Augustine: CONFESSIONES

veni Carthaginem, et circumstrepebat me undique sartago flagitiosorum amorum. nondum amabam, et amare amabam, et secretiore indigentia oderam me minus indigentem. quaerebam quid amarem, amans amare, et oderam securitatem et viam sine muscipulis, quoniam fames mihi erat intus ab interiore cibo, te ipso, deus meus, et ea fame non esuriebam, sed eram sine desiderio alimentorum incorruptibilium, non quia plenus eis eram, sed quo inanior, fastidiosior.

I came to Carthage, and on every side a frying-pan of flagitious loves was clattering around me. I was not yet loving, and I loved to love, and with a more secret indigence I hated myself as less indigent. I was seeking what I might love, loving to love, and I hated security and a road without mousetraps, since there was a hunger within me from the inner food, you yourself, my God, and with that hunger I was not hungering, but I was without desire for incorruptible aliments, not because I was full of them, but the more empty, the more fastidious.

et ideo non bene valebat anima mea et ulcerosa proiciebat se foras, miserabiliter scalpi avida contactu sensibilium. sed si non haberent animam, non utique amarentur. amare et amari dulce mihi erat, magis si et amantis corpore fruerer.

and therefore my soul was not well, and ulcerous it flung itself outward, miserably avid to be scratched by the contact of sensible things. But if they did not have a soul, surely they would not be loved. To love and to be loved was sweet to me, more so if I also enjoyed the body of the lover.

venam igitur amicitiae coinquinabam sordibus concupiscentiae candoremque eius obnubilabam de tartaro libidinis, et tamen foedus atque inhonestus, elegans et urbanus esse gestiebam abundanti vanitate. rui etiam in amorem, quo cupiebam capi. deus meus, misericordia mea, quanto felle mihi suavitatem illam et quam bonus aspersisti, quia et amatus sum, et perveni occulte ad vinculum fruendi, et conligabar laetus aerumnosis nexibus, ut caederer virgis ferreis ardentibus zeli et suspicionum et timorum et irarum atque rixarum.

Therefore I was polluting the vein of friendship with the filth of concupiscence and clouding its candor with the Tartarus of libido; and yet, foul and dishonorable, I was eager in overflowing vanity to be elegant and urbane. I also rushed headlong into love, by which I desired to be captured. My God, my mercy, with how much gall you sprinkled that sweetness for me—and how good you were—because I too was loved, and I came secretly to the bond of enjoyment, and I was being bound gladly with wretched bonds, so that I was beaten with iron rods glowing with jealousy, suspicions, fears, angers, and quarrels.

3.2.2

rapiebant me spectacula theatrica, plena imaginibus miseriarum mearum et fomitibus ignis mei. quid est quod ibi homo vult dolere cum spectat luctuosa et tragica, quae tamen pati ipse nollet? et tamen pati vult ex eis dolorem spectator et dolor ipse est voluptas eius.

Theatrical spectacles were sweeping me away, full of images of my miseries and the kindlings of my fire. What is it that there a man wants to feel pain when he looks upon mournful and tragic things, which nevertheless he would not wish to suffer himself? And yet from them the spectator wants to suffer pain, and the pain itself is his pleasure.

quid est nisi mirabilis insania? nam eo magis eis movetur quisque, quo minus a talibus affectibus sanus est, quamquam, cum ipse patitur, miseria, cum aliis compatitur, misericordia dici solet. sed qualis tandem misericordia in rebus fictis et scenicis?

What is it if not marvelous madness? For each person is the more moved by them, the less he is sound from such affections; although, when he himself suffers, it is called misery, when he suffers-with others, it is wont to be called compassion. But what sort of compassion, after all, is there in fictitious and scenic things?

non enim ad subveniendum provocatur auditor sed tantum ad dolendum invitatur, et actori earum imaginum amplius favet cum amplius dolet. et si calamitates illae hominum, vel antiquae vel falsae, sic agantur ut qui spectat non doleat, abscedit inde fastidiens et reprehendens; si autem doleat, manet intentus et gaudens lacrimat.

for the auditor is not provoked to give succor but only invited to grieve, and he favors the actor of those images the more, the more he grieves. And if those calamities of men, whether ancient or fictitious, are acted in such a way that the spectator does not grieve, he departs from there disdainful and reproaching; but if he does grieve, he remains intent and, rejoicing, weeps.

3.2.3

ergo amantur et dolores. certe omnis homo gaudere vult. an cum miserum esse neminem libeat, libet tamen esse misericordem, quod quia non sine dolore est, hac una causa amantur dolores?

Therefore even sorrows are loved. Surely every human wishes to rejoice. Or is it that, while it pleases us that no one be wretched, yet it pleases us to be merciful—which, since it is not without pain—for this single cause sorrows are loved?

et hoc de illa vena amicitiae est. sed quo vadit? quo fluit?

and this too is from that vein of friendship. but where does it go? where does it flow?

ut quid decurrit in torrentem picis bullientis, aestus immanes taetrarum libidinum, in quos ipsa mutatur et vertitur per nutum proprium de caelesti serenitate detorta atque deiecta? repudietur ergo misericordia? nequaquam.

To what end does it run down into a torrent of boiling pitch, the immense surges of foul lusts, into which it itself is changed and turned by its own nod, wrenched and cast down from heavenly serenity? Should mercy therefore be repudiated? By no means.

ergo amentur dolores aliquando, sed cave immunditiam, anima mea, sub tutore deo meo, deo patrum nostrorum et laudabili et superexaltato in omnia saecula, cave immunditiam. neque enim nunc non misereor, sed tunc in theatris congaudebam amantibus cum sese fruebantur per flagitia, quamvis haec imaginarie gererent in ludo spectaculi. cum autem sese amittebant, quasi misericors contristabar, et utrumque delectabat tamen.

therefore let sorrows be loved at times; but beware of immundity, my soul, under the tutorship of my God, the God of our fathers, laudable and superexalted unto all ages—beware of immundity. For not even now do I fail to pity; but then in the theaters I rejoiced together with the lovers when they were enjoying themselves through flagitiousness, although these things were being enacted imaginarily in the play of the spectacle. But when they lost one another, as if merciful I was saddened, and yet both alike delighted me.

nunc vero magis misereor gaudentem in flagitio quam velut dura perpessum detrimento perniciosae voluptatis et amissione miserae felicitatis. haec certe verior misericordia, sed non in ea delectat dolor. nam etsi approbatur officio caritatis qui dolet miserum, mallet tamen utique non esse quod doleret qui germanitus misericors est.

