Augustine in His Own Words
On the Trinity 293
(3.4) Certainly you love only what is good, for good is the earth with its mountain heights and its modest-sized hills and its level fields; and good is an estate, pleasant and fertile; and good is a house whose architectural layout is well-balanced and spacious and bright; and good are animals with bodies charged with life; and good is mild and healthy air; and good is food that is pleasant and conducive to health; and good is health without pains or weariness; and good is the human face with its fine-proportioned features, cheerful expression, and glowing color; and good is the soul of a friend with the sweetness of concord and fidelity of love; and good is the just man; and good are riches because they expedite and ease matters; and good are the heavens with the sun and the moon and the stars; and good are the angels with their holy obedience; and good is a speech that graciously instructs and suitably admonishes the listener; and good is the poem with its measured rhythm and the seriousness of its reflections. But why go on and on? This is good, and that is good. Take away this and that and see good itself if you can. Thus you will see God, who is good not by another good, but is the Good of every good. For in all these good things, either those I enumerated or any others seen or thought of, we would, if we judged in accord with truth, be unable to call one better than the other if the idea of the good itself had not been impressed upon us by which we approve of something as good and also prefer one good to another. Thus God is to be loved, not as this or that good, but as the Good itself.
(3.5) There would thus be no changeable goods unless there were an unchangeable Good. When you hear then of this good and that good—things one might even call "not good" in other ways—and if it were possible to put aside those particular goods which are good by a participation in the Good and see the Good itself of which those others are good by participation (for when you hear of this good or that good, you also understand the Good itself at the same time); if, therefore, you could put these goods aside and perceive the Good in itself, you would see God. And if by love you cling to Him, you will be at once blest.34
Paradox of Inquiry
In Book 8, Augustine raises a philosophical problem known as the "paradox of inquiry": How do we know how to seek out what we do not know? Plato had raised the question when he examined the nature of virtue. Augustine raises it as he examines the human
34. Trin. 8.3.4–3.5 (CCL 50:271–73); my trans., based on McKenna, FOTC 45:247–49.