The Essential Augustine (continued)
MAN'S SOUL
one. Yet, their will is not turned away from some representation of joy.
Is it then uncertain that all men wish to be happy, 23.33. because those who do not wish to find their joy in Thee—and this is the only happy life—do not, in point of fact, desire the happy life? Or do all desire this, but, because "the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh...so that they do not do what they wish, [Gal. 5:17] they descend to that of which they are capable and are content with it, for they do not desire that for which they have insufficient capacity, to the extent that their desire would render them capable of it?
Now, I ask all men whether they would prefer to get their joy from truth rather than from falsity? They will hesitate as little to say that they prefer it from truth as they hesitate in saying that they wish to be happy. Indeed, the happy life is joy arising from truth. For this is the joy coming from Thee, who art the Truth, [John 14:6] O God; Thou art "my light," [Ps. 26:1] the salvation of my countenance, O my God. [Ps. 41:12] This happy life all men desire; this life, which alone is happy, all men desire; the joy arising from truth all men desire.
I have been acquainted with many men who wished to deceive, but not one who wished to be deceived. Where then did they get their knowledge of this happy life, unless where they got their knowledge of truth too? For they love the latter also, since they do not wish to be deceived. And, when they love the happy life, which is nothing other than joy arising from truth, they certainly love truth also. Nor would they love it, unless some knowledge of it were in their memory.
Why then do they not take their joy from it? Why are they not happy? Because they are more keenly concerned with other things, which have greater power to make them unhappy, than this, which they faintly remember to make them happy. "Yet a little while the light is" [John 12:35] in men; let them walk, walk, lest darkness overtake them.
But why does "truth engender hatred" [Cf. Terence, 34. Andria, 68] and Thy man who speaks the truth has become an enemy to them, [John 8:40] when a happy life is loved and it is nothing but joy arising from truth? is it that truth is so loved that, whoever love something else, they wish this object of love to be the truth, and, since they did not want to be deceived, they do not. want to be shown that they have been deceived? Therefore they hate the truth because of the same thing which they love in place of truth. They love truth when it enlightens; they hate it when it reproves. Since they do not wish to be deceived, and they do wish to deceive, they love it when it reveals its own self, and they hate it when if reveals themselves. Its retribution upon them stems from this: they who do not wish to be
- revealed by it, it both reveals against their will and is not itself revealed to them.
Thus, thus, even thus is the human mind, even thus is it blind and weak; it wishes to lie hidden, a foul and unattractive thing, but does not wish anything to be hidden to it. What befalls it is the contrary: it is not hidden before the truth, but the truth is hidden before it. Nevertheless, even while it is in such unhappiness, it prefers to rejoice in true things rather than in false. It will be happy then, if, with no hindrance interposed, it will come to rejoice in that through which all things are true, in the only Truth.
See how much I have traveled about in the spacious24.35. ness of my memory while looking for Thee, O Lord, and I have not found Thee outside it. Nor have I found anything about Thee which I did not keep in memory, ever since I learned of Thee. For, from the time that I learned of Thee, I did not forget Thee. Now, wherever I found the truth, there do I find my God, Truth Itself, and from the time that I learned of the Truth, I have not forgotten. Therefore, from the time that I learned about Thee, Thou dost dwell in my memory, and there do I find Thee when I remember Thee and delight in Thee. These are my ho delights which Thou hast given me in Thy mercy, having regard to my poverty.
But where dost Thou dwell in my memory, O 25.36. Lord; where dost Thou dwell there? What resting place hast Thou fashioned for Thyself? What sanctuary hast Thou built for Thyself? Thou hast granted this favor to my memory, to dwell in it, but in which part of it Thou dost dwell, this I now consider. When I recalled Thee to mind, I went above those parts of it which the beasts also Possess, for I did not find Thee there among the images of bodily things. So I came to the parts of it in which I keep my mental feelings, but I did not find Thee there. So I entered into the seat of my very mind, and there is one for it in my memory, since the mind also remembers itself, and Thou wert not there. Because, just as Thou art not a bodily image, ner the feeling of a living being, such as occurs when we are joyful, sorrowful, longing, fearful, mindful, forgetful, or anything else of this kind, so too Thou art not the mind itself. For Thou art the Lord God of the mind, and all these thiags are mutable, but Thou dwellest as an immutable Being above them all. So Thou hast deigned to reside in my memory, from the time that I have learned about Thee.