Now indeed I pity more the one rejoicing in a flagitious act than the one who has, as it were, stoically endured the detriment of a pernicious pleasure and the loss of wretched felicity. This is certainly the truer mercy, but in it pain does not delight. For even if he who grieves over the miserable is approved by the office of charity, nevertheless he who is genuinely merciful would assuredly prefer that there not be that which he would grieve over.

si enim est malivola benivolentia, quod fieri non potest, potest et ille qui veraciter sinceriterque miseretur cupere esse miseros, ut misereatur. nonnullus itaque dolor approbandus, nullus amandus est. hoc enim tu, domine deus, qui animas amas, longe alteque purius quam nos et incorruptibilius misereris, quod nullo dolore sauciaris.

If, indeed, there is a malevolent benevolence—which cannot be—then even he who veraciously and sincerely has compassion could desire that there be the wretched, so that he may have compassion. Accordingly, some pain is to be approved, no pain is to be loved. For this, you, Lord God, who love souls, have mercy far more purely and more incorruptibly than we do, in that you are wounded by no pain.

et ad haec quis idoneus?

and for these things who is adequate?

3.2.4

at ego tunc miser dolere amabam, et quaerebam ut esset quod dolerem, quando mihi in aerumna aliena et falsa et saltatoria ea magis placebat actio histrionis meque alliciebat vehementius qua mihi lacrimae excutiebantur. quid autem mirum, cum infelix pecus aberrans a grege tuo et impatiens custodiae tuae turpi scabie foedarer? et inde erant dolorum amores, non quibus altius penetrarer (non enim amabam talia perpeti qualia spectare), sed quibus auditis et fictis tamquam in superficie raderer.

but I, wretched, then used to love to grieve, and I looked for something to grieve at, since to me in another’s distress—false and saltatory—the actor’s performance pleased the more and drew me the more vehemently, in proportion as tears were shaken out of me. But what wonder, since, an unhappy beast wandering from your flock and impatient of your guardianship, I was defiled by a shameful scab? And from thence came the loves of sorrows—not those by which I might be pierced more deeply (for I did not love to suffer such things as to behold), but those by which, being heard and feigned, I was, as it were, scraped on the surface.

quos tamen quasi ungues scalpentium fervidus tumor et tabes et sanies horrida consequebatur. talis vita mea numquid vita erat, deus meus?

which, however, were followed, as if by the nails of scratchers, by a fervid tumor and tabes and horrid sanies. Such was my life—was my life any life, my God?

3.3.5

et circumvolabat super me fidelis a longe misericordia tua. in quantas iniquitates distabui et sacrilega curiositate secutus sum, ut deserentem te deduceret me ad ima infida et circumventoria obsequia daemoniorum, quibus immolabam facta mea mala! et in omnibus flagellabas me. ausus sum etiam in celebritate sollemnitatum tuarum, intra parietes ecclesiae tuae, concupiscere et agere negotium procurandi fructus mortis.

and your faithful mercy from afar was circling over me. Into how many iniquities did I dissolve, and with sacrilegious curiosity I pursued, so that, as I was deserting you, it might lead me down to the faithless depths and the ensnaring services of demons, to whom I was immolating my evil deeds! and in all these things you were scourging me. I even dared, in the celebrity of your solemnities, within the walls of your church, to lust and to conduct the business of procuring the fruit of death.

unde me verberasti gravibus poenis, sed nihil ad culpam meam, o tu praegrandis misericordia mea, deus meus, refugium meum a terribilibus nocentibus, in quibus vagatus sum praefidenti collo ad longe recedendum a te, amans vias meas et non tuas, amans fugitivam libertatem.

wherefore you scourged me with grievous punishments, but nothing in proportion to my guilt, O you, my very-great mercy, my God, my refuge from terrible offenders, among whom I wandered with a presumptuous neck to withdraw far from you, loving my ways and not yours, loving fugitive liberty.

3.3.6

habebant et illa studia quae honesta vocabantur ductum suum intuentem fora litigiosa, ut excellerem in eis, hoc laudabilior, quo fraudulentior. tanta est caecitas hominum de caecitate etiam gloriantium. et maior etiam eram in schola rhetoris, et gaudebam superbe et tumebam typho, quamquam longe sedatior, domine, tu scis, et remotus omnino ab eversionibus quas faciebant eversores (hoc enim nomen scaevum et diabolicum velut insigne urbanitatis est), inter quos vivebam pudore impudenti, quia talis non eram.

those studies too which were called honorable had their own aim in view, looking toward the litigious fora, that I might excel in them, the more praiseworthy, the more fraudulent. So great is the blindness of men, even glorying in blindness. And I was even greater in the school of the rhetorician, and I rejoiced proudly and swelled with conceit, though far more sedate, Lord, you know, and altogether remote from the eversions which the evertors were perpetrating (for this name, perverse and diabolic, is as it were a badge of urbanity), among whom I lived with a shameless shame, because I was not such.

et cum eis eram et amicitiis eorum delectabar aliquando, a quorum semper factis abhorrebam, hoc est ab eversionibus quibus proterve insectabantur ignotorum verecundiam, quam proturbarent gratis inludendo atque inde pascendo malivolas laetitias suas. nihil est illo actu similius actibus daemoniorum. quid itaque verius quam eversores vocarentur, eversi plane prius ipsi atque perversi, deridentibus eos et seducentibus fallacibus occulte spiritibus in eo ipso quod alios inridere amant et fallere.

and I was with them and sometimes took delight in their friendships, from whose deeds I always recoiled—that is, from the overturnings by which they insolently harried the modesty of strangers, so that they might throw it into confusion gratuitously by mocking, and from that feed their malevolent joys. Nothing is more like that act than the acts of demons. What, then, is more true than that they should be called overturners—plainly first themselves overturned and perverted—while deceitful, occult spirits deride them and seduce them, precisely in that in which they love to mock and to deceive others.

