Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine (continued)
vived; the great number of books and records of every sort for the preservation of memory and the great concern shown for posterity; the gradations of duties, prerogatives, honors, and dignities, in family life and in public life—whether civilian or military—in profane and sacred institutions; the power of reason and thought, the floods of eloquence, the varieties of poetry, the thousand forms of mimicries for the purpose of entertainment and jest, the art of music, the accuracy of surveying, the science of arithmetic, the interpretation of the past and future from the present. 'These things bear the mark of greatness and they are characteristically human. But here we still have a capacity shared by both the learned and the unlearned, by both the good and the wicked. |
The Fourth Level of the Soul
73. Take hold now and swing yourself onto the fourth level, which goodness and all true worth call their home. Here it is that the soul ventures to take precedence not only over its own body, acting some part in the universe, but even over the whole body of the universe itself. The goods of the world it does not account its own, and comparing them with its own power and beauty, it keeps aloof from them and despises them. Hence, the more the soul turns to itself for its own pleasure, the more does it withdraw from sordid things and cleanse itself and make itself immaculately clean through and through. It steels itself against every effort to lure it away from its purpose and resolve! It shows high consideration for human society and desires nothing to happen to another which it does not wish to happen to itself, It submits to the authority and the bidding of wise men and is convinced that through them God speaks to itself. Yet this performance of the soul, noble as it is, still requires strenuous effort, and the annoyances and allurements of this world engage it in a mighty struggle, bitterly contested. In this work of purification there is an underlying fear of death, sometimes not strong, but sometimes all-pervading. It is scarcely present. when one has a very vigorous faith that—and to see the truth of this is granted only to the purified soul—all things are so governed by the great providence and justice of God that death cannot come as an evil to anyone, even though someone may inflict it with evil intentions, \But on this level there is a great fear of death, when, on the one hand, confidence in God's justice is so much the weaker the more anxiously one seeks for it; and when, on the other hand, corresponding to the lack of tranquillity in the presence of fear, there is a greater lack of understanding; for tran-