Soliloquies 1.1–1.9

Augustine of Hippo · Soliloquies · 386–387 · Cassiciacum (near Milan) · 9 passages

Latin text: Migne, PL 32 (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Latina, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888).

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Chapter 1

1.1PL 32:870–871

Volventi mihi multa ac varia mecum diu, ac per multos dies sedulo quaerenti memetipsum ac bo num meum, quidve mali evitandum esset; ait mihi subito, sive ego ipse, sive alius quis extrinsecus, sive intrinsecus, nescio: nam hoc ipsum est quod magno pere scire molior: ait ergo mihi, R.. Ecce, fac te invenisse aliquid; cui commendabis, ut pergas ad alia? A. Memoriæ scilicet. R. Tantane illa est ut excogitata omnia bene servet? A. Difficile est, imo non potest. R. Ergo scribendum est. Sed quid agis, quod valetudo tua scribendi laborem recusat? Nec ista dictari debent; nam solitudinem meram deside rant. A. Verum dicis. Itaque prorsus nescio quid agam. R. Ora salutem et auxilium quo ad concupita pervenias, et hoc ipsum litteris manda, ut prole tua fias animosior. Deinde quod invenis paucis conclu siunculis breviter collige. Nec modo cures invitatio nem turbæ legentium; paucis ista sat erunt civibus tuis. A. Ita faciam. Deus universitatis conditor, praesta mihi primum ut bene te rogem, deinde ut me agam dignum quem exaudias, postremo ut liberes. Deus per quem omnia, que per se non essent, tendunt esse. Deus qui ne id quidem quod se invicem perimit, perire permittis. Deus qui de nihilo mundum istum creasti, quem omnium oculi sentiunt pulcherrimum. Deus qui malum non facis, et facis esse ne pessimum flat. Deus qui pau cis ad id quod vere est refugientibus, ostendis malum nihil esse. Deus per quem universitas etiam cum si nistra parte perfecta est. Deus a quo dissonantia us que in extremum nulla est, cum deteriora melioribus coniciunt. Deus quem amat omne quod potest amare, sive sciens, sive nesciens. Deus in quo sunt omnia, cui tamen universæ creaturæ nec turpitudo turpis cst, nec malitia nocet, nec error errat. Deus qui nisi mun dos verum scire noluisti. Deus pater veritatis, pa ter sapicntiae, pater veræ summa'que vitæ, pater bea titudinis, pater boni ct pulchri, pater intelligibilis lucis, pater evigilationis atque illuminationis nostræ, piter pignoris quo admonemur redire ad te. Te invoco, Deus veritas, in quo et a quo et per quem vera sunt, quae vera sunt omnia. Deus sapien tia, in quo et a quo et per quem sapiunt, quæ sapiunt omnia. Deus vera et summa vita, in quo et a quo et per quem vivunt, quæ vere summeque vivunt omnia. Deus beatitudo, in quo et a quo et per quem beata sunt, quæ beata suntomnia. Deus bonum et pulchrum, in quo et a quo et per quem bona et pulchra sunt, quæ bona et pulchra sunt omnia. Deus intelligibilis lux, in quo et a quo et perquem intelligibiliter lucent, quae in telligibiliter lucent omnia. Deus cujus regnum est totus mundus, quem sensus ignorat. Deus de cujus regno lex etiam in ista regna describitur. Deus a quo averti, cadere; in quem converti, resurgere; in quo manere, consistere est. Deus a quo exire, emori; in quem re dire, reviviscere; in quo habitare, vivere est. Deus quem nemo amittit, nisi deceptus; quem nemo quærit, nisi ad monitus; qucm nemo invenit, nisi purgatus. Deus quem rclinqucre, hoc cst quod perire; quem attendere, hoc est quod amare; quem videre, hoc est quod habere. Deus cui nos fides excitat, spes erigit, charitas jungit, Deus per quem vincimus inimicum, te deprecor. Deus per quem accepimus ne omnino periremus. Deus a quo admonemur ut vigilemus. Deus per quem a ma lis bona separamus. Deus per quem mala fugimus, et bona scquilnur. Deus per quem non cedimus ad versitatibus. Deus per quem bene servimus et bene dominamur. Deus per quem discimus aliena esse quæ aliquando nostra, et nostra esse quæ aliquando aliena putabamus. Deus per quem malorum escis atque illecebris non hæremus. Deus per quem nos res minutæ non minuunt. Deus per quem melius nostrum deteriori subjectum non est. Deus per quem mors absorbetur in victoriam ( I Cor. xv, 54). Deus qui nos convertis. Deus qui nos eo quod non est cxuis, et eo quod est induis. Deus qui nos exaudibiles facis. Deus qui nos munis. Deus qui nos in omnem veri tatem inducis. Deus qui nobis omnia bona loqucris, nec insanos facis, nec a quoquam fieri sinis. Deus qui nos revocas in viam. Deus qui nos deducis ad januam. Deus qui facis ut pulsantibus aperiatur (Matth. vn, 8). Deus qni nobis das panem vitae. DeuS per quem sitimus potum, quo hausto nunquam sitia mus ( Joan. VI, 55). Deus qni arguis sæculum de pec cato, de justitia, et de judicio. Deus per quem nos non movent qui minimc credunt. Deus per quem improbamus eorum errorem, qui animarum mcrita nulla esse apud te putant. Deus per quem non si rvimus infirmis et egenis elementis. Deus qui nos purgas, et ad divina praeparas præmia, adveni mihi propitius tu. A. Quidquid a me dictum est, unus Deus tu, tu veni mihi in auxilium; una æterna vera substantia, ubi nulla discrepantia, nulla confusio, nulla transitio, nulla indigentia, nulla mors. Ubi summa concordia, summa evidentia, summa constantia, summa pleni ludo, summa vita. Ubi nihil deest, nihil redundat. Ubi qui gignit, et quem gignit unum est. Deus cui serviunt omnia, quæ serviunt; cui obtemperat omnis bona anima. Cujus legibus rotantur poli, cursus suos sidera pcragunl, sol exercet diem, luna temperat no clem omnisque mundus per dies, vicissitudine lucis et noctis; per menses, incrementis decrementisque lunaribus; per annos, veris, æstatis, autumni et hie mis successionibus; per lustra, perfectione cursus so laris; per magnos orbes, recursu in ortus suos side rum, magnam rerum constantiam, quantum sensibilis materia patitur, tempornm ordinibus replicationibus que custodit. Deus cujus legibus in ævo stantibus, motus instabilis rerum mutabilium perturbatus esse non sinitur,frenisque circumeuntium sæculorum sem per ad similitudinem stabilitatis revocatur: cujus le gibus arbitrium animæ liberum est, bonisque præmia ut malis pœnæ, fixis per onmia necessitatibus distri butæ sunt. Deus a quo manant usque ad nos omnia bona, a quo coercentur a nobis omnia mala. Deus su pra quem nihil, extra quem nihil, sine quo nihil est. Deus sub quo totum est, in quo totum est, cum quo to tum est. Qui fecisti hominem ad imaginem et simili tudinem tuam, quod qui se ipse novit agnoscit. Exaudi, exaudi, exaudi me, Deus meus, Domine meus, rex meus, pater meus, causa mea, spes mea, res mea, honor meus, domus mea, patria mea, salus mea, lux mea, vita mea. Exaudi, cxaudi, exaudi me more illo tuo paucis notissimo. Jam te solum amo, te solum sequor, te solum quæro, tibi soli servire paratus sum, quia tu solus juste dominaris; tui juris esse cupio. Jube, quaeso, atque impera quidquid vis, sed sana et aperi aures meas, quibus voces tuas audiam. Sana et aperi oculos mcos, quibus nutus tuos videam. Expelle a me insa niam, ut recognoscam te. Dic mihi qua attendam, ut aspiciam te, et omnia me spero quae jusseris esse facturum. Recipe, oro, fugitivum tuum, Domine, cle mentissime pater: jamjam satis poenas dederim, satis inimicis tuis, quos sub pedibus habes, servierim, sa tis fuerim fallaciarum ludibrium. Accipe me ab istis fugientem famulum tuum, quia et isti me quando a te fugiebam acceperunt alienum. Ad te mihi redeundum esse sentio: pateat mihi pulsanti janua tua; quomodo ad te perveniatur doce me. Nihil aliud habeo quam voluntatem; nihil aliud scio nisi fluxa et caduca sper nenda essc; certa et æterna requirenda. Hoc facio, Pater, quia hoc solum novi; sod unde ad te pervenia tur ignoro. Tu mihi suggere, tu ostende, tu viaticum praebe. Si fide te inveniunt qui ad te rcfugiunt, fidem da; si virtute, virtutem; si scientia, scientiam. Auge in me fidem, auge spem, auge charitatem. 0 admi nuda et singularis bonitas tua! Ad te ambio, et quibus rebus ad te ambiatur, a te rursum peto. Tu enim si deseris, peritur: sed non deseris, quia tu es summum bonum, quod nemo recte quæsivit, et minime invenit. Omnis autem recte quae sivit, quem tu recte quaerere fecisti. Fac me, Pater, quærere te, vindica me ab errore; quærenti te mihi nihil aliud pro te occurrat. Si nihil aliud desidero quam te, inveniam te jam, quæso, Pater. Si autem est in me superflui alicujus appetitio, tu ipse me munda, et fac idoneum ad videndum te. Caeterum de salute hujus mortalis corporis mei, quamdiu nescio quid mihi ex eo utile sit, vel eis quos diligo, tibi illud com mitto, Pater sapientissime atque optime, et pro eo quod red tempus admonueris deprecabor: tantum oro excellentissimam clementiam tuam, ut me penitus ad te convertas, nihilque mihi repugnare facias tendenti ad te, jubcasque me dum hoc ipsum corpus ago atque porto, purum, magnanimum, justam, prudentemque esse, perfectumque amatorem perceptoremquc sa pientiae tuae, et dignum habitatione, atque habitatorem beatissimi regni tui. Amen, amen.