3.4.7

inter hos ego inbecilla tunc aetate discebam libros eloquentiae, in qua eminere cupiebam fine damnabili et ventoso per gaudia vanitatis humanae. et usitato iam discendi ordine perveneram in librum cuiusdam Ciceronis, cuius linguam fere omnes mirantur, pectus non ita. sed liber ille ipsius exhortationem continet ad philosophiam et vocatur 'Hortensius'. ille vero liber mutavit affectum meum, et ad te ipsum, domine, mutavit preces meas, et vota ac desideria mea fecit alia.

among these I, then in feeble age, was learning the books of eloquence, in which I longed to be eminent with an end damnable and windy, through the joys of human vanity. and by the usual order of learning I had come upon a book of a certain Cicero, whose tongue almost all admire, his breast not so. but that book contains his exhortation to philosophy and is called 'Hortensius'. that very book changed my disposition, and to you yourself, Lord, it changed my prayers, and made my vows and desires other.

viluit mihi repente omnis vana spes, et immortalitatem sapientiae concupiscebam aestu cordis incredibili, et surgere coeperam ut ad te redirem. non enim ad acuendam linguam, quod videbar emere maternis mercedibus, cum agerem annum aetatis undevicensimum iam defuncto patre ante biennium, non ergo ad acuendam linguam referebam illum librum, neque mihi locutio sed quod loquebatur persuaserat.

Suddenly every vain hope became cheap to me, and I was desiring the immortality of wisdom with an incredible heat of heart, and I had begun to rise that I might return to you. For not for sharpening the tongue— which I seemed to be buying with my mother’s stipends— when I was in the nineteenth year of my age, my father already defunct two years before— not, therefore, to sharpen the tongue did I refer that book; nor had the locution persuaded me, but what it was saying.

3.4.8

quomodo ardebam, deus meus, quomodo ardebam revolare a terrenis ad te, et nesciebam quid ageres mecum! apud te est enim sapientia. amor autem sapientiae nomen graecum habet philosophiam, quo me accendebant illae litterae.

how I burned, my God, how I burned to fly back from earthly things to you, and I did not know what you were doing with me! for with you is wisdom. moreover, the love of wisdom has the Greek name philosophy, by which those letters were kindling me.

sunt qui seducant per philosophiam magno et blando et honesto nomine colorantes et fucantes errores suos, et prope omnes qui ex illis et supra temporibus tales erant notantur in eo libro et demonstrantur, et manifestatur ibi salutifera illa admonitio spiritus tui per servum tuum bonum et pium: 'videte, ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam et inanem seductionem secundum traditionem hominum, secundum elementa huius mundi et non secundum Christum, quia in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter.' et ego illo tempore, scis tu, lumen cordis mei, quoniam nondum mihi haec apostolica nota erant, hoc tamen solo delectabar in illa exhortatione, quod non illam aut illam sectam, sed ipsam quaecumque esset sapientiam ut diligerem et quarererem et adsequerer et tenerem atque amplexarer fortiter, excitabar sermone illo et accendebar et ardebam, et hoc solum me in tanta flagrantia refrangebat, quod nomen Christi non erat ibi, quoniam hoc nomen secundum misericordiam tuam, domine, hoc nomen salvatoris mei, filii tui, in ipso adhuc lacte matris tenerum cor meum pie biberat et alte retinebat, et quidquid sine hoc nomine fuisset, quamvis litteratum et expolitum et veridicum, non me totum rapiebat.

There are those who seduce through philosophy, coloring and painting over their errors with a great and blandishing and honorable name; and almost all who in those and earlier times were such are marked and shown in that book, and there is made manifest there that health-bringing admonition of your Spirit through your good and pious servant: 'See to it, lest anyone deceive you through philosophy and empty seduction, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world and not according to Christ, because in him dwells all the plenitude of divinity bodily.' And I at that time—you know, light of my heart—since these apostolic things were not yet known to me, yet by this alone I was delighted in that exhortation, that it did not urge this sect or that, but wisdom itself, whatever it might be, that I should love and seek and attain and hold and strongly embrace; I was stirred by that discourse and was kindled and was burning, and this alone checked me in so great a blaze: that the name of Christ was not there, since this name, according to your mercy, Lord, this name of my Savior, your Son, my tender heart had piously drunk in with my mother’s very milk and held deep; and whatever would have been without this name, although literate and polished and veridical, did not carry me away wholly.

3.5.9

itaque institui animum intendere in scripturas sanctas et videre quales essent. et ecce video rem non compertam superbis neque nudatam pueris, sed incessu humilem, successu excelsam et velatam mysteriis. et non eram ego talis ut intrare in eam possem aut inclinare cervicem ad eius gressus.

Therefore I resolved to stretch my mind toward the sacred Scriptures and to see of what sort they were. And behold, I see a matter not discovered to the proud nor stripped naked for boys, but humble in its gait, exalted in its success, and veiled with mysteries. And I was not myself such that I could enter into it or incline my neck to its footsteps.

non enim sicut modo loquor, ita sensi, cum attendi ad illam scripturam, sed visa est mihi indigna quam tullianae dignitati compararem. tumor enim meus refugiebat modum eius et acies mea non penetrabat interiora eius. verum autem illa erat quae cresceret cum parvulis, sed ego dedignabar esse parvulus et turgidus fastu mihi grandis videbar.

for not as I now speak did I so feel, when I gave attention to that scripture; rather, it seemed to me unworthy to be compared with Tullian (Ciceronian) dignity. For my swelling shrank from its measure, and my sharpness did not penetrate its inner parts. Yet in truth it was that which would grow with the little ones; but I disdained to be a little one, and, turgid with pride, I seemed great to myself.

3.6.10

itaque incidi in homines superbe delirantes, carnales nimis et loquaces, in quorum ore laquei diaboli et viscum confectum commixtione syllabarum nominis tui et domini Iesu Christi et paracleti consolatoris nostri spiritus sancti. haec nomina non recedebant de ore eorum, sed tenus sono et strepitu linguae; ceterum cor inane veri. et dicebant, 'veritas et veritas,' et multum eam dicebant mihi, et nusquam erat in eis, sed falsa loquebantur, non de te tantum, qui vere veritas es, sed etiam de istis elementis huius mundi, creatura tua, de quibus etiam vera dicentes philosophos transgredi debui prae amore tuo, mi pater summe bone, pulchritudo pulchrorum omnium.

