Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
not assent to wisdom. But if it now seems true that a wise man can reach an understanding of wisdom, it must also seem true that he will give assent to wisdom, for surely there is no reason why we ought to refuse assent to what can be understood. So I see that my contention seems true—the contention that a wise man will assent to wisdom. And if you ask me where he can find Wisdom herself, I shall answer: Within his very self. If you say that he does not know what is in himself, you are going back to that same absurdity, namely, that a wise man does not know wisdom.31
Parable of the Two Travelers
Plato's Dialogues not only used arguments, but also the occasional parable; so too, Augustine in his debate against the Academics. Here he tells a parable of two travelers. The credulous one who follows a shepherd's directions is symbolic of simple Christians who follow the shepherding authority of bishops; the skeptical one, who follows the well-dressed trickster, is symbolic of the hyper-cautious Academic. From Against the Skeptics, Book 3:
(15.34) I have for a long while pondered here in the leisure of this countryside how the "probable" and the "truth-like" could defend our actions from going astray. At first it seemed to me to be neatly protected and fortified, just as it used to seem when I used to sell these arguments [in my job as rhetor]. But when I had inspected the matter more carefully, I came to believe that I had discovered an entryway where error might rush in upon the unwary. For I now regard that one errs not only when one follows the wrong path, but also when one does not follow the right one.
Let us suppose that two travelers are journeying to the same place; that one of them has resolved not to believe anybody while the other is overly credulous. They arrive at a crossroad. The credulous man says to a shepherd (or rustic of some kind) who happens to be there: "Hello, tell me, good sir, which is the right road to such-and-such a place?" The answer he gets: "If you travel by this road, you will not go wrong." So the credulous says to his companion: "This man is telling the truth: let's go this way." The hyper-cautious man laughs, and ridicules his companion with a biting wit for giving his assent so quickly. So while the credulous continues on his journey, the other one stands there at the crossroad until his long-prolonged delay begins to make him feel embarrassed. Now, look! From the other branch of the highway, an elegantly dressed and urbane gentleman on horseback comes into view. The traveler re-
31. C. Acad. 3.14.30–14.31 (CCL 29:52–54); my trans., based on Kavanagh, FOTC 5:203–6.