And why do I look for the place in it where Thou dost dwell, as if there really were places in it? What is certain is that Thou dwellest in it, for I remember Thee from the time that I have. learned about Thee, and I do find Thee in it when I recall Thee to mind.
Where then did I find Thee in order to learn about 26.37. Thee? For Thou wert not already in my memory before I learned of Thee. Where then did I find Thee in order to learn about Thee, unless in Thyself above me? Yet there is no place. We go backward and we go forward, yet there is no place. O Truth, Thou dost preside over all things, even those which can take counsel with Thee, and Thou dost answer in the same time all who consult Thee, however diverse their questions. Thou dost answer clearly, but all do not hear clearly. All seek counsel concerning what they wish, but they do not always hear what they wish. He serves Thee best who does not so much expect to hear the thing from Thee which he himself desires, but rather to desire what he hears from Thee.
THREE LEVELS OF VISION*
To see an object not in an image but in itself, yet 6.15. not through the body, is to see with a vision surpassing all other visions. There are various ways of seeing, and with God's help I shall try to explain them and show how they differ. When we read this one commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," we experience three kinds of vision: one through the eyes, by which we see the letters; a second through the spirit, by which
Literal Commentary on Genesis, XII, 6.15-11.22, 30.5831.59; trans. J.H. Taylor, S.J., St. Augustine De Genesi ad Litteram, Bk XII (St. Louis University Dissertation, 1948), pp. 25-29, 33, 39-43, 137-139. Used with permission.
we think of our neighbor even when he is absent; and a third through an intuition of the mind, by which we see and understand love itself. Of these three kinds of vision the first is clear to everyone: through it we see heaven and earth and in them everything that meets the eye. The second, by which we think of corporeal things that are absent, is not difficult to explain; for we think of heaven and earth and the visible things in them even when we are in the dark. In this case we see nothing with the eyes of the body but in the soul behold corporeal images: whether true images, representing the bodies that we have seen and still hold in memory, or fictitious images, fashioned by the power of thought. My manner of thinking about Carthage, which I know, is different from my manner of thinking about Alexandria, which I do not know. The third kind of vision, by which we see and understand love, embraces those objects which have no images at once resembling them, yet differing from them. A man, a tree, the sun, or any other bodies in heaven or on earth are seen in their own proper form when present and are thought of, when absent, in images impressed upon the soul. There are two ways of seeing them: one through the bodily senses, the other through the spirit, in which images are contained. But in the case of love, is it seen in one manner, when present, in the form in which it exists, and in another manner, when absent, in an image resembling it? Certainly not. But in proportion to the clarity of our intellectual vision, love itself is seen by one more clearly, by another less so. If, however, we think of some corporeal image, it is not love that we behold. :
These are the three kinds of visions about which we 7.16. had something to say in the preceding books as occasion arose, though we did not there specify their number. Now that we have briefly explained them, since the question under consideration demands a somewhat fuller discussion of them, we must give them definite and appropriate names, in order to avoid the encumbrance of constant circumlocution. Hence let us call the first kind of vision corporeal, because it is perceived through the body and presented to the senses of the body. The second will be spiritual, for whatever is not a body, and yet is something, is rightly called spirit; and certainly the image of an absent body, though it resembles a body, is not itself a body any more than is the act of vision by which it is perceived. The third kind will be intellectual, from the word "intellect," since mentale [mental] from mens [mind], because it is just a newly coined word, is too ridiculous for us to employ....