And so I fell in with men proudly raving, too carnal and loquacious, in whose mouth were the snares of the devil and birdlime compounded by a commixture of the syllables of your name and of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Paraclete, our Consoler, the Holy Spirit. These names did not depart from their mouth, but only as far as sound and the clatter of the tongue; but the heart was empty of the true. And they kept saying, 'truth and truth,' and they said it to me a great deal, and nowhere was it in them; rather they spoke false things, not only about you, who truly are Truth, but also about those elements of this world, your creature, beyond whom even when philosophers speak true things I ought to transcend out of love for you, my Father, supremely good, beauty of all beauties.

o veritas, veritas, quam intime etiam tum medullae animi mei suspirabant tibi, cum te illi sonarent mihi frequenter et multipliciter voce sola et libris multis et ingentibus! et illa erant fercula in quibus mihi esurienti te inferebatur pro te sol et luna, pulchra opera tua, sed tamen opera tua, non tu, nec ipsa prima. priora enim spiritalia opera tua quam ista corporea, quamvis lucida et caelestia.

O Truth, Truth, how intimately even then the marrows of my mind were sighing for you, when they were sounding you to me frequently and manifoldly with voice alone and with many and huge books! And those were the platters on which, for me hungering, there was brought in to me in place of you the sun and the moon, beautiful works of yours—yet works of yours nonetheless, not you, nor are they themselves the first. For your spiritual works are prior to these corporeal ones, however luminous and celestial.

at ego nec priora illa, sed te ipsam, te veritas, in qua non est commutatio nec momenti obumbratio, esuriebam et sitiebam. et apponebantur adhuc mihi in illis ferculis phantasmata splendida, quibus iam melius erat amare istum solem saltem istis oculis verum quam illa falsa animo decepto per oculos. et tamen, quia te putabam, manducabam, non avide quidem, quia nec sapiebas in ore meo sicuti es (neque enim tu eras illa figmenta inania) nec nutriebar eis, sed exhauriebar magis.

but I was hungering and thirsting not for those former things, but for you yourself, you Truth, in whom there is no mutation nor the shadowing of a moment; and still there were being set before me on those dishes splendid phantasms, for which it was already better to love at least this sun, true to these eyes, than those false things to a mind deceived through the eyes. and yet, because I supposed it was you, I ate—not greedily, indeed, because you did not have savor in my mouth as you are (for you were not those empty figments), nor was I nourished by them, but I was rather drained.

cibus in somnis simillimus est cibis vigilantium, quo tamen dormientes non aluntur; dormiunt enim. at illa nec similia erant ullo modo tibi, sicut nunc mihi locuta es, quia illa erant corporalia phantasmata, falsa corpora, quibus certiora sunt vera corpora ista quae videmus visu carneo, sive caelestia sive terrestria, cum pecudibus et volatilibus. videmus haec, et certiora sunt quam cum imaginamur ea. et rursus certius imaginamur ea quam ex eis suspicamur alia grandiora et infinita, quae omnino nulla sunt.

Food in dreams is most similar to the foods of those who are awake, yet the sleeping are not nourished by it; for they are asleep. But those things were in no way similar to you, as you have now spoken to me, because they were corporeal phantasms, false bodies, in comparison with which these true bodies that we see with carnal sight—whether celestial or terrestrial, together with cattle and birds—are more certain. We see these, and they are more certain than when we imagine them. And again, we imagine them more certainly than we from them surmise other, grander and infinite things, which are altogether nothing.

qualibus ego tunc pascebar inanibus, et non pascebar. at tu, amor meus, in quem deficio ut fortis sim, nec ista corpora es quae videmus quamquam in caelo, nec ea quae non videmus ibi, quia tu ista condidisti nec in summis tuis conditionibus habes. quanto ergo longe es a phantasmatis illis meis, phantasmatis corporum quae omnino non sunt!

with what empty things I was then being fed, and I was not being fed. but you, my love, into whom I languish that I may be strong, are neither those bodies which we see, though in heaven, nor those which we do not see there, because you founded these and you do not have them among your highest creations. how far, then, you are from those phantasms of mine, the phantasms of bodies which are not at all!

quibus certiores sunt phantasiae corporum eorum quae sunt, et eis certiora corpora, quae tamen non es. sed nec anima es, quae vita est corporum (ideo melior vita corporum certiorque quam corpora), sed tu vita es animarum, vita vitarum, vivens te ipsa, et non mutaris, vita animae meae.

than which the phantasies of the bodies that are are more certain, and than these the bodies are more certain—yet these you are not. But neither are you a soul, which is the life of bodies (therefore the life of bodies is better and more certain than the bodies), but you are the life of souls, the life of lives, living yourself, and you are not changed, the life of my soul.

3.6.11

ubi ergo mihi tunc eras et quam longe? et longe peregrinabar abs te, exclusus et a siliquis porcorum quos de siliquis pascebam. quanto enim meliores grammaticorum et poetarum fabellae quam illa decipula!

Where then were you to me at that time, and how far away? And I was wandering far away from you, shut out even from the husks of the swine, whom I was feeding on husks. For how much better are the little fables of the grammarians and poets than that snare!

nam versus et carmen et Medea volans utiliores certe quam quinque elementa varie fucata propter quinque antra tenebrarum, quae omnino nulla sunt et occidunt credentem. nam versum et carmen etiam ad vera pulmenta transfero; volantem autem Medeam etsi cantabam, non adserebam, etsi cantari audiebam, non credebam. illa autem credidi — vae, vae!

for verse and song and a flying Medea are certainly more useful than five elements variously painted over on account of five caverns of darkness, which are altogether nothing and slay the believer. for I even transfer verse and song to true sustenance; but as for a flying Medea, although I sang it, I did not assert it, and although I heard it sung, I did not believe it. those, however, I believed — woe, woe!

quibus gradibus deductus in profunda inferi, quippe laborans et aestuans inopia veri, cum te, deus meus (tibi enim confiteor, qui me miseratus es et nondum confitentem), cum te non secundum intellectum mentis, quo me praestare voluisti beluis, sed secundum sensum carnis quaererem. tu autem eras interior intimo meo et superior summo meo. offendi illam mulierem audacem, inopem prudentiae, aenigma Salomonis, sedentem super sellam in foribus et dicentem, 'panes occultos libenter edite, et aquam dulcem furtivam bibite.' quae me seduxit, quia invenit foris habitantem in oculo carnis meae et talia ruminantem apud me qualia per illum vorassem.

by what steps I was led down into the deep abyss of the netherworld, indeed laboring and seething with want of the true, when I, my God (for to you I confess, you who had pity on me even when not yet confessing), when I sought you not according to the intellect of the mind, by which you willed me to excel the beasts, but according to the sense of the flesh. But you were more interior than my inmost and higher than my highest. I encountered that bold woman, destitute of prudence, the enigma of Solomon, sitting upon a chair at the thresholds and saying, 'eat gladly hidden breads, and drink sweet furtive water.' she seduced me, because she found me dwelling outside, in the eye of my flesh, and ruminating within myself such things as I had gulped down through it.