As I had long been turning over many and various things with myself, and for many days had been earnestly seeking myself and my good, and what evil was to be avoided, suddenly someone spoke to me (whether I myself or someone else, outside me or within, I do not know; for that is the very thing I am striving hard to know). Someone, then, said to me: R. Look, suppose you have found something: to whom will you entrust it, so that you may go on to other things? A. To memory, of course. R. Is memory so great that it keeps safe everything you have thought out? A. That is difficult; indeed it cannot. R. Then it must be written down. But what will you do, since your health refuses the labor of writing? Nor should these things be dictated, for they require pure solitude. A. You speak the truth. So I do not know at all what to do. R. Pray for health and for help, by which you may reach what you desire, and commit this very prayer to writing, so that you may become more courageous through your offspring. Then gather up briefly, in a few short conclusions, what you find. And do not concern yourself now with attracting a crowd of readers; these things will be enough for a few of your fellow citizens. A. I will do so.

O God, founder of the universe, grant me first that I may pray to you well, then that I may conduct myself so as to be worthy for you to hear me, and lastly that you set me free. God, through whom all things that would not exist of themselves strive to exist. God, who do not allow to perish even that which destroys itself in turn. God, who created out of nothing this world, which the eyes of all perceive to be most beautiful. God, who do not make evil, and who cause it to exist so that it may not become the worst. God, who show to the few who take refuge in that which truly is that evil is nothing. God, through whom the universe is perfect even with its sinister part. God, from whom there is no discord at all, even to the very last, since the worse things harmonize with the better. God, whom everything that can love loves, whether knowingly or unknowingly. God, in whom all things are, to whom nevertheless the shame of the whole creation is not shameful, nor its wickedness harmful, nor its error erring. God, who willed that none but the pure should know the truth. God, Father of truth, Father of wisdom, Father of true and supreme life, Father of happiness, Father of the good and the beautiful, Father of intelligible light, Father of our awakening and illumination, Father of the pledge by which we are admonished to return to you.

I call upon you, O God the Truth, in whom and from whom and through whom all things are true that are true. God the Wisdom, in whom and from whom and through whom all things are wise that are wise. God the true and supreme Life, in whom and from whom and through whom all things live that truly and supremely live. God the Happiness, in whom and from whom and through whom all things are happy that are happy. God the Good and the Beautiful, in whom and from whom and through whom all things are good and beautiful that are good and beautiful. God the intelligible Light, in whom and from whom and through whom all things shine intelligibly that shine intelligibly. God, whose kingdom is the whole world, of which sense knows nothing. God, from whose kingdom law is written down even for these kingdoms. God, from whom to turn away is to fall, to whom to turn back is to rise again, in whom to remain is to stand firm. God, from whom to depart is to die, to whom to return is to come to life again, in whom to dwell is to live. God, whom no one loses unless deceived, whom no one seeks unless admonished, whom no one finds unless purified. God, whom to abandon is the same as to perish, to whom to attend is the same as to love, whom to see is the same as to possess. God, to whom faith rouses us, hope lifts us up, love joins us. God, through whom we conquer the enemy, you I entreat. God, through whom we have received that we should not perish altogether. God, by whom we are admonished to keep watch. God, through whom we separate good things from evil. God, through whom we flee evil and follow good. God, through whom we do not yield to adversities. God, through whom we serve well and rule well. God, through whom we learn that the things we once thought ours belong to others, and the things we once thought belonged to others are ours. God, through whom we do not cling to the baits and allurements of the wicked. God, through whom petty things do not make us petty. God, through whom our better part is not subjected to the worse. God, through whom “death is swallowed up in victory.” God, who convert us. God, who strip us of that which is not and clothe us with that which is. God, who make us fit to be heard. God, who fortify us. God, who lead us into all truth. God, who speak all good things to us, and neither make us mad nor allow us to be made so by anyone. God, who call us back into the way. God, who lead us to the door. God, who cause it to be opened to those who knock. God, who give us the bread of life. God, through whom we thirst for the drink which, once drunk, we shall never thirst. God, who convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. God, through whom those who do not believe at all do not move us. God, through whom we reject the error of those who think that souls have no merits before you. God, through whom we are not slaves to the weak and beggarly elements. God, who cleanse us and prepare us for divine rewards: come to me graciously.

