Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
ON FREE WILL 163 of his lack of foresight, or tempts him because he is in need, or tortures him because he is a slave. All these things he deservedly suffers because he has turned away from truth, and whatever is just cannot be evil.
44. Neither by bodily sense nor by the thinking mind can you find any mutable thing which is not contained in some numerical form. Take away the form and it sinks to nothingness. Nevertheless do not doubt that there is an eternal and immutable form which prevents these mutable things from being reduced to nothingness, and preserves them through their appointed periods of existence in their measured motions and with their distinct varieties of form. That eternal form is neither contained in nor diffused through space, nor does it extend through or vary with changing times. Yet by it all other things can be formed, and, each in its own kind, can occupy spaces and times in which number rules. xvii, 45. Every mutable thing must also be capable of receiving form. We call that mutable which can be changed, and similarly we call that "formable" which is capable of receiving form. Nothing can *Torm" itself, because nothing can give itself what it does not have. To be "formed" means precisely to have form. Hence if a thing has form, it does not need to receive what it has. If it has not form it cannot give itself form. So, as we said, nothing can form itself What more shall we say about the mutability of the body and the mind? We have said enough before. The conclusion is that both body and mind receive form from a form that is unchangeable and eternal. Of this form it is written: "Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years have no end" (Ps. 102:26-27). The prophetic word says "years without end," meaning eternity. Again of this form it is written: "She, remaining in herself, reneweth all things" (Wisdom 7:27). Hence we understand that all things are ruled by providence. If all existing things would cease to be if form were taken from them, the unchangeable form by which all mutable things exist and fulfil their functions in the realm of number is to them a providence. If it were not, they would not be. Therefore he who journeys towards wisdom, beholding and considering the whole created universe, finds wisdom appearing unto him graciously on his way and meeting him in every purpose or providence; and his eagerness to press along that way is all the greater because he sees that the way is rendered beautiful by the wisdom he longs to reach.