3.7.12

nesciebam enim aliud vere quod est, et quasi acutule movebar ut suffragarer stultis deceptoribus, cum a me quaererent unde malum, et utrum forma corporea deus finiretur et haberet capillos et ungues, et utrum iusti existimandi essent qui haberent uxores multas simul et occiderent homines et sacrificarent de animalibus. quibus rerum ignarus perturbabar, et recedens a veritate ire in eam mihi videbar, quia non noveram malum non esse nisi privationem boni usque ad quod omnino non est. (quod unde viderem, cuius videre usque ad corpus erat oculis, et animo usque ad phantasma?) et non noveram deum esse spiritum, non cui membra essent per longum et latum nec cui esse moles esset, quia moles in parte minor est quam in toto suo, et si infinita sit, minor est in aliqua parte certo spatio definita quam per infinitum, et non est tota ubique sicut spiritus, sicut deus.

For I did not, in truth, know what is; and I was moved with a kind of sharpness to give my vote to foolish deceivers, when they would ask me whence evil, and whether God was bounded by bodily form and had hair and nails, and whether those ought to be deemed just who had many wives at once and killed men and sacrificed of animals. By such things, ignorant of realities, I was disturbed; and, withdrawing from the truth, I seemed to myself to be going into it, because I did not know that evil is nothing other than the privation of good, down to the point of that which is altogether not. (Whence should I have seen that, I whose seeing was with the eyes only up to the body, and with the mind only up to a phantasm?) And I did not know that God is spirit, not one who has members through length and breadth nor to whom it belongs to be a mass; for a mass is in a part less than in its whole, and even if it be infinite, it is less in any part defined by a fixed space than through the infinite, and it is not whole everywhere as spirit is, as God.

et quid in nobis esset secundum quod essemus et recte in scriptura diceremur ad imaginem dei, prorsus ignorabam.

and what there was in us, according to which we existed and were rightly said in Scripture to be after the image of God, I was utterly ignorant.

3.7.13

et non noveram iustitiam veram interiorem, non ex consuetudine iudicantem sed ex lege rectissima dei omnipotentis, qua formarentur mores regionum et dierum pro regionibus et diebus, cum ipsa ubique ac semper esset, non alibi alia nec alias aliter, secundum quam iusti essent Abraham et Isaac et Iacob et Moyses et David et illi omnes laudati ore dei. sed eos ab imperitis iudicari iniquos, iudicantibus ex humano die et universos mores humani generis ex parte moris sui metientibus, tamquam si quis nescius in armamentis quid cui membro adcommodatum sit ocrea velit caput contegi et galea calciari et murmuret, quod non apte conveniat; aut in uno die indicto a promeridianis horis iustitio quisquam stomachetur non sibi concedi quid venale proponere, quia mane concessum est; aut in una domo videat aliquid tractari manibus a quoquam servo quod facere non sinatur qui pocula ministrat, aut aliquid post praesepia fieri quod ante mensam prohibeatur, et indignetur, cum sit unum habitaculum et una familia, non ubique atque omnibus idem tribui. sic sunt isti qui indignantur, cum audierint illo saeculo licuisse iustis aliquid quod isto non licet iustis, et quia illis aliud praecepit deus, istis aliud pro temporalibus causis, cum eidem iustitiae utrique servierint, cum in uno homine et in uno die et in unis aedibus videant aliud alii membro congruere, et aliud iam dudum licuisse, post horam non licere, quiddam in illo angulo permitti aut iuberi, quod in isto iuxta vetetur et vindicetur.

and I did not know true interior justice, not judging by consuetude but by the most upright law of God Almighty, by which the mores of regions and of days are shaped for regions and for days, while it itself is everywhere and always, not one thing elsewhere and another, nor otherwise at other times; according to which Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and all those praised by the mouth of God were just. But that they are judged unjust by the unskilled, who judge by a human day and measure the entire mores of the human race by a part of their own mores, is as if someone, unknowing in an armory what is fitted to which member, should wish the greave to cover the head and the helmet to be put on the foot, and should mutter that it does not aptly agree; or, when on a single day from the post-meridian hours a public suspension of business (iustitium) is proclaimed, someone should be vexed that he is not allowed to offer something for sale, because in the morning it was allowed; or, in one house, he should see something handled with the hands by some slave which he who serves the cups is not allowed to do, or something done behind the mangers which is forbidden before the table, and be indignant that, although there is one dwelling and one household, the same is not allotted everywhere and to all. So are those who are indignant when they have heard that in that age something was permitted to the just which in this age is not permitted to the just, and that to those God commanded one thing, to these another, for temporal causes—though both have served the same Justice—just as in one man and in one day and in one house they see one thing be congruent to one member and another to another, and something long allowed now after the hour be not allowed, and something in that corner be permitted or commanded which in this adjoining place is forbidden and punished.

numquid iustitia varia est et mutabilis? sed tempora, quibus praesidet, non pariter eunt; tempora enim sunt. homines autem, quorum vita super terram brevis est, quia sensu non valent causas conexere saeculorum priorum aliarumque gentium, quas experti non sunt, cum his quas experti sunt, in uno autem corpore vel die vel domo facile possunt videre quid cui membro, quibus momentis, quibus partibus personisve congruat, in illis offenduntur, hic serviunt.

Is justice by any means variegated and mutable? but the times over which it presides do not go along equally; for they are times. Men, however, whose life upon the earth is brief, because by sense they are not strong to connect the causes of prior ages and of other nations, which they have not experienced, with those which they have experienced, whereas in one body or day or house they can easily see what is congruent to which member, at what moments, to which parts or persons, at those they take offense; here they do service.

