Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine
cause, like death, it is vanquished by none; or because the measure of love in this life is even unto death, as the Lord says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"; (John 15:13) or, rather, because, as death forcibly separates the soul from the senses of the body, so love separates it from fleshly lusts. Knowledge, when it is of the right kind, is the handmaid to love, for without love "knowledge puffeth up," (I Cor. 8:1) but where love, by edifying, has filled the heart, there knowledge will find nothing empty which it can puff up.
Moreover, Job has shown what is that useful knowledge by defining it where, after saying, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom," he adds, "and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job
28:28) Why do we not say then that the man who has this virtue has all virtues, since "love is the fulfilling of the law?" (Rom.
13:10) Is it not true that the more love exists in a man, the more he is endowed with virtue; and the less love he has, the less virtue is in him; for love is itself virtue; and the less virtue there is in a man, so much the more vice will there be in him?
Therefore, where love is full and perfect, no vice will remain.
12. The Stoics, therefore appear to me to be mistaken in refusing to admit that a man who is advancing in wisdom has any wisdom at all and in affirming that he only has it who has become altogether perfect in wisdom. They do not, indeed, deny that he has made progress, but they say that he is in no degree entitled to be called wise, unless, by emerging, so to speak, from the depths, he suddenly springs forth into the free air of wisdom. For, as it matters not when a man is drowning whether the depth of water above him be many stadia or only the breadth of a hand or finger, so they say, in regard to the progress of those who are advancing towards wisdom, that they are like men rising from the bottom of a whirlpool towards the air, but that unless they, by their progress, so escape as to emerge wholly from folly as from an overwhelming flood, they have not virtue and are not wise; but that, when they have so escaped, they immediately have wisdom in perfection, and not a vestige of folly whence any sin could be originated remains.
13. This simile, in which folly is compared to water and wisdom to air, so that the mind emerging, as it were, from the stifling influence of folly, breathes suddenly the free air of wisdom, does not appear to me to harmonize sufficiently with the authoritative statement of our Scriptures; a better simile, so far, at least, as illustration of spiritual things can be borrowed from material things, is that which compares vice or folly to darkness and virtue or wisdom to light. The way to wisdom is therefore not like that of a man rising from the water into the air, in which, in the moment of rising above the surface of the water, he suddenly breathes freely but, like that of a man proceeding from darkness into light, on whom more light gradually shines as he advances. So long, therefore, as this is not fully accomplished, we speak of the man as of one going from the dark recesses of a vast cavern towards its entrance, who is more and more influenced by the proximity of the light as he comes nearer to the entrance of the cavern; so that whatever light he has proceeds from the light to which he is advancing, and whatever darkness still remains in him proceeds from the darkness out of which he is emerging. Therefore it is true that in the sight of God "shall no man living be justified," (Ps. 143:2) and yet that "the just shall live by his faith." (Hab. 2:4) On the one hand, "the saints are clothed with righteousness," (Job 29:14) one more, another less; on the other hand, no one lives here wholly without sin—one sins more, another less, and the best is the man who sins least.
CHAPTER 4:14... . Even though it were true that he who has one virtue has all virtues and that he who lacks one virtue has none, this would not involve the consequence that all sins are equal; for although it is true that where there is no virtue there is nothing right, it by no means follows that among bad actions one cannot be worse than another, or that divergence from that which is right does not admit of degrees. I think, however, that it is more agreeable to truth and consistent with the Holy Scriptures to say that what is true of the members of the body is true of the different dispositions of the soul... namely, that as in the same body one member is more fully shone upon by the light, another is less shone upon, and a third is altogether without light and remains in the dark under some impervious covering, something similar takes place in regard to the various dispositions of the soul. If this be so, then according to the manner in which every man is shone upon by the light of holy love, he may be said to have one virtue and to lack another virtue or to have one virtue in larger and another in smaller measure. For in reference to that love which is the fear of God, we may correctly say both that it is greater in one man than in another and that there is some of it in one man and none of it in another; we may also correctly say as to an individual that he has greater chastity than patience and that he has either virtue in a higher degree than he had yesterday, if he is making progress, or that he still lacks self-control but possesses, at the same time, a large measure of compassion.