Whatever I have said, you, the one God, you come to my help: one eternal, true substance, where there is no discord, no confusion, no passing away, no need, no death; where there is supreme concord, supreme clarity, supreme constancy, supreme fullness, supreme life; where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess; where he who begets and he whom he begets are one. God, whom all things serve that serve, whom every good soul obeys. By whose laws the poles revolve, the stars run their courses, the sun drives the day, the moon tempers the night; and the whole world, through days by the alternation of light and night, through months by the waxing and waning of the moon, through years by the succession of spring, summer, autumn and winter, through lustra by the completion of the sun's course, through great cycles by the return of the stars to their risings, preserves a great constancy of things, as far as sensible matter permits, by the orders and recurrences of the times. God, by whose laws, standing fast forever, the unstable motion of changeable things is not allowed to fall into disorder, and is always recalled, by the reins of the revolving ages, to a likeness of stability; by whose laws the choice of the soul is free, and rewards to the good and punishments to the evil are distributed by necessities fixed throughout all things. God, from whom all good things flow down even to us, by whom all evil things are held off from us. God, above whom there is nothing, outside whom there is nothing, without whom there is nothing. God, under whom the whole is, in whom the whole is, with whom the whole is. You who made man to your image and likeness, which he who knows himself recognizes. Hear, hear, hear me, my God, my Lord, my King, my Father, my cause, my hope, my wealth, my honor, my home, my country, my salvation, my light, my life. Hear, hear, hear me in that way of yours known to very few.

Now I love you alone, you alone I follow, you alone I seek, you alone I am ready to serve, because you alone rule justly; I desire to be under your authority. Command, I pray, and order whatever you will, but heal and open my ears, that with them I may hear your voice. Heal and open my eyes, that with them I may see your nod. Drive madness from me, that I may know you again. Tell me where I should look, that I may behold you, and I hope that I shall do all that you command. Receive, I beg, your fugitive, Lord, most merciful Father. Surely I have now paid penalty enough; enough have I served your enemies, whom you have under your feet; enough have I been the plaything of deceptions. Receive me, your servant, as I flee from them, for they too received me, a stranger, when I was fleeing from you. I feel that I must return to you: let your door be opened to me as I knock; teach me how one comes to you. I have nothing but will; I know nothing except that fleeting and perishing things are to be spurned, and sure and eternal things are to be sought. This I do, Father, because this alone I know; but how one comes to you I do not know. You suggest it to me, you show it, you provide provision for the journey. If it is by faith that those who take refuge in you find you, give faith; if by virtue, virtue; if by knowledge, knowledge. Increase faith in me, increase hope, increase love. O how wonderful and singular is your goodness! I aspire to you, and the very means by which one aspires to you I ask again from you. For if you abandon, one perishes; but you do not abandon, because you are the supreme good, whom no one has rightly sought and failed to find. And everyone has rightly sought whom you have made to seek rightly. Make me, Father, seek you; deliver me from error; as I seek you, let nothing else present itself to me in place of you. If I desire nothing other than you, let me find you now, I pray, Father. But if there is in me the desire of anything superfluous, cleanse me yourself and make me fit to see you. As for the health of this mortal body of mine, so long as I do not know what use it is to me or to those I love, I entrust it to you, most wise and best Father, and I will pray for it as you shall admonish me at the time. Only this I beg of your most excellent mercy: that you turn me wholly to yourself, allow nothing to resist me as I strive toward you, and command me, while I bear and carry this body, to be pure, magnanimous, just and prudent, a perfect lover and receiver of your wisdom, and worthy of dwelling in, and to be a dweller of, your most blessed kingdom. Amen, amen.

1 Cor 15:54 (quotation, high confidence) · John 16:13 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 7:8 (allusion, high confidence) · John 6:35 (allusion, medium confidence) · John 4:14 (allusion, medium confidence) · John 16:8 (quotation, high confidence) · Gal 4:9 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 1:26 (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason urges Augustine to write down what he finds, and he opens with a long prayer to God as the source of truth, wisdom, life and happiness, asking to be healed and to return to him.

The dialogue is between Augustine (A.) and Reason (R.). Biblical echoes: 1 Cor 15:54; John 16:13; Matt 7:7–8; John 6:35; John 4:14; John 16:8; Gal 4:9; Gen 1:26 (Migne's text prints references to 1 Cor 15:54, Matt 7:8, and John 6:55). ‘Through lustra’: five-year periods. The digital text reads ‘quod red tempus admonueris’; translated by sense (‘as you shall admonish me at the time’).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; joined words; leaked footnote digit; leaked footnote mark): mecam diu → mecum diu; ego ipsf → ego ipse; faic te → fac te; Tantane ilia → Tantane illa; Nee ista → Nec ista; solitudincm → solitudinem; V crum dicis → Verum dicis; lias animosior → fias animosior; quod hivenis → quod invenis; pcr quein → per quem; senliurtt → sentiunt; f.icis → facis; malum nibil → malum nihil; pei fecta → perfecta; a que; dissonantia → a quo dissonantia; Deds bonum → Deus bonum; ill quo → in quo; a quoaverti → a quo averti; rcsurgere → resurgere; lac est quod amare → hoc est quod amare; boc est quod habere → hoc est quod habere; accepimus 1 ne → accepimus ne; per quon → per quem; domlnamur → dominamur; munis '. → munis.; sitimus polum → sitimus potum; rotantur poti → rotantur poli; stntibus → stantibus; v eus sub → Deus sub; totum esi, → totum est,; aliutl → aliud; fid'eut → fidem; virtulcm → virtutem; bonitas tua I → bonitas tua!; ambiatnr → ambiatur; miuime → minime.

Topics: Prayer

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.1 (PL 32:870–871; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the Latin of Migne's Patrologia Latina (digital text of the Open Greek and Latin project); each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation of C. C. Starbuck in NPNF¹ 7 (1888).

1.2PL 32:871–873

A. Ecce oravi Deum. R. Quid ergo scire vis? A. Hæc ipsa omnia quæ oravi. R. Breviter ea collige. A. Deum et animam scire cupio. R. Nihilne plus? A. Nihil omnino. R. Ergo incipe quærere. Sed prius explica quomodo tibi si de monstretur Deus, possis dicere, Sat est. A. Nescio quomodo mihi demonstrari debeat, ut dicam, Sat est: non enim credo me scire aliquid sic, quomodo scire Deum desidero. R. Quid ergo agimus? Nonne censes prius tibi esse sciendum, quomodo tibi Deum scire sa tis sit, quo cum perveneris non amplius quæras? A. Censeo quidem; sed quo pacto fieri possit, non video, Quid enim Deo simile unquam intellexi, ut possim dicere, Quomodo hoc intelligo, sic volo intelligere Deum? R. Qui nondum Deum nosti, unde nosti nihil te nosse Dco simile? A. Quia si aliquid Deo simile scirem, sinc dubio id amarem; nunc autem nihil aliud amo quam Deum et animam. quorum neutrum scio. R. Non igitur amas amicos tuos? A. Quo pacto eos possum, amans animam, non amare? R. Hoc modo ergo ct pulices et cimices amas? A. Animam me amare dixi, non animalia. R. Aut homines non sunt amici tui, aut eos non amas: omnis enim homo est animal, et animalia te non amare dixisti. A. Et homines sunt, ct eos amo, non eo quod animalia, sed eo quod ho mines sunt; id est, ex eo quod rationales animas ha bent, quas amo eliam in latronibus. Licet cnim mihi in quovis amare rationem, cum illum jure oderim qui male utitur eo quod amo. Itaque tanto magis amo amicos meos, quanto magis bene utuntur anima ra lionali, vel certe quantum desiderant ea bcne uti.