3.7.14

haec ergo tunc nesciebam et non advertebam, et feriebant undique ista oculos meos, et non videbam. et cantabam carmina et non mihi licebat ponere pedem quemlibet ubilibet, sed in alio atque alio metro aliter atque aliter et in uno aliquo versu non omnibus locis eundem pedem. et ars ipsa qua canebam non habebat aliud alibi, sed omnia simul.

therefore these things I did not know then and did not advert to, and these were striking my eyes on every side, and I did not see. and I was singing songs, and it was not permitted me to set just any foot wherever, but in one metre and another, in one way and another, and in any given verse not the same foot in all places. and the very art by which I was singing did not have one thing here and another there, but all things at once.

et non intuebar iustitiam, cui servirent boni et sancti homines, longe excellentius atque sublimius habere simul omnia quae praecipit et nulla ex parte variari et tamen variis temporibus non omnia simul, sed propria distribuentem ac praecipientem. et reprehendebam caecus pios patres non solum, sicut deus iuberet atque inspiraret, utentes praesentibus verum quoque, sicut deus revelaret, futura praenuntiantes.

and I was not contemplating justice, which good and holy men serve, as having in a far more excellent and more sublime way all the things it prescribes at once and varying in no part, and yet, at various times, not all at once, but distributing and prescribing proper things. and, blind, I was reprehending the pious fathers, not only, as God would command and inspire, for using present things, but also, as God would reveal, for pre-announcing future things.

3.8.15

numquid aliquando aut alicubi iniustum est diligere deum ex toto corde et ex tota anima et ex tota mente, et diligere proximum tamquam te ipsum? itaque flagitia quae sunt contra naturam ubique ac semper detestanda atque punienda sunt, qualia Sodomitarum fuerunt. quae si omnes gentes facerent, eodem criminis reatu divina lege tenerentur, quae non sic fecit homines ut se illo uterentur modo.

Is it ever or anywhere unjust to love God with all the heart and with all the soul and with all the mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself? Therefore flagitious acts which are against nature are everywhere and always to be detested and punished, such as were those of the Sodomites. Which, if all nations were to commit them, by the same criminal guilt they would be held under the divine law, which did not make human beings so that they should use themselves in that manner.

violatur quippe ipsa societas quae cum deo nobis esse debet cum eadem natura cuius ille auctor est libidinis perversitate polluitur. quae autem contra mores hominum sunt flagitia pro morum diversitate vitanda sunt, ut pactum inter se civitatis aut gentis consuetudine vel lege firmatum nulla civis aut peregrini libidine violetur. turpis enim omnis pars universo suo non congruens.

Indeed, the very society that ought to be ours with God is violated when that same nature of which he is the author is polluted by the perversity of libido. But the flagitious acts that are against the mores of men are to be avoided in accordance with the diversity of mores, so that the pact among themselves of a city or a nation, established by custom or by law, be violated by no libido of a citizen or a foreigner. For every part not congruent with its own whole is shameful.

cum autem deus aliquid contra morem aut pactum quorumlibet iubet, etsi numquam ibi factum est, faciendum est, et si omissum, instaurandum, et si institutum non erat, instituendum est. si enim regi licet in civitate cui regnat iubere aliquid quod neque ante illum quisquam nec ipse umquam iusserat, et non contra societatem civitatis eius obtemperatur, immo contra societatem non obtemperatur (generale quippe pactum est societatis humanae oboedire regibus suis), quanto magis deo regnatori universae creaturae suae ad ea quae iusserit sine dubitatione serviendum est. sicut enim in potestatibus societatis humanae maior potestas minori ad oboediendum praeponitur, ita deus omnibus.

but when God commands something against the custom or pact of any persons, even if it has never been done there, it must be done; and if it has been omitted, it must be restored; and if it had not been instituted, it must be instituted. for if it is permitted to a king in the city over which he reigns to order something which neither before him has anyone nor he himself ever ordered, and compliance is rendered without acting against the society of that city—indeed, it is against the society not to comply (for it is the general pact of human society to obey their kings)—how much more must God, the ruler of his whole creation, be served without hesitation in the things he has commanded. for just as in the powers of human society the greater power is set over the lesser for the purpose of being obeyed, so is God over all.

3.8.16

item in facinoribus, ubi libido est nocendi sive per contumeliam sive per iniuriam et utrumque vel ulciscendi causa, sicut inimico inimicus, vel adipiscendi alicuius extra commodi, sicut latro viatori, vel evitandi mali, sicut ei qui timetur, vel invidendo, sicut feliciori miserior aut in aliquo prosperatus ei quem sibi aequari timet aut aequalem dolet, vel sola voluptate alieni mali, sicut spectatores gladiatorum aut inrisores aut inlusores quorumlibet. haec sunt capita iniquitatis quae pullulant principandi et spectandi et sentiendi libidine aut una aut duabus earum aut simul omnibus, et vivitur male adversus tria et septem, psalterium decem chordarum, decalogum tuum, deus altissime et dulcissime. sed quae flagitia in te, qui non corrumperis?

likewise in criminal deeds, where there is a libido of harming, whether through contumely or through injury—and both either for the sake of avenging, as an enemy against an enemy, or of obtaining some extra advantage, as a robber to a traveler, or of avoiding an evil, as toward the one who is feared, or by envying, as the more wretched toward the more fortunate, or one prospered in something toward him whom he fears will be made equal to himself or grieves is equal—or by the mere pleasure at another’s evil, as the spectators of gladiators or the deriders or mockers of whomever. These are the heads of iniquity which sprout from the libido of ruling and of spectating and of sensing, either from one or from two of them or from all together; and people live badly against the 3 and the 7, the psaltery of 10 strings, your Decalogue, O God most high and most sweet. But what outrages are there in you, you who are not corrupted?

aut quae adversus te facinora, cui noceri non potest? sed hoc vindicas quod in se homines perpetrant, quia etiam cum in te peccant, impie faciunt in animas suas, et mentitur iniquitas sibi sive corrumpendo ac pervertendo naturam suam, quam tu fecisti et ordinasti, vel immoderate utendo concessis rebus, vel in non concessa flagrando in eum usum qui est contra naturam. aut rei tenentur animo et verbis saevientes adversus te et adversus stimulum calcitrantes, aut cum diruptis limitibus humanae societatis laetantur audaces privatis conciliationibus aut diremptionibus, prout quidque delectaverit aut offenderit.

or what crimes against you, who cannot be harmed? but this you vindicate, what men perpetrate upon themselves, because even when they sin against you, they act impiously against their own souls; and iniquity lies to itself either by corrupting and perverting its own nature, which you made and ordered, or by using immoderately the things conceded, or by burning for things not conceded into that use which is against nature. or they are held guilty, raging in mind and in words against you and kicking against the goad; or, with the boundaries of human society torn apart, the bold exult in private conciliationes or diremptions, according as whatever has delighted or offended each.

