ceasing to be. This is the law of them. Thus much hast Thou appointed them, because they are portions of things, which exist not all at once, but by their departures and successions they together complete that universe, whereof they are portions. And even thus is our speech completed by means of symbols of sound. For our speech will not be completed unless one word pass away when it hath uttered its syllables, that another may succeed. Out of all these things let my soul praise Thee, O God, Creator of all; yet let it not cleave to them with the bond of love, through the senses of the body.. For they go whither they were going, towards ceasing to be; and they rend her with pestilent regrets; because she desires that they may continue to be, and loves to repose in what she loves. But there is not in these things where she may rest; for they abide not, they flee; and who can follow them with his bodily sense? yea, who can grasp them, even when they are close at hand? For the sense of the flesh is slow, because it is the sense of the flesh; and itself is its limit. It sufficeth to that for which it was made; but it sufficeth not to hold back things that hasten on their course from their appointed beginning to their appointed end. For in Thy Word, by which they are created, they hear their decree, "from hence and hitherto."

CHAPTER XI.

That parts of the universe art not to be loved; but the changeless God, that fashioneth them, and His eternal Word.

E not vain, O my soul, nor become deaf in the ear of

thou too. The Word itself calleth thee to return: and there is the place of thy rest undisturbed, where love is not forsaken, if itself forsaketh not. Behold, some things pass away, that others may replace them, and so this lower universe be completed in all his parts. But do I depart any whither? saith the Word of God. There fix thy dwelling, there commit whatsoever thence thou hast, O my soul, at least now that thou art wearied with deceits. To the Truth commit whatsoever thou hast from the Truth, and thou shalt lose nothing; and thy decay shall bloom again, and

"all thy diseases be healed" (Ps. ciii. 3), and thy mortal parts be reformed and renewed, and re-knit for thee; nor shall they lay thee whither themselves descend; but they shall stand fast with thee, and abide for ever before God, "who abideth and standeth fast for ever" (1 Peter i. 23).

Why then art thou perverted to follow thy flesh? Let it be converted and follow thee. Whatever by it thou perceivest, is in part; and the whole, whereof these are parts, thou knowest not; and yet they delight thee. But if the sense of thy flesh had capacity to comprehend the whole, and had not itself for thy punishment been justly limited to a part of the whole, thou wouldest desire that whatsoever existeth in the present should pass away, that so the whole might please thee more. For what we speak also, by that same sense of the flesh thou hearest; yet wouldest not thou have the syllables stand still, but fly away, that others may come, and thou mayest hear the whole. And so ever, when any one thing is made up of many parts, all of which do not exist together, if it could be perceived as a whole, the whole would more delight than the several parts. But far better than these, is He who made all; and He is our God, nor doth He pass away, for neither doth aught succeed Him.

4

CHAPTER XII.

Love is not condemned: but love in God excelleth; in which is rest, through Jesus Christ.

IF

F bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and incline again thy love towards their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, let them be loved in God: for they too are changeful, but in Him are they firmly stablished; else would they pass, and pass away. In Him then let them be loved; and transport unto Him along with thee what souls thou canst, and say to them, "Him let us love, Him let us love: He made these, nor is He far off. For He did not make them, and so depart, but they are of Him, and in Him. Look now, where is He? where is truth relished? He is within the very heart, yet hath the heart strayed from Him. 'Return again to your heart, ye transgressors' (Is.

xlvi. 8), and cleave fast to Him that made you. Stand with Him, and ye shall stand. Rest in Him, and ye shall be at rest. Whither go ye in rough ways? Whither go ye? The good that you love is from Him; but so much as is referred to him is good and pleasant. But bitter shall it righteously become, for unrighteously is aught from Him loved, if He be forsaken. Wherefore then do ye still and still tread these difficult and toilsome ways? There is no rest, where ye seek it. Seek what ye seek; but it is not there where ye seek it. Ye seek a blessed life in the realm of death; it is not there. For how should there be a blessed life, where even life is not?"