A. Look, I have prayed to God. R. What then do you want to know? A. All these very things for which I prayed. R. Gather them up briefly. A. I desire to know God and the soul. R. Nothing more? A. Nothing at all. R. Then begin to seek. But first explain how, if God were demonstrated to you, you could say, “It is enough.” A. I do not know how he should be demonstrated to me so that I say, “It is enough”; for I do not believe that I know anything in the way I desire to know God. R. What then shall we do? Do you not think you must first know how it would be enough for you to know God, so that when you reach that point you seek no further? A. I think so indeed; but how it can be done I do not see. For what have I ever understood that is like God, so that I could say, “As I understand this, so I wish to understand God”? R. You who do not yet know God, how do you know that you know nothing like God? A. Because if I knew anything like God, I would undoubtedly love it; but as it is I love nothing other than God and the soul, neither of which I know. R. Then you do not love your friends? A. How can I, loving the soul, not love them? R. In that way, then, do you love fleas and bugs too? A. I said I love the soul, not animals. R. Either your friends are not men, or you do not love them; for every man is an animal, and you said you do not love animals. A. They are men, and I love them, not because they are animals but because they are men, that is, because they have rational souls, which I love even in robbers. For I may love reason in anyone, even while I justly hate the one who uses badly what I love. So I love my friends the more, the better they use the rational soul, or at least the more they desire to use it well.

Notes and citation

Summary: Augustine says he desires to know only God and the soul, and Reason presses him on what knowledge of God would satisfy him and on what he loves in his friends.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; OCR slip (speaker mark)): oravi Dein. → oravi Deum.; II. Ergo → R. Ergo; quolnodo → quomodo; Dens, possis → Deus, possis; Quid Prim Deo → Quid enim Deo; possi:n → possim; iulelligcre → intelligere; neulrurn → neutrum; amicus tuos → amicos tuos.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.2 (PL 32:871–873; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.3PL 32:873

R. Accipio istud: sed tamen si quis tibi di ceret, Faciam te sic Deum nosse, quomodo nosti Alypium; nonne gratias ageres, et diceres, Satis est? A. Agerem quidem gratias, sed satis esse non dicerem. R. Cur, quæso? A. Quia Deum ne sic qui dem novi quomodo Alypium, et tamen Alypium non salis novi. R. Vide ergo ne impudenter velis sa tis Deum nosse, qui Alypium non salis nosti. A. Non scquitur. Nam in comparatione siderum, quid est mea cOena vilius? et tamen cras quid sim coenaturus igno ro; quo autein signo luna futura sit, non impudenter me scire profiteor. R. Ergo vel ila Deum nosse tibi satis est, ut nosti quo cras signo luna cursura sit? A. Non est satis: nam hoc sensibus approbo. Ignoro autcm utrum vcl Deus vel aliqua naturæ occultacausa subito lunæ ordinem cursumque comtnutet: quod si acciderit, totum iliud quod praesumpseram, falsum erit. R. Et credis hoc fieri posse? A. Non credo. Sed ego quid sciam quæro, non quid credam. Omne autem quod scimus, recte fortasse etiam credere dicimur; at non omne quod credimus, etiam scire. R. Respuis igitur in hac causa omne testimonium sensuum? A. Prorsus respuo. R. Quid? illum familiarem tuum quem te adhuc ignorare dixisti, sensu vis nosse, an intel lectu? A. Sensu quidem quod in eo novi, si tamen sensu aliquid noscitur, et vile est, ct satis est: illam vero parlenl qua mihi amicus'est, id est ipsum ani mum, intellectu assequi cupio. R. Potestnealiter nosci? A. Nullo modo. R. Amicum igitur tuum et ve hementer familiarem, audes tibi dicere esse ignotum? A. Quidni audeam? Illam enim legem amicitiae justis simamesse arbitror, qua præscribitur ut sicut non minus, ita nec plus quisque amicum quam scipsum diligat. Itaque cum memetipsum ignorem, qua potest a me affici contumelia, quem mihi esse dixero igno tum, cum præsertim, ut credo, ne ipse quidem se no verit? R. Si ergo ista quæ scire vis, ex eo sunt genere quæ intellectus assequitur, cum dicerem impudenter te velle Deum scire, cum Alypium nescias, non de buisti mihi cocnam tuam ct lunam proferre pro simili, si hæc, ut dixisti, ad sensum pertinent.

R. I accept that. But still, if someone said to you, “I will make you know God as you know Alypius,” would you not give thanks and say, “It is enough”? A. I would give thanks, but I would not say it was enough. R. Why, pray? A. Because I do not know God even as I know Alypius, and yet I do not know Alypius well enough. R. See then that you do not impudently wish to know God sufficiently, when you do not know Alypius sufficiently. A. It does not follow. For compared with the stars, what is cheaper than my dinner? And yet what I shall dine on tomorrow I do not know; but in what sign the moon will be, I profess without impudence that I know. R. Then is it enough for you to know God as you know in what sign the moon will run tomorrow? A. It is not enough; for this I verify by the senses. And I do not know whether either God or some hidden cause in nature might suddenly change the moon's order and course; if that happened, all that I had presumed would be false. R. And do you believe this can happen? A. I do not believe it. But I am asking what I know, not what I believe. Everything we know we are perhaps rightly said also to believe; but not everything we believe do we also know. R. Do you then reject in this matter all testimony of the senses? A. I reject it entirely. R. What then? That intimate friend of yours whom you said you still do not know: do you want to know him by sense or by intellect? A. What I know in him by sense, if indeed anything is known by sense, is both cheap and sufficient; but that part by which he is my friend, that is, his very mind, I desire to grasp by the intellect. R. Can it be known otherwise? A. In no way. R. Then you dare to say that your friend, and a very intimate one, is unknown to you? A. Why should I not dare? For I think that law of friendship most just which prescribes that one should love a friend neither less nor more than oneself. So, since I do not know myself, what insult can I do to one whom I say I do not know, especially since, as I believe, he does not know himself either? R. If then the things you wish to know are of the kind that the intellect grasps, when I said it was impudent of you to wish to know God when you do not know Alypius, you should not have offered me your dinner and the moon as a comparison, if these, as you said, belong to sense.

