The Essential Augustine (continued)
as a whole, and each as a whole at the same time to all as wholes; and these three are one, one life, one mind, one essence.
THE WONDERS OF MEMORY*
So, 1 shall also pass above this power of my nature, 8.12. ascending by degrees toward Him who made me, and I come into the fields and broad palaces of memory, where there are treasures of innumerable images, brought in from all sorts of sense objects. There is stored away whatever we cogitate on, too, either by adding to, or taking away from, or changing in any way the things which sense perception has contacted, and anything else kept or put back there, which forgetfulness has not yet engrossed and buried.
When I am in it, I can request that whatever I wish be brought forward. Some things come forth immediately; others are hunted after for a longer time, yet they are dug out as it were from some more concealed containers; still others rush out in a mob, when something else is sought and looked for, jumping forth in the middle as if to say: "Would we do, perhaps?" These I drive away from the face of my remembrance with the hand of my heart, until what I want becomes clear and enters into sight from the secret places, Other things come up as they are required, in easy and uninterrupted sequence. The first ones give way to those which follow and, in leaving, are stored up to come forth again when I desire it. All of this goes on when I recite something memorized. : In it all things are kept distinct and classified. They 13. are carried in, each by its own channel—light, for instance, and all colors and shapes of bodies through the eyes; through the ears, all kinds of sounds; all odors through the channel of the nostrils; all flavors through the channel of the mouth; and then, by the sensitivity of the whole body, what is hard or soft, hot or cold, smooth or rough, heavy or light, whether outside or inside the body. All these the great recess of memory, and its indescribably hidden and mysterious chasms, take in, to be called to mind and reviewed. when need arises. All these things go in, each
* Confessions, X, 8-26; trans. FOC 5, 273-297.