And hither did our Life Himself come down, and bare our death, and slew him, out of the abundance of His own life and He thundered, calling aloud to us to return hence to Him into that secret place, whence He came forth to us, first into the Virgin's womb, wherein He espoused to Himself our creaturely humanity, our mortal flesh, that it might not be for ever mortal, and thence "like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, He rejoiced as a giant to run His course" (Ps. xix. 5). For He tarried not, but ran, crying aloud by words, by deeds, by death, by life, by descent, by ascension; crying aloud to us to return unto Him. And He departed from our eyes, that we might return into our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and lo, He is here. He would not be long with us, yet left us not; for He departed thither, whence He never parted, "because the world was made by Him." And "He was in the world," and "He came into this world to save sinners" (S. John i. 10; 1 Tim. i. 15), unto whom my soul confesseth, and He healeth it, for it hath sinned against Him" (Ps. xli. 4). "O ye sons of men, how long so slow of heart?" (Ps. iv. 3, Vulg.) Nay, but since Life hath come down, will ye not ascend and live? But whither ascend ye, when ye are on high, and "set your mouth against the heavens"? (Ps. lxxiii. 9). Descend, that ye may ascend, and ascend to God. For ye have fallen, by ascending against Him. Tell them this, that they may weep "in the vale of misery" (Ps. lxxxiv. 6), and thus transport them with Thee unto God: for by His Spirit dost thou tell them these things, if thou tell them burning with the fire of charity.

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CHAPTER XIII.

Love hath its origin in the attraction exercised by grace and beauty.

HESE things I then knew not, and I used to love lower forms of beauty, and I was sinking to the very depths, and to my friends I used to say, "Do we love anything but the fair? What then is the fair? and what is the being fair? What is it that attracts and wins us to the things we love? for unless there were in them a grace and beauty, they could by no means draw us unto them." And I marked and perceived that in bodies themselves one thing was a sort of completeness, from whence came fairness; and another source of beauty was in their being fitly adjusted to each other, as a part of the body is to the whole, or a shoe to the foot, and the like. And this consideration streamed upon my mind, out of my inmost heart, and I wrote "on the fair and fit," I think, two or three books. Thou knowest, O Lord, for it is gone from me; for I have them not, but they have gone from me, I know not how.

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the books he wrote upon "The Fair and Fit," which were dedicated to Hierius, the Roman.

BUT

UT what moved me, O Lord my God, to dedicate these books unto Hierius, an orator of the city of Rome, whom I knew not by face, but loved for the fame of his teaching, which was renowned ? And I had heard certain words of his, which pleased me, but more did he please me, for that he pleased others, who highly extolled him, amazed that out of a Syrian, first trained in Greek eloquence, should afterwards be formed a remarkable speaker in Latin, and that he should be profoundly skilled in things pertaining unto philosophy. One is praised, and though absent, is loved. Doth this love enter the heart of the hearer from the mouth of him that praises? Not so. one is kindled by another's love. For hence he is loved, who is bepraised, when he is believed to be commended out of an unfeigned heart; that is, when one that loves him, praises him.

But

For so did I then love men, upon the judgment of men, not Thine, O my God, in whom no man is deceived. But yet why should I not, as a famous charioteer or as some beast fighter is celebrated by the popular devotion, but far otherwise, and earnestly, and so as I would be praised myself? For I should not like to be praised or loved, as actors are (though I myself did commend and love them), but would rather be unnoticed than so known; and even hated, than so loved. Where now are the impulses to such various and divers kinds of loves laid up in one soul? Why, since we are equally men, do I love in another what, if I did not hate, I should not abhor and reject for myself? For it cannot be accounted for in the same way, as in the case of a good horse, which is loved by one who would not change places with him even if he could, in the case of an actor, who shares our own nature. Do I then love in a man what I should hate to be, though I am a man myself? Man himself is a great deep, whose very "hairs Thou numberest" (S. Matt. x. 30), O Lord, and they are not lost in Thy sight. And yet are the hairs of his head easier to be numbered, than are his affections, and the motions of his heart.

But that orator was of the type that I loved, and would myself be like unto; and I erred through a swelling pride, and " was carried about with every wind" (Eph. iv. 14); but yet was steered by Thee, though very secretly. And whence do I know, and whence do I confidently confess unto Thee, that I had loved him for the love of them that praised him, rather than for the very things for which he was praised? Because, had he been unpraised, and these selfsame men had blamed him, and with blame and scorn told the very same things of him, I had never been so kindled and excited to love him. And yet the things would have been no other, nor the man himself other; but the only difference would have lain in the affections of the narrators. See where the unstable soul lies prostrate, which is not yet stayed upon the firm support of truth! As the winds of talk blow from the breasts of speculation-mongers, so is it borne along, and turned and twisted, and twisted again, and its light is beclouded, and the truth is unseen. And lo, it is before us. And it was to me a great matter, that my discourse and labours should attract the notice of