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason and Augustine distinguish knowing by the senses from knowing by the intellect, using the examples of his friend Alypius, his dinner, and the course of the moon.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; joined words): quidemgratias → quidem gratias; sin coenaturus → sim coenaturus; tihi satis → tibi satis; andes tibi → audes tibi; mibi esse → mihi esse; Sicrgo → Si ergo; velleDeum → velle Deum; CUDI Alypium → cum Alypium.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.3 (PL 32:873; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.4PL 32:873–875

Sed quid ad nos? Nunc illud responde: si ei quæ de Deo dixerunt Plato et Plotinus vera sunt, sa lisne tibi est ita Deum scire, ut illi sciebant? A. Non continuo, si ea quæ dixerunt, vera sunt, etiam scisse illos ea necesse est. Nam multi copiose dicunt quæ nesciunt, ut cgo ipse omnia quae oravi, me dixi scire cupere, quod non cuperem si jam scirem: num igitur eo minus illa dicere potui? Dixi enim non quae intellectu comprehendi, sed quæ undecumque collecta memoriæ mandavi, et quibus accommodavi quantam potui fidcm: scire autem aliud est. R. Dic, quæso, scisne saltem in geometrica disciplina quid sit linea? A. Istud plane scio. R. Nec in ista professione vereris Academicos? A. Non omnino. Illi enim sapientem er rare noluerunt; ego autem sapiens non sum. Itaque adhuc non vereor earum rerum quas novi, sciendam profiteri. Quod si, ut cupio, pervenero ad sapientiam, faciam quod illa monuerit. R. Nihil renuo: sed, ut quærere coeperam, ita ut lineam nosti, nosti etiam pilam quam sphæram nominant? A. Novi. R. Æque utrumque nosti, an aliud alio magis aut minus? A. Æque prorsus. Nam in utroque nihil fallor. R. Quid hæc, sensibusne percepisti, an intellectu? A. Imo sensus in hoc negotio quasi navim sum expertus. Nam cum ipsi me ad locum quo tendebam pervexe rint, ubi eos dimisi, et jam velut in solo positus cœpi cogitatione ista volvere, diu mihi vestigia titubarunt. Quare citius mihi vidctur in terra posse navigari, quam geometricam sensibus percipi, quamvis primo discentes aliquantum adjuvare videantur. R. Ergo istarum rerum disciplinam, si qua tibi est, non dubi tas vocari scientiam? A. Non, si Stoici sinant, qui scientiam tribuunt nulli, nisi sapienti. Perceptionem sane istorum me habere non nego, quam etiam stul titiæ concedunt: sed nec istos Quidquam pertimesco. Prorsus hæc quæ interrogasti scientia teneo: perge modo; videam quorsum ista quæris. R. Ne propcra, otiosi sumus. Intentus tantum accipe, ne quid temere concedas. Gaudentem te studeo reddere de rebus qui bus nullum casum pertimescas, et quasi parvum ne gotium sit, præcipitare jubes? A. Ita Deus faxit, ut dicis. Itaque arbitrio tuo rogato, et objurgato gravius, si quidquam tale posthac. R. Ergo lineam in duas lineas per longum scindi, manifestum tibi est nullo modo posse? A. Ma nifestum. R. Quid, transversim? A. Quid, nisi infi nite secari posse? R. Quid, sphaeram ex una qualibet parte a medio, ne duos quidem pares circulos habere posse pariter lucet? A. Pariter omnino. R. Quid linea et sphæra? unumne aliquid tibi videntur esse, an quid qnam inter se differunt? A. Quis non videat differre plurimum? R. At si æque illud atque hoc nosti, et ta men inter se, ut fateris, plurimum differunt, cst ergo differentium rerum scientia indifferens? A. Quis enim negavit? R. Tu paulo ante. Nam cum te rogassem quomodo velis Deum nosse, ut possis dicere, Satis cst; respondisti te ideo nequire hoc explicare, quia nihil haberes perceptum, similiter atquc Deum cupis percipere, nihil enim te scire Deo simile. Quid crgo nunc? linea vel sphæra similes sunt? A. Quis hoc di xerit? R. Sed ego quaesiveram, non quid tale scires, sed quid scires sic, quomodo Deum scire desideras. Sic enim nosti lineam ut nosti sphæram, cum se non sic habeat linea ut se habet sphæra. Quamobrem re spondc utrum tibi salis sit sic Deum nosse, ut pilam illam geometricam nosti; hoc est, ita de Deo nihil, ut de illa, dubitare.

But what is that to us? Now answer this: if what Plato and Plotinus said about God is true, is it enough for you to know God as they knew him? A. It does not follow that, if what they said is true, they must also have known it. For many speak copiously of what they do not know, as I myself said that I desired to know all the things I prayed for, which I would not desire if I already knew them; was I any less able to say them for that? For I said not what I had grasped by intellect but what I had gathered from every quarter and committed to memory, and to which I gave as much faith as I could; but knowing is something else. R. Tell me, please, do you at least know in the discipline of geometry what a line is? A. That I plainly know. R. And in professing this you do not fear the Academics? A. Not at all. For they would not have the wise man err; but I am not wise. So I do not yet fear to profess knowledge of the things I know. But if, as I desire, I come to wisdom, I will do what it advises. R. I do not object at all. But, as I had begun to ask, as you know a line, do you also know the ball which they call a sphere? A. I know it. R. Do you know both equally, or one more or less than the other? A. Exactly equally; for in neither am I deceived. R. These things, did you perceive them by the senses or by the intellect? A. Rather, in this business I have found the senses to be like a ship. For when they had carried me to the place I was heading for, where I dismissed them and, as if set on solid ground, began to turn these things over in thought, my footsteps long staggered. So it seems to me that one could sooner sail on land than perceive geometry by the senses, although they seem to help beginners somewhat. R. Then you do not hesitate to call the discipline of these things, if you have it, knowledge? A. No, if the Stoics allow it, who attribute knowledge to no one but the wise man. I do not deny that I have the perception of these things, which they grant even to folly; but I do not fear them at all either. I hold these things you asked about by knowledge: go on now; let me see where you are going with these questions. R. Do not hurry; we are at leisure. Only listen attentively, lest you grant anything rashly. I am trying to make you rejoice over things in which you need fear no mishap, and you bid me rush headlong, as though it were a small matter? A. May God bring it about as you say. So question me at your discretion, and rebuke me more severely if I do anything of the kind hereafter. R. Then is it clear to you that a line can in no way be split lengthwise into two lines? A. It is clear. R. What about crosswise? A. What else, but that it can be cut infinitely? R. And is it equally clear that a sphere, cut from the center on any one side you please, cannot have even two equal circles? A. Entirely equally. R. What about a line and a sphere: do they seem to you to be one thing, or do they differ at all from each other? A. Who does not see that they differ very greatly? R. But if you know this and that equally, and yet, as you admit, they differ greatly from each other, then there is an undifferentiated knowledge of different things? A. Who denied it? R. You, a little while ago. For when I asked how you wished to know God, so that you could say, “It is enough,” you answered that you could not explain this because you had perceived nothing in the way you desire to perceive God, for you knew nothing like God. What now, then? Are a line and a sphere alike? A. Who would say that? R. But I had asked not what you knew that was like him, but what you knew in the way you desire to know God. For you know a line as you know a sphere, though a line is not as a sphere is. Therefore answer whether it is enough for you to know God as you know that geometrical ball; that is, to doubt nothing about God, as you doubt nothing about it.