It is not from any of these meanings we have men8.19. tioned, in which spirit is used, that we take the word Spiritual to designate the kind of vision we are now treating. It is rather from that singular use of the word, found in the Epistle to the Corinthians, in which spirit is obviously distinguished from mind. "For," says the Apostle, "if I pray ie oP apa my spirit prays, but my understanding is un-
I am using the word spirit, therefore, in the sense in 9.20. which the Apostle uses it, where he distinguishes it from the mind: "I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also." Here he implies that signs of things are formed in the spirit, and that an understanding of the signs shines forth in the mind. According to this distinction, then, I have designated as spiritual the kind of vision by which we represent in thought the images of bodies even in their absence.
But the intellectual type of vision, which is proper to 10.21. the mind, is on a higher plane. The word intellect, as far as I know, cannot be used in a wide variety of meanings, such as we found in the case of the word spirit. But whether we say intellectual or intelligible, we mean one and the same thing, though some have wished to make a distinction between the two, designating as intelligible that reality which can be perceived by the intellect alone, and as intellectual the mind which understands. But whether there exists any being perceivable by the intellect alone, but not itself endowed with intellect—this is a large and difficult question. On the other hand I do not believe there is any one who either thinks or says that there exists a thing which perceives with the intellect and is at the same time incapable of being perceived by the intellect. For mind is not seen except by mind. Therefore, since it. can be seen, it is intelligible, and since it can also see, it is intellectual, according to the distinction just mentioned. Putting aside then the extremely difficult question about a thing which would only be understood but not possess understanding, we here use intellectual and intelligible in the same sense.
These three kinds of vision, therefore, namely, cor11.22. poreal, spiritual, and intellectual, must be considered separately so that the reason may ascend from the lower to the higher. We have already proposed above an example by which all three kinds are illustrated in one sentence. For when we read: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," the letters are seen corporeally, the neighbor is thought of spiritually, and love is beheld intellectually. But the letters when absent can also be thought of spiritually, and the neighbor when present can be seen corporeally. But love can neither be seen in its own essence with the eyes of the body nor be thought of in the spirit by means of an image like a body; but only in the mind, that is, in the intellect, can it be known and perceived. Corporeal vision indeed does not oversee any operations of the other two kinds of vision; rather the object perceived by it is announced to the spiritual vision, which acts as an overseer. For when an object is seen by the eyes, an image of it is immediately produced in the Spirit. But this representation is not perceived unless we remove our eyes from the object that we were gazing at through the eyes and find an image of it within our soul. And if indeed the spirit is irrational, as in the beasts, the announcement made by the eyes goes just as far as the spirit. But if the soul is rational, the announcement is made also to the intellect, which presides over the spirit. And so, after the eyes have taken their object in and announced it to the spirit, in order that an image of it may be produced there, then, if it is symbolic of something, its meaning is either immediately understood by the intellect or sought out; for there can be neither understanding nor searching except by the functioning of the mind....
But in the ordinary course of our daily life there 30.58. are other objects that arise in various ways from our spirit itself or are, after a fashion, suggested to the spirit by the body, according as we have been influenced by the flesh or by the mind. Thus men in their waking hours think of their troubles, turning. over in their minds the likenesses of bodily things; and so in their sleep, too, they frequently dream of something they need. The reason for this is that greed is the motive force of their business dealings; and when they happen to go to sleep hungry and thirsty, they are often after food and drink with open mouth. Now, in my opinion, when these objects are compared with the revelations of angels, they ought to be assigned the same relative value that we give, in the corporeal order, to earthly bodies in comparison with celestial bodies.
So also among the objects of the intellect; there are 31.59. some that are seen in the soul itself: for example, the virtues (to which the vices are opposed), either virtues which will endure, such as piety, or virtues that are useful for this life and not destined to remain in the next, as faith, by which we believe what we do not see, and hope, by which we await with patience the life that shall be, and patience itself, by which we bear every adversity until we arrive at the goal of our desires. These virtues, of course, and other similar ones, which are quite necessary for us now in living out our exile, will have no place in the blessed life, for the attainment of which they are necessary. And yet even they are seen with the intellect; for they are not bodies, nor have they forms similar to bodies. But distinct from these objects is the light by which the soul is illumined, in order that it may see and truly understand everything, either in itself or in the light. For the light is God himself, whereas the soul is a creature; yet, since it is rational and intellectual, it is made in His image. And when it tries to behold the Light, it trembles in its weakness and finds itself unable to do so. Yet from this source comes all the understanding it is able to attain. When, therefore, it is thus carried off and, after being withdrawn from the senses of the body, is made present to this vision in a more perfect manner (not by a spatial relation, but in a way proper to its being), it also sees above itself that Light in whose illumination it is enabled to see all the objects that it sees and understands in itself.