et ea fiunt cum tu derelinqueris, fons vitae, qui es unus et verus creator et rector universitatis, et privata superbia diligitur in parte unum falsum. itaque pietate humili reditur in te, et purgas nos a consuetudine mala, et propitius es peccatis confitentium, et exaudis gemitus compeditorum, et solvis a vinculis quae nobis fecimus, si iam non erigamus adversus te cornua falsae libertatis, avaritia plus habendi et damno totum amittendi, amplius amando proprium nostrum quam te, omnium bonum.

and these things come to pass when you are forsaken, fount of life, who are the one and true creator and rector of the universe, and private pride is loved in a part—one false thing. and so with humble piety one returns to you, and you purge us from evil custom, and you are propitious to those confessing their sins, and you hearken to the groans of the shackled, and you loose from the bonds which we have made for ourselves, if now we do not raise against you the horns of false liberty—by avarice of having more and by the loss of losing the whole—by loving what is our own more than you, the good of all.

3.9.17

sed inter flagitia et facinora et tam multas iniquitates sunt peccata proficientium, quae a bene iudicantibus et vituperantur ex regula perfectionis et laudantur spe frugis sicut herba segetis. et sunt quaedam similia vel flagitio vel facinori et non sunt peccata, quia nec te offendunt, dominum deum nostrum, nec sociale consortium, cum conciliantur aliqua in usum vitae, congrua et tempori, et incertum est an libidine habendi, aut puniuntur corrigendi studio potestate ordinata, et incertum est an libidine nocendi. multa itaque facta quae hominibus improbanda viderentur testimonio tuo approbata sunt, et multa laudata ab hominibus te teste damnantur, cum saepe se aliter habet species facti et aliter facientis animus atque articulus occulti temporis.

but amid disgraces and crimes and so many iniquities there are sins of those progressing, which by those judging well are both blamed by the rule of perfection and praised by hope of fruit, like the grass of the crop. and there are certain things similar either to an outrage or a crime and yet are not sins, because neither do they offend you, the lord our god, nor the social consortium, when certain things are arranged for the use of life, suitable and for the time; and it is uncertain whether by the lust of possessing; or they are punished by an ordained power with zeal for correcting, and it is uncertain whether by the lust of harming. many deeds, therefore, which would seem to men to be disapprovable have been approved by your testimony, and many praised by men, you as witness, are condemned, since often the appearance of the deed is one way, and the doer’s mind another, as also the critical juncture of hidden time.

cum vero aliquid tu repente inusitatum et improvisum imperas, etiamsi hoc aliquando vetuisti, quamvis causam imperii tui pro tempore occultes et quamvis contra pactum sit aliquorum hominum societatis, quis dubitet esse faciendum, quando ea iusta est societas hominum quae servit tibi? sed beati qui te imperasse sciunt. fiunt enim omnia a servientibus tibi, vel ad exhibendum quod ad praesens opus est, vel ad futura praenuntianda.

But when indeed you suddenly command something unusual and unforeseen, even if you have at some time forbidden this, although you hide the cause of your command for the time being and although it is against the pact of some human society, who would doubt that it must be done, since that society of men is just which serves you? But blessed are those who know that you have commanded. For all things are effected by those serving you, either to exhibit what is needed for the present work, or to pre-announce things to come.

3.10.18

haec ego nesciens inridebam illos sanctos servos et prophetas tuos. et quid agebam cum inridebam eos, nisi ut inriderer abs te sensim atque paulatim perductus ad eas nugas ut crederem ficum plorare cum decerpitur et matrem eius arborem lacrimis lacteis? quam tamen ficum si comedisset aliquis sanctus, alieno sane non suo scelere decerptam, misceret visceribus et anhelaret de illa angelos, immo vero particulas dei gemendo in oratione atque ructando.

These things, not knowing, I was mocking those your holy servants and prophets. And what was I doing when I mocked them, except that I might be mocked by you, gradually and little by little led along to those trifles, so that I believed a fig wept when it is plucked, and its mother, the tree, with milky tears? Which fig, however, if some holy man had eaten—plucked, to be sure, by another’s crime, not his own—he would mix with his viscera and pant forth from it angels, nay rather particles of God, by groaning in prayer and by belching.

quae particulae summi et veri dei ligatae fuissent in illo pomo, nisi electi sancti dente ac ventre solverentur. et credidi miser magis esse misericordiam praestandam fructibus terrae quam hominibus propter quos nascerentur. si quis enim esuriens peteret qui manichaeus non esset, quasi capitali supplicio damnanda buccella videretur si ei daretur.

the particles of the highest and true God would have been bound in that fruit, unless they were loosed by the tooth and belly of the elect saints. And I, a wretch, believed that mercy was to be shown rather to the fruits of the earth than to the human beings for whose sake they were born. For if someone hungry who was not a Manichaean should ask, the morsel would seem as if to be condemned to capital punishment if it were given to him.

3.11.19

et misisti manum tuam ex alto et de hac profunda caligine eruisti animam meam, cum pro me fleret ad te mea mater, fidelis tua, amplius quam flent matres corporea funera. videbat enim illa mortem meam ex fide et spiritu quem habebat ex te, et exaudisti eam, domine. exaudisti eam nec despexisti lacrimas eius; cum profluentes rigarent terram sub oculis eius in omni loco orationis eius, exaudisti eam.

and you sent your hand from on high, and out of this profound gloom you drew forth my soul, when for me my mother, your faithful one, was weeping to you, more than mothers weep for corporeal funerals. for she saw my death by the faith and the Spirit which she had from you, and you heard her, Lord. you heard her and did not despise her tears; as, pouring forth, they were watering the earth beneath her eyes in every place of her prayer, you heard her.

nam unde illud somnium quo eam consolatus es, ut vivere mecum cederet et habere mecum eandem mensam in domo? (quod nolle coeperat aversans et detestans blasphemias erroris mei.) vidit enim se stantem in quadam regula lignea et advenientem ad se iuvenem splendidum hilarem atque arridentem sibi, cum illa esset maerens et maerore confecta. qui cum causas ab ea quaesisset maestitiae suae cotidianarumque lacrimarum, docendi, ut adsolet, non discendi gratia, atque illa respondisset perditionem meam se plangere, iussisse illum (quo secura esset) atque admonuisse, ut attenderet et videret, ubi esset illa, ibi esse et me. quod illa ubi attendit, vidit me iuxta se in eadem regula stantem.

for whence was that dream by which you consoled her, so that she would yield to living with me and to having with me the same table in the house? (which she had begun to be unwilling to do, turning away from and detesting the blasphemies of my error.) for she saw herself standing on a certain wooden rule, and a splendid youth coming to her, cheerful and smiling upon her, while she was grieving and worn out with grief. and when he had asked of her the causes of her sadness and her quotidian tears, for the sake of teaching, as is his wont, not for learning, and she had answered that she was mourning my perdition, he ordered (so that she might be secure) and admonished that she should attend and see that where she was, there was I also. which when she attended to, she saw me standing next to her upon the same rule.

unde hoc, nisi quia erant aures tuae ad cor eius, o tu bone omnipotens, qui sic curas unumquemque nostrum tamquam solum cures, et sic omnes tamquam singulos?

