AND ST. AUGUSTINE'S IMAGE OF HAPPINESS

BY

R. J. O'CONNELL S.J.

I. Introductory A. AUGUSTINE'S PLOTINIANISM AND A QUESTION OF NUMBER

When St. Augustine tells us in his Confessions that while at Milan he read some Platonic books in the Latin translation of Marius Victorinus, it now seems certain that he is referring at least to ' Enneads'! How many Plotinian treatises did he read before his conversion? The problem here remains complex; but the persist- ing opinion that he read some work or works of in addition to what he read in Plotinus seems linked with the tacit supposition that the number of Plotinian treatises read were relatively few - paucissimi libri- thus leaving a surplus of Neo-Platonic elements to be accounted for by invoking another source. But if those themes thought to be Porphyrian can adequately - at times even more adequately - be explained by appeal to Plotinus, then Occam's razor would dispense with all Porphyrian influence at the time of Augustine's conversion. Attributing those themes to Plotinus re- quires, however, that we justify enlarging the tight circle of treatises normally included in Augustine's readings at Milan. We have already attempted to present some of the evidence for such an enlargement.2 It consists briefly in showing that examination

1 Challenged by W. Theiler (Porphyrios und Augustin, Halle, 1933), who claimed Augustine read only Porphyry, this view has once again received general acceptance since P. Henry's Plotin et l'Occident (henceforth : Plotin), Louvain, 1934; see J. J. O'Meara's appraisal of the question in "Augustine and Neo-", Recherches Augustiniennes I, Paris, 1958, p. 91-111, as well as A. Solignac's introduction and notes to Les Confessions, Bibliothèque Augustinienne series, no. 13 & 14, Paris, 1962 (henceforth: Confessions). Both authors, along with P. Courcelle, believe the young Augustine read Porphyry in addition to,-not to the exclusion of-Plotinus. 2 "(Ennead VI, 4-5 in the works of St. Augustine", Revue des Etude Augustiniennes, IX, 1963, p. 1-39 (on the paucissimi libri question, see notes 14 and 15); and "The Plotinian Fall of the Soul in Saint Augustine", Traditio, 19 (1963), p. 1- 35. / 129 130 of certain parallels in Augustine's work on the one hand, and Plotinus' on the other, reveals not only the same language, but, more decisively in our view, the same pattern and cohesion of image and thought-connection at work on both sides: these "parallel patterns", we have suggested, raise at least a very strong presumption that quite early in his career Augustine manifests the influence not only of Enneads I, 6, III, 2-3, IV, 3-5, V, 1, and I, 4, but also of treatises VI, 4-5 on Omnipresence, III, 7 on Eternity and Time, IV, 8 on the Descent of the V, 8 on Intelligible Beauty and very probably others as well.3 Further, the evidence points to his having adopted the Plotinian anthropology whereby man is a soul fallen into the body in consequence of some sin committed in his pre-existent state.

B. METHODOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS

1. Testing a hypothesis : the criterion o "explanatory value" Fragmentary linguistic parallels are one thing; doctrinal parallels still another. Once such "parallel patterns" as we speak of have been uncovered, however, there may still remain some doubt as to whether real influence of one author on the other has adequately

3 A. H. Armstrong has contended that the Augustinian exegesis of the ``Heaven of heavens" reflects the doctrine of Ennead II, 4 on the Two kinds ofMatter, but vested in the language of several other treatises; we are inclined to agree with his conclusions there, and our "pattern-method" owes much to the methodological implicits operative in his study: "Spiritual or intelligible in Plotinus and St. Augustine" in Augustins Magister (henceforth - AM), Paris, 1954, vol. I, p. 277-283. G. Verbeke has argued persuasively for an influence of Ennead IV, 7 on the Immortality of the Soul, detectable in Augustine's treatise of the same name; see his "Spiritualit6 et immortalit6 de Fame chez saint Augustin", in AM, I, p. 329-334, and the corroborative evidence we adduce in note 40 of our Traditio article cited in note 2. Solignac, Op. cit. supra, suggests (Introduction, p. 111, note 2; cf. pp. 688-9) adding J MtecM V, 3 and VI, 9 to the list, and we shall offer some corroboration for that view; his further suggestion of Ennead VI, 6 is attractive, but that involving Ennead V, 2 appears to us not impossible but perhaps more difficult to substantiate. In brief the current tendency (we have given only a few examples of it) seems to be toward reinstating the "long lists" of influential Enneads proposed by writers like Bouillet, Grand- george, Alfaric and N6rregaard, though (hopefully) with a more critical presentation of the evidence than pre-Theiler authors felt obliged to manifest. In view of this trend, then, the question arises: is Porphyry really necessary ?P