V. THE WORLD OF BODIES
While St. Augustine always felt that physical things are the least important of all creatures, he was fascinated with the wonders of nature. Much of his information may have been unreliable (he was certainly not a physical scientist), but his attitude in the selections that follow makes one conclusion clear: no type of later "Augustinianism" which teaches a contempt for bodies is faithful to the spirit of the Bishop of Hippo. It is not necessary for a Christian to know geography, biology, or physics, to be saved—but, then, it is not necessary to know theology, either.
Recent archaeological discoveries by French scientists in Algeria (see van der Meer) show that Augustine's personal observations were accurate enough. The outdoor mosaics on the waterfront at Carthage have now been partly recovered; they confirm the description found in the sixteenth book of the City of God.
Much of Augustine's speculation in cosmology is found in the Literal Commentary on Genesis, a treatise not yet fully translated into English. Discussing the creation of the
- world in the first six days, Augustine there develops his own theory of matter and form. Neither term has the meaning that is found in Aristotelianism. There is no theory of potency and act in Augustine's thought; so matter simply means the original stuff that God created out of nothing. It is called both "matter" (materia) and "material" (materies) and is described as initially formless. This does not mean that it is entirely without character, but that formless matter is somewhat amorphous, imperfect, ill-defined in its nature. Form
(forma or species) is often taken in the sense of shape or external appearance. No distinction is made between substantial and accidental forms: earth is "formed" as it grows into a tree; lumber is "formed" when made into a table; a human being is "formed" by becoming more virtuous and wise. This notion of form is much closer to Plato than to Aristotle.
THE WORLD OF BODIES 99
Special mention should be made of measure, number and weight as formal determinants. Here again, a biblical text
(Wisdom 11:21), to the effect that God has arranged all things in accordance with these three principles, is the simple source of much complicated speculation. Measure
(mensura, modus) is sometimes associated with the cognitive function of mind (mens), and it is also treated as a principle of being. Number (numerus) is related to species and is a sort of metaphysical determinant: all existing things are numbered. 'Weight (pondus) is connected with order, in its dynamic sense: all natures incline toward their appointed ends because they are weighted. Weight is a determinant of will, of love, or any sort of tendency.
In our last chapter, we shall see a famous psychological interpretation of time, as the extension of mental events, but this does not prevent Augustine from regarding cosmic or physical time as real. One of our present passages ("Place, Time, and the Physical World") shows bodily events occur Ting in time and requiring some sort of framework of space.
We have already observed some of the features of the theory of seminal reasons. Several selections in this chapter deal with these seedlike principles. While the terminology stems from Stoic usage (logoi spermatikoi), the Augustinian teaching on rationes seminales is largely an outgrowth of the creation account in Genesis. If God made all things in the first six days, then in some sense everything that will ever appear in the cosmos is already existing in the original stuff of the universe. Augustine is almost forced to postulate tiny, invisible "seeds" which are the originals of all trees, horses, human bodies, and so on, that will grow into extended beings during the course of time. Nothing really new comes into existence after the first six days; all creatures are in existence at all times, sometimes in their "seeds," at other times as grown out of their rationes seminales.
This theory explains only the development and movement of living creatures. It is barely possible that Augustine thought that all created things are living. However, if he ever recognized nonvital events in physical nature (the movement of winds, the flow of rivers), Augustine would account for these, not by supposing physical forces or created causes, but by appealing to the power of God working directly upon bodies. God makes the wind blow and the water run. (See the selection: "God Works Throughout Nature.")
The human body is beautifully formed and is useful to man in many of his earthly activities. However, it is ani-