77. Some codices have "those women." (continued)
TRACTATE 8
On John 2.1—^
HE MIRACLE OF our Lord, Jesus Christ, by which he made wine from water is certainly no wonder for those who know that God did it. For he, the very one who every year does this on vines, made wine on that day at the wedding in those six water jars, which he ordered to be filled with water. For just as what the attendants put into the water jars was turned into wine by the Lord's effort so also what the clouds pour down is turned into wine by the effort of the same Lord. But that does not amaze us because it happens every year; by its regularity it has lost its wonderment.' Yet it merits even greater reflection than that which was done in the water jars.
(2) For who is there who reflects upon the works of God, by which this whole world is governed and managed, and is not struck dumb and overwhelmed by miracles? If he should reflect upon the power of one grain of any seed at all, it is a great thing, aVi awe, to the one reflecting [upon it]. But, because men, concentrating upon something else, have abandoned reflection upon the works of God in which they might give praise to the creator every day, God has saved for himself, as it were, certain extraordinary things to do so that by amazing events he might arouse men, as if they were asleep, to worship him. A dead man arose; men were astonished. Every day
1. The Latin phrase, assiduitate amisit admirationem, both displays Augustine's rhetorical quality with its aphoristic compactness, alliteration, and assonance, and also bears a strong resemblance to a passage in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.96, where a similar idea, similar vocabulary, and similar alliteration occur. On the grain of seed just below, see Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.81. Neither of these references are cited in M. Testard, 5/. Augustin et Ciceron (Paris, 1958) or Hagendahl's Augustine and the Latin Classics.