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason uses the geometer's line and sphere to show that very different things can be known with equal certainty, and asks whether Augustine would be content to know God in that way.

The Academics held that the wise man assents to nothing, so as never to err; the Stoics granted knowledge (scientia) only to the wise man and allowed mere ‘perception’ to the foolish.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; leaked footnote digit; stray mark): libi est → tibi est; inte!-. lectu → intellectu; linea i A. → linea? A.; carum rerum → earum rerum; facinm → faciam; cocperam → coeperam; solo positus 1 → solo positus; Ergc → Ergo; faxir, ut. → faxit, ut; arbitrio.tuo → arbitrio tuo; nifestom → nifestum; faleris → fateris; rcrutn scicntia → rerum scientia; linca vcl → linea vel; Iiabeat → habeat; babet → habet; lIosti → nosti.

Extrabiblical texts: Plotinus (Plotinus, Enneads; allusion)

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.4 (PL 32:873–875; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.5PL 32:875

A. Quæso te, quamvis vehementer urgeas at que convincas, non audeo tamen dicere ita me velle Deum scire, ut haec scio. Non solum enim res, sed ipsa etiam scicntia mihi videtur esse dissimilis Primo, quia nec linea et pila tantum inter se differunt, ut ta men corum cognitionem una disciplina non contineat: nullus autem gcometres Deum se docere professus est. Deinde, si Dei et istarum rerum scientia par cs set, tantum gauderem quod ista novi, quantum me Deo cognito gavisurum esse præsumo. Nunc autem permultum hæc in illius comparatione contemno, ut nonnunquam vidcatur mihi si illum intellexero, et modo illo quo videri potest videro, haec omnia de mea notitia esse peritura: siquidem nunc prae illius amore jam vix mihi veniunt in mentem. R. Esto plus tc ac multo plus quam de istis Deo cognito gavisurum, re rum tamen non intellectus dissimilitudine: nisi forte alio visu terram, alio serenum coelum intueris, cum ta mcn multo plus illius quam hujus aspectus te permul cent. Oculi autem si non falluntur, credo te interro gatum utrum tibi tam certum sit terram te videre quam coelum, tam tibi certum esse respondere de here, quamvis non lam terrae quam caeli pulchritu dioc atque splendore læteris. A. Movet me, fateor, hæc similitudo, adducorque ut assentiar quantum in suo generc a coelo terram, tantum ab intelligibili Dei majestate spectamina illa disciplinarum vera et certa differre.

A. I beg you: however vehemently you press and convince me, I still do not dare to say that I wish to know God as I know these things. For not only the objects but the knowledge itself seems to me unlike. First, because the line and the ball do not differ so much from each other that one discipline does not contain the knowledge of both; but no geometer has professed to teach God. Next, if the knowledge of God and of these things were equal, I would rejoice as much that I know these things as I presume I shall rejoice when God is known. But as it is, I despise these things so greatly in comparison with him that it sometimes seems to me that, if I understand him and see him in the way in which he can be seen, all these will perish from my awareness; since even now, for love of him, they scarcely come into my mind. R. Granted that you will rejoice more, and much more, when God is known than over these things, yet that will be because of a difference in the objects, not in the understanding; unless perhaps you look at the earth with one kind of sight and at the clear sky with another, though the sight of the sky delights you much more than that of the earth. But if the eyes are not deceived, I believe that if you were asked whether you are as certain that you see the earth as that you see the sky, you would have to answer that you are equally certain, although you do not delight in the beauty and splendor of the earth as much as in those of the sky. A. This comparison moves me, I confess, and I am led to agree that as the earth differs in its kind from the sky, so those true and certain objects of the disciplines differ from the intelligible majesty of God.

Notes and citation

Summary: Augustine protests that knowing God must differ from knowing geometry, and Reason answers that the certainty can be the same though the objects and the joy differ, as with seeing earth and sky.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip): i; sa etiam → ipsa etiam; nee linea → nec linea; dilrerunt → differunt; Dcindc → Deinde; scicutia → scientia; iiac ornnia → haec omnia; pr;u illius → prae illius; inleUeclus → intellectus; certulo → certum; m jestate → majestate.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.5 (PL 32:875; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.6PL 32:875

R. Bene moveris. Promittit enim ratio quæ te cum loquitur, ita se demonstraturam Deum tuæ menti, utoculis sol demonstratur. Nam mentis quasi sui sunt oculi sensus animæ; disciplinarum autem quaque certissima talia sunt, qualia illa quae sole illustrantur, ut videri possint, veluti terra est atque terrena om uia: Deus autem est ipse qui illustrat. Ego autem ra tio ita sum in mentibus, ut in oculis est aspectus. Non cnim hoc est habere oculos quod aspicere; aut item hoc est aspicere quod videre. Ergo animæ tribus qui busdam rebus opus est ut oculos habeat quibus jam bene uti possit, ut aspiciat, ut videat. Oculi sani mens est ab omni labe corporis pura, id est, a cupiditati bus rerum mortalium jam remota atquc purgata: quod ei nihil aliud præstat quam fides primo. Quod cnim adhuc ei demonstrari non potest vitiis inquinatæ at que ægrotanti, quia videre nequit nisi sana, si non credat aliter se non esse visuram, non dal operam suæ sanitati. Sed quid, si credat quidcm ita se rem habere ut dicitur, atque ita sc, si videre potuerit, esse visuram, sanari se tamen posse desperet; nonne se prorsus abjicit atque contemnit, nec praeceptis medici obtemperat? A. Omnino ita est, presertim quia ea praecepta necesse est ut morbus dura sentiat. R. Ergo fidei spes adjicicnda est. A. Ita credo. R. Quid, si et credat ita se habere omnia, et se speret posse sanari, ipsam tamen quae promittitur lucem non amet, non desideret, suisque tenebris, quæ jam consuetudine jucundæ sunt, se arbitretur debere interim esse con tentam; nonne medicum illum nihilominus respuit? A. Prorsus ita est. R. Ergo tertia charitas necessaria cst. A. Nihil omnino tam necessarium. R. Sine tribus istis igitur anima nulla sanatur, ut possit Deum suum videre, id est intelligere. Cum ergo sanos habuerit oculos, quid restat? A. Ut aspiciat. R. Aspectus animae, ratio est: sed quia non sequitur ut omnis qui aspicit videat, aspectus rectus atque perfectus, id est quum visio sequitur, virtus vocatur; est enim virtus vel recta vel perfecta ratio. Sed et ipse aspectus quamvis jam sanos oculos convertere in lucem non potest, nisi tria illa perma neant: fides, qua credat ita se rem habere, ad quam convertendus aspectus est, ut visa faciat beatum; spes quo cum bene aspexerit, se visurum esse praesumat; charitas, qua videre perfruique desideret. Jam aspe rlum sequitur ipsa visio Dei, qui est finis aspectus; non quod jam non sit, sed quod nihil amplius habeat quo se intendat: et hæc est vere perfecta virtus, ra tio perveniens ad finem suum, quam beata vita con-, sequitur. Ipsa autcm visio, intellectus cst ille qui in anima est, qui conficitur ex intelligente et eo quod intelligitur: ut in oculis vidcre quod dicitur, ex ipso sensu constat atque sensibili, quorum detracto quoli bct, videri nihil potest.

