Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
4. Again the words in Chapter xii, "No one doubts that men universally are either foolish or wise," may seem to contradict what is written in De Libera Arbitrio, Book III, "As if human nature had no condition intermediate between folly and wisdom." I was then inquiring whether the first man was created wise or foolish or neither. We could not say that he was foolish when he was created without a fault, for folly is a great fault; and it was not quite clear how we could call him wise seeing he could be seduced. And so I offered as a brief suggestion a condition intermediate between folly and wisdom. I was also thinking of little children. We may admit that they bring original sin with them, but we cannot properly call them either wise or foolish, seeing they do not as yet use free will either well or ill. Now in this passage I have said that all men are either wise or foolish, meaning all men who have the use of reason, whereby they are distinguished as men from the animals, as in the sentence. All men wish to be happy. We need not fear that little children will be understood as included, for they cannot as yet will to be happy; and yet the sentence is quite true, obviously.
5. In Chapter xvi, after relating what the Lord Jesus did when he was in the flesh, I added, "Why, you ask, do not such things happen now?" and my reply was, "Because they would not affect us unless they were marvellous, and they would not be marvellous if they were familiar." In saying that, I meant that such great miracles do not happen now, not that no miracles happen even today.
6. In Chapter xviii, at the end of the book, I say that I have not begun to refute the Manichees and to attack their absurdities, nor to say anything important about the Catholic Faith. "I wanted simply if possible to rid you of a false opinion about true Christians maliciously or ignorantly distilled into us, and to stimulate you to learn certain great divine truths. Let this book be as it is. If your mind is somewhat placated, perhaps I shall be more ready to deal with other questions." I did not mean that I had hitherto written nothing against the Manichees, and nothing about Catholic teaching, for the books previously mentioned, published by me, testify that I had not kept silent on either subject. But in this book I had not begun to refute the Manichees or to attack their absurdities or to expound anything important about the Catholic Faith. I hoped that with this as a beginning I should later be writing to Honoratus himself what I had not yet written in this book. The book begins: Si mihi, Honorate, unum atque idem videretur esse, . . .