Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
Il6 AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS
our present endeavour is to obtain intelligent knowledge and assurance of what we have accepted in faith. Give this matter your best consideration and tell me the reason why you know that adultery is evil. Ev.—I know it is evil because I should not wish it to be committed with my own wife. Whoever does to another what he would not have done to himself does evil. Aug.— Suppose someone offered his wife to another, being wi Uing that she should be corrupted by him in return for a similar licence allowed him with the other's wife. Would he have done no evil? Ev.—Far from that. He would have done great evil. Aug.—^And yet his sin does not come under your general rule, for he does not do what he would not have done to him. You must find another reason to prove that adultery is evil.
7. Ev.— I think it evil because I have often seen men condemned on this charge. Aug.—But are not men frequently condemned for righteous deeds? Without going to other books, think of scripture history which excels all other books because it has divine authority. If we decide that condemnation is a certain indication of evil-doing, what an evil opinion we must adopt of the apostles and martyrs, for they were all thought worthy of condemnation for their faith. If whatever is condemned is evil, it was evil in those days to believe in Christ and to confess the Christian faith. But if everything is not evil which is condemned you must find another reason for teaching that adultery is evil. Ev.—I have no reply to make.
8. Aug.—Possibly the evil thing in adultery is lust. So long as you look for the evil in the outward act you discover difficulties. But when you understand that the evil lies in lust it becomes clear that even if a man finds no opportunity to lie with the wife of another but shows that he desires to do so and would do it if he got the chance, he is no less guilty than if he were caught in the act. Ev.—Nothing is more manifest; and I now see that there is no need of lengthy argument to persuade me that the same is true of homicide, sacrilege and all other sins. For it is clear that lust alone dominates the whole realm of evil-doing. iv, 9. Aug.—You know that lust is also called cupidity? Ev.—I do. Aug.—Do you think there is or is not a difference between cupidity and fear? Ev.—Indeed there is a great difference between them. Aug.—I suppose you think so because cupidity longs for its object while fear avoids its object. Ev.— That is so. Aug.—What if some one kills a man from no desire to get possession of anything but from fear of suffering some evil at his hands? In that case he will not be a homicide? Ev.—He