R. You are rightly moved. For Reason, who speaks with you, promises to demonstrate God to your mind as the sun is demonstrated to the eyes. For the mind has, as it were, its own eyes, the senses of the soul; and the most certain truths of the disciplines are like the things lit by the sun so that they can be seen, such as the earth and all earthly things; but God is himself the one who illuminates. And I, Reason, am in minds as sight is in eyes. For to have eyes is not the same as to look, nor again is to look the same as to see. Therefore the soul needs three things: that it have eyes which it can now use well, that it look, and that it see. A healthy eye is a mind pure from every stain of the body, that is, already removed and cleansed from the desires of mortal things; and nothing gives it this, to begin with, but faith. For what cannot yet be shown to it while it is stained with vices and sick (since it cannot see unless healthy), if it does not believe that otherwise it will not see, it does not attend to its own health. But what if it believes that the matter is as stated, and that it will see if it can come to see, yet despairs of being able to be healed: does it not cast itself away entirely and despise itself, and not obey the physician's precepts? A. That is entirely so, especially because illness must feel those precepts to be harsh. R. So to faith hope must be added. A. So I believe. R. What if it both believes that all is so and hopes it can be healed, yet does not love or desire the very light that is promised, and thinks it ought meanwhile to be content with its own darkness, which by habit has become pleasant: does it not reject that physician nonetheless? A. Exactly so. R. So, third, love is necessary. A. Nothing at all is so necessary. R. Without these three, then, no soul is healed so that it can see, that is, understand, its God.

When, then, it has healthy eyes, what remains? A. That it look. R. The soul's look is reason; but since it does not follow that everyone who looks sees, a right and perfect look, that is, one which sight follows, is called virtue; for virtue is right or perfect reason. But the look itself, even when the eyes are healthy, cannot turn toward the light unless those three remain: faith, by which it believes that the thing toward which the look must be turned is such that, when seen, it makes one happy; hope, by which it presumes that it will see if it looks well; love, by which it desires to see and to enjoy. Then upon the look follows the very vision of God, which is the end of looking: not that looking no longer exists, but that it has nothing further to strain toward. And this is truly perfect virtue, reason reaching its end, upon which the happy life follows. And that vision is the understanding which is in the soul, made up of the one who understands and what is understood; as in the eyes what is called seeing consists of the sense itself and the sensible thing, and if either is removed nothing can be seen.

1 Cor 13:13 (echo, medium confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason compares knowing God to the sun lighting what the eye sees, and explains that the soul needs healthy eyes, looking and seeing, and that faith, hope and love are required for its healing.

Faith, hope and love echo 1 Cor 13:13. The numeral ‘13’ in the digital text is Migne's paragraph number.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; leaked footnote digit; leaked paragraph number): uculi → oculi; animæ1; → animæ;; terr:, est → terra est; mens est 2 ab → mens est ab; rcrummortalium → rerum mortalium; osse visuram → esse visuram; se reu, hahere → se rem habere; tamrv → tamen; sanat i, → sanari,; ncn desideret → non desideret; Epgo → Ergo; is: is igitur → istis igitur; i3. Cum → Cum; aspici! videat → aspicit videat; couvertere → convertere; hxc est → hæc est.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.6 (PL 32:875; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.7PL 32:875–877

Ergo cum animae Deum videre, hoc est Deum intelligere contigerit, videamus utrum adhuc ci tria illa sint necessaria. Fides quare sit necessaria, cum jam videat? Spes nihilominus, quia jam tenet. Cha ritati vero non solum nihil detrahetur, sed addetur etiam plurimum. Nam et illam singularem veramque pulchritudinem cum viderit, plus amabit; et nisi in genti amore oculum infixerit, nec ab aspiciendo us piam declinaverit, manere in illa beatissima visione non poterit. Sed dum in hoc corpore est anima, etiam si plenissime videat, hoc est intelligat Deum; tamen, quia etiam corporis sensus utuntur opere proprio, si nihil quidem valent ad fallendum, non tamen nihil ad non ambigendum, potest adhuc dici fides ea qua his resistitur, et illud potius verum esse creditur. Item quia in ista vita, quanquam Deo intellecto anima jam beata sit; tamen, quia multas molestias corporis sustinet, sperandum cst ei post mortem omnia isla incommoda non futura. Ergo nec spes, dum in hac est vita, ani mam deserit. Sed cum post hanc vitam tota se in Deum collegerit, charitas restat qua ibi teneatur. Nam neque dicenda est fidem habere quod illa sint vera, quando nulla falsorum interpellatione sollicitatur; neque quidquam sperandum ei restat, cum totum se cura possideat. Tria igitur ad animam pertinent, ut sana sit, ut aspiciat, ut videat. Alia vero tria. fides, spes et charitas, primo illorum trium et secundo sem per sunt necessaria: tertio vero in hac vita, omnia; post hanc vitam, sola charitas.

So when it befalls the soul to see God, that is, to understand God, let us see whether those three are still necessary to it. Why should faith be necessary, when it already sees? Nor hope, since it already holds. But from love not only will nothing be taken away, but very much will even be added. For when it has seen that singular and true beauty, it will love more; and unless it fixes its eye on it with immense love and never turns aside from beholding it, it will not be able to remain in that most blessed vision. But while the soul is in this body, even if it sees, that is, understands, God most fully, yet because the bodily senses also do their own work (if they have no power to deceive, yet they are not without power to cause doubt), that may still be called faith by which they are resisted and the other is believed rather to be true. Likewise, because in this life, although the soul is already happy when God is understood, yet since it bears many troubles of the body, it must hope that after death all these inconveniences will not exist. So neither does hope desert the soul while it is in this life. But when after this life it has gathered itself wholly in God, love remains, by which it is held there. For it cannot be said to have faith that those things are true, when it is troubled by no interference of falsehoods; nor does anything remain for it to hope for, since it securely possesses the whole. Three things, therefore, pertain to the soul: that it be healthy, that it look, and that it see. And the other three, faith, hope and love, are always necessary for the first and second of those three; but for the third, in this life all of them are; after this life, love alone.

1 Cor 13:13 (echo, medium confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason explains that once the soul sees God, faith and hope are no longer needed and only love remains, though in this life all three are still required.

Echoes 1 Cor 13:8–13 (love remains when faith and hope pass).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray mark): amabiL → amabit; inOxcrit → infixerit; ambigendum I, → ambigendum,; ista viia → ista vita; nlullas → multas; in fen!!! → in Deum; N.m neque → Nam neque; suot → sunt.

