother

BOOK X.

Having in former books disclosed what he was before he had received
the grace of Baptism; in this, he examines what he then was at the
time he wrote. And first, he professes that he loves God. Then
inquiring what way we must enter upon in order to know Him,
he surveys all the faculties of his soul, but especially the memory;
on the wonderful power of this faculty he enlarges, and shows that
God deigns to dwell in it. Then he searches into the acts, thoughts,
and affections, which spring from the triple temptation of pleasure,
curiosity, and pride; what Christian temperance prescribes concern-
ing each, he luminously treats. Next, on Christ as Mediator he
dwells, through Whose help he trusts to be healed of all the diseases
of his soul.

I. In God alone is Hope and Joy

II. Seeing that God knows all Secrets, why confess to Him?

III. With what Fruit he makes Confession next of what he is,

not now of what he was