Whence this, unless because your ears were to her heart, O you good Omnipotent, who thus care for each one of us as if you cared for him alone, and thus for all as if for individuals?

3.11.20

unde illud etiam, quod cum mihi narrasset ipsum visum, et ego ad id trahere conarer ut illa se potius non desperaret futuram esse quod eram, continuo sine aliqua haesitatione: 'non,' inquit, 'non enim mihi dictum est, ''ubi ille, ibi et tu,'' sed, ''ubi tu, ibi et ille.''' confiteor tibi, domine, recordationem meam, quantum recolo, quod saepe non tacui, amplius me isto per matrem vigilantem responso tuo, quod tam vicina interpretationis falsitate turbata non est et tam cito vidit quod videndum fuit (quod ego certe, antequam dixisset, non videram), etiam tum fuisse commotum quam ipso somnio quo feminae piae gaudium tanto post futurum ad consolationem tunc praesentis sollicitudinis tanto ante praedictum est. nam novem ferme anni secuti sunt quibus ego in illo limo profundi ac tenebris falsitatis, cum saepe surgere conarer et gravius alliderer, volutatus sum, cum tamen illa vidua casta, pia et sobria, quales amas, iam quidem spe alacrior, sed fletu et gemitu non segnior, non desineret horis omnibus orationum suarum de me plangere ad te, et intrabant in conspectum tuum preces eius, et me tamen dimittebas adhuc volvi et involvi illa caligine.

whence also this: that when she had told me the vision itself, and I was trying to draw it to this—that she should rather not despair that she would be what I was—immediately, without any hesitation: 'no,' she says, 'for it was not said to me, ''where he, there you also,'' but, ''where you, there he also.''' I confess to you, Lord, my recollection, as far as I recall—which I have often not kept silent—that I was even then more moved by this response of yours through my watchful mother, which was not disturbed by so near a falsity of interpretation and so quickly saw what had to be seen (which I certainly, before she had said it, had not seen), than by the dream itself, in which the joy of the pious woman, to be so long afterwards, was so long before foretold for the consolation of the then-present solicitude. For almost nine years followed, during which I wallowed in that slime of the deep and in the darknesses of falsity, when I often tried to rise and was dashed down more heavily, while yet she, a chaste, pious, and sober widow, such as you love, now indeed more cheerful in hope, but no less in weeping and groaning, did not cease at all the hours of her prayers to lament over me to you, and her prayers entered into your sight, and yet you allowed me still to be rolled and entangled in that gloom.

3.12.21

et dedisti alterum responsum interim quod recolo. nam et multa praetereo, propter quod propero ad ea quae me magis urguent confiteri tibi, et multa non memini. dedisti ergo alterum per sacerdotem tuum, quendam episcopum nutritum in ecclesia et exercitatum in libris tuis.

and you gave another response in the meantime which I recall. For I pass over many things, because I hasten to those things which more urge me to confess to you, and many things I do not remember. You therefore gave another through your priest, a certain bishop, nourished in the church and exercised in your books.

quem cum illa femina rogasset ut dignaretur mecum conloqui et refellere errores meos et dedocere me mala ac docere bona (faciebat enim hoc, quos forte idoneos invenisset), noluit ille, prudenter sane, quantum sensi postea. respondit enim me adhuc esse indocilem, eo quod inflatus essem novitate haeresis illius et nonnullis quaestiunculis iam multos imperitos exagitassem, sicut illa indicaverat ei. 'sed' inquit 'sine illum ibi. tantum roga pro eo dominum.

whom, when that woman had asked that he deign to converse with me and refute my errors and un-teach me evils and teach good things (for he did this, when he had by chance found those he judged suitable), he was unwilling—prudently indeed, as I perceived afterward. For he replied that I was still indocile, because I was inflated by the novelty of that heresy and with some little questionings had already agitated many unskilled people, as she had indicated to him. 'but,' he says, 'leave him there. only ask the Lord for him.'

ipse legendo reperiet quis ille sit error et quanta impietas.' simul etiam narravit se quoque parvulum a seducta matre sua datum fuisse manichaeis, et omnes paene non legisse tantum verum etiam scriptitasse libros eorum, sibique apparuisse nullo contra disputante et convincente quam esset illa secta fugienda: itaque fugisse. quae cum ille dixisset atque illa nollet adquiescere, sed instaret magis deprecando et ubertim flendo, ut me videret et mecum dissereret, ille iam substomachans taedio, 'vade' inquit 'a me. ita vivas: fieri non potest, ut filius istarum lacrimarum pereat.' quod illa ita se accepisse inter conloquia sua mecum saepe recordabatur, ac si de caelo sonuisset.

"he himself, by reading, will discover what that error is and how great an impiety." At the same time he also related that he too, when a little child, had been handed over by his misled mother to the Manichaeans, and that he had not only read almost all their books but had even scribbled them out, and that it had become apparent to him—no one disputing against and convincing him—how that sect was to be fled; and so he fled. When he had said these things, and she would not acquiesce but pressed him the more by beseeching and by weeping copiously, that he would see me and discourse with me, he, now chafing with weariness, said, "Go away from me. So may you live: it cannot be that the son of such tears should perish." She often recalled that she had received it thus in her conversations with me, as if it had sounded from heaven.

Submitted by James J. O'Donnell (Univ. of Pennsylvania) from his new edition. Prof.

O'Donnell's introduction and commentary may be found at the original site: The Confessions of Augustine: An Electronic Edition