Topics: Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.7 (PL 32:875–877; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.8PL 32:877

Nunc accipe, quantum praesens tempus expo scit, ex illa similitudine sensibilium etiam de Deo aliquid nunc me docente. Intelligibilis nempe Deus est, intelligibilia etiam illa disciplinarum spectamina: tamen plurimum differunt. Nam et terra visibilis, et lux; sed terra, nisi luce illustrata, videri non potest. Ergo et illa quæ in disciplinis traduntur, quæ quis quis intelligit, verissima esse nulla dubitatione con cedit, credendum est ea non posse intelligi, nisi ab alio quasi suo sole illustrentur. Ergo quomodo in hoc sole tria quædam licet animadvertere; quod est, quod fulget, quod illuminat: ita in illo secretissimo Deo quem vis intelligere, tria quædam sunt; quod est, quod intelligitur, et quod cætera facit intelligi. Hæc duo, id est, teipsum et Deum, ut intelligas, docere te audeo. Sed responde quomodo hæc acceperis; ut pro babilia, an ut vera? A. Plane ut probabilia; et in spem. quod fatendum est, majorem surrexi: nam praeter illa duo de linea et pila, nihil abs te dictum est quod me scire audeam dicere. R. Non est mirandum: non enim quidquam cst adhuc ita expositum, ut abs te sit flagitanda perceptio.

Now receive, as far as the present time requires, something about God too, as I teach you from that comparison with sensible things. God is intelligible, and those objects of the disciplines are intelligible too; yet they differ very greatly. For the earth is visible, and so is light; but the earth cannot be seen unless lit by light. So too those things which are taught in the disciplines, which anyone who understands them grants without any doubt to be most true, must be believed to be incapable of being understood unless they are lit by another, as by their own sun. Therefore, as in this sun one may notice three things, that it is, that it shines, and that it illuminates, so in that most hidden God whom you wish to understand there are three things: that he is, that he is understood, and that he makes other things to be understood. I dare to teach you to understand these two, that is, yourself and God. But answer: how have you received these things, as probable or as true? A. Plainly as probable; and I have risen, I must confess, to greater hope; for apart from those two things about the line and the ball, nothing has been said by you that I would dare to say I know. R. That is no wonder; for nothing has yet been so set out that perception should be demanded of you.

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason teaches that as the sun is, shines and illuminates, so God is, is understood, and makes other things understood, and Augustine accepts this as probable.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; OCR slip and leaked footnote digit): tempos → tempus; il!a → illa; docentc1. → docente.; qux in disciplinis → quæ in disciplinis; vcrissima → verissima; dubitaLionc → dubitatione; Uia quædam → tria quædam; tria quxdam → tria quædam; doccre → docere; ut vcra? → ut vera?; nibil abs → nihil abs; ila cxpositum → ita expositum.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.8 (PL 32:877; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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1.9PL 32:877

Sed quid moramur? Aggredicnda est via: vi deamus tamen, quod præcedit omnia, utrum sani simus. A. Hoc tu videris, si vel in te, vel in me ali quantum aspicere potes: ego quaerenti, si quid sentio, respondebo. R. Amasne aliquid præter tui Deique scientiam? A. Possem respondere, nihil me amare amplius, pro eo sensu qui mihi nunc est; sed tutius respondeo nescire me. Nam sæpe mihi usu venit ut cum alia nulla re me crederem commoveri, veniret tamen aliquid in mentem, quod me multo aliter atque præsumpseram pungeret. Item sepe, quamvis in co gitationem res aliqua incidens non me pervellerit, re. vera tamen vcniens perturbavit plus quam putabam: sed modo videor mihi tribus tantum rebus posse com movcri: metu amissionis eorum quos diligo, metu do loris, metu mortis. R. Amas ergo et vitam tecum clia rissimorum tuorum, ct bonam valetudincm tuam, el vi tam tuam ipsam in hoc corpore? neque enim aliter amis sionem horum metueres. A. Fateor, ita est. R. Modo ergo, quod non omnes tecum sunt amici tui, ct quod tua valetudo minus integra est, facit animo nonnul lam ægritudinem: nam et id esse consequens video. A. Recte vides; negare non possum. R. Quid, si te repente sano esse corpore sentias et probes, tecum- ' que omnes quos diligis concorditer, liberali otio frui videas, nonne aliquantum tibi etiam lætitia gestiendum est? A. Vere aliquantum; imo, si hæc præsertim, ut dicis, repente provenerint, quando me capiam, quando id genus gaudii vel dissimulare permittar? R. Omnibus igitur adhuc morbis animi et perturbationibus agita ris. Quænam ergo talium oculorum impudentia cst, velle illum solem videre? A. Ita conclusisti quasi prorsus non sentiam quantum sanitas mea promove. rit, aut quid pestium recesserit, quantumque restiterit. Fac me istud concedere.

But why do we delay? The road must be taken. Let us see, however, first of all (for this comes before everything), whether we are healthy. A. You will see to this, if you can discern anything either in yourself or in me; I will answer what I feel when you ask. R. Do you love anything besides the knowledge of yourself and of God? A. I could answer that I love nothing more, judging by the feeling I have now; but it is safer to answer that I do not know. For it has often happened to me that when I believed I was moved by nothing else, something nevertheless came into my mind which stung me far otherwise than I had presumed. Likewise, often, though some matter occurring to my thought did not disturb me, yet when it came in reality it troubled me more than I thought. But at present I seem to myself capable of being moved by three things only: by fear of losing those I love, by fear of pain, and by fear of death. R. So you love both the life of your dearest ones with you, and your own good health, and your very life in this body; for otherwise you would not fear losing these. A. I admit it is so. R. So at present, the fact that not all your friends are with you, and that your health is less than sound, causes your mind some distress; for I see that this follows too. A. You see rightly; I cannot deny it. R. What if you suddenly felt and found yourself sound in body, and saw all whom you love with you in harmony, enjoying liberal leisure: would you not have to leap somewhat for joy? A. Truly, somewhat; indeed, especially if these things came about suddenly, as you say, how could I contain myself, how could I be allowed even to hide joy of that kind? R. You are still, then, tossed by all the diseases and disturbances of the mind. What impudence, then, for such eyes to wish to see that sun! A. You have concluded as though I had no sense at all of how far my health has advanced, or how much of the plague has receded and how much remains. Suppose I grant you this.

Notes and citation

Summary: Reason tests whether Augustine is healthy enough to see God, and he admits he is still moved by fear of losing friends, of pain, and of death.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR slip; OCR slip and joined words): sani si. nius → sani simus; aspiccre → aspicere; nibil me amare → nihil me amare; pro co sensu → pro eo sensu; credercm → crederem; quod IDe multo → quod me multo; Videor mihi iribus → videor mihi tribus; corpore t neque enimaliter → corpore? neque enim aliter; qnod non omnes → quod non omnes; si td repente → si te repente; nonncaliquantum → nonne aliquantum; si hse c præsertim, ut die cis → si hæc præsertim, ut dicis; quandn id → quando id; Omnibtis → Omnibus; conclusisti quan prorsus → conclusisti quasi prorsus.

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Sol. 1.9 (PL 32:877; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-soliloquia/1-1/#p-1-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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