The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand
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You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Saint Augustin Author: Louis Bertrand Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9069] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 2, 2003] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders SAINT AUGUSTIN BY LOUIS BERTRAND TRANSLATED BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The quotations from Saint Augustin's _Confessions_ are taken from Canon Bigg's scholarly version, which seems to me the best in English. But there are places where M. Bertrand's reading of the original text differs from Dr. Bigg's, and in such cases I have felt myself obliged to follow the author of this book. These differences never seriously affect the meaning of a passage; sometimes it is a mere matter of choice, as with the word _collactaneum_ (i, 7) which Dr. Bigg translates "twin," and M. Bertrand, like Pusey, _frère de lait_, or "foster-brother." As a rule, Dr. Bigg chooses the quietest terms, and M. Bertrand the most forcible. Those curious in such matters may like to see an instance. The original text runs:-- Avulsa a latere meo tanquam impedimento conjugii, cum qu cubare solitus eram, cor ubi adhaerebat, concisum et vulneratum mihi erat, et trahebat sanguinem. (_Confessiones_, vi, 15.) M. Bertrand translates:-- Quand on arracha de mes flancs, sous prétexte qu'elle empêchait mon mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps, l oø mon coeur Øtait attachØ au sien, il se dØchira, et je tranais mon sang avec ma blessure. Canon Bigg's version is:-- My mistress was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage, and my heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded till it bled. In this place, it will be observed that Dr. Bigg does not emphasize the word _ubi_ which, as the reader will find on turning to page 185 of this volume, M. Bertrand thinks so significant. The remaining English versions of the writings of Saint Augustin and of the other Latin authors quoted are my own, except the passages from _The City of God_, including the verse translation of Persius, which are taken, with some necessary alterations, from the Seventeenth century translation ascribed to John Healey. V. O'S. CONTENTS CHAPTER PROLOGUE THE FIRST PART DAYS OF CHILDHOOD I. AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME II. THE FAMILY OF A SAINT III. THE COMFORT OF THE MILK IV. THE FIRST GAMES V. THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA VI. THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE THE SECOND PART THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE I. CARTHAGO VENERIS II. THE AFRICAN ROME III. THE CARTHAGE STUDENT IV. THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS V. THE SILENCE OF GOD THE THIRD PART THE RETURN I. THE CITY OF GOLD II. THE FINAL DISILLUSION III. THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN IV. PLANS OF MARRIAGE V. THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN THE FOURTH PART THE HIDDEN LIFE I. THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE II. THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA III. THE MONK OF THAGASTE IV. AUGUSTIN A PRIEST THE FIFTH PART THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY I. THE BISHOP OF HIPPO II. WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE III. THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN IV. AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" THE SIXTH PART FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS I. THE SACK OF ROME II. THE CITY OF GOD III. THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION IV. SAINT AUGUSTIN INDEX SAINT AUGUSTIN PROLOGUE Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. "Our heart finds no rest until it rests in Thee." _Confessions_, I, i. Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his _Confessions_ are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal--has that affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: "The party of Jansen," even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he said: "The party of Donatus." It must be acknowledged also that the very sight of his works is terrifying, whether we take the enormous folios in two columns of the Benedictine edition, or the volumes, almost as compact, and much more numerous, of recent editions. Behind such a rampart of printed matter he is well defended against profane curiosity. It needs courage and perseverance to penetrate into this labyrinth of text, all bristling with theology and exegesis and metaphysics. But only cross the threshold of the repellent enclosure, grow used to the order and shape of the building, and it will not be long ere you are overcome by a warm sympathy, and then by a steadily increasing admiration for the host who dwells there. The hieratic face of the old bishop lights up, becomes strangely living, almost modern, in expression. You discover under the text one of the most passionate lives, most busy and richest in instruction, that history has to shew. What it teaches is applicable to ourselves, answers to our interests of yesterday and to-day. This existence, and the century in which it was passed, recall our own century and ourselves. The return of similar circumstances has brought similar situations and characters; it is almost our portrait. And we feel half ready to conclude that at the present moment there is no subject more actual than St. Augustin. At least he is one of the most interesting. What, indeed, is more romantic than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage, from Carthage to Milan and to Rome--begun in the pleasures and tumult of great cities, and ending in the penitence, the silence, and recollection of a monastery? And again, what drama is more full of colour and more profitable to consider than that last agony of the Empire, of which Augustin was a spectator, and, with all his heart faithful to Rome, would have prevented if he could? And then, what tragedy more stirring and painful than the crisis of soul and conscience which tore his life? Well may it be said that, regarded as a whole, the life of Augustin was but a continual spiritual struggle, a battle of the soul. It is the battle of every moment, the never-ceasing combat of body and spirit, which the poets of that time dramatized, and which is the history of the Christian of all times. The stake of the battle is a soul. The upshot is the final triumph, the redemption of a soul. What makes the life of Augustin so complete and so truly typical is that he fought the good fight, not only against himself, but against all the enemies of the Church and the Empire. If he was a doctor and a saint, so was he too the type of the man of action in one of the most disheartened periods. That he triumphed over his passions--this, in truth, concerns only God and himself. That he preached, wrote, shook crowds, disturbed minds, may seem without importance to those who reject his doctrine. But that across the centuries his soul, afire with charity, continues to warm our own; that without our knowledge he still shapes us; and that, in a way more or less remote, he is still the master of our hearts, and, in certain aspects, of our minds--there is what touches each and all of us, without distinction. Not only has Augustin always his great place in the living communion of all christened people, but the Western soul is marked with the stamp of his soul. First of all, his fate is confused with that of the dying Empire. He witnessed, if not the utter disappearance, at least the gradual swooning away of that admirable thing called the Roman Empire, image of Catholic unity. Well, we are the wreckage of the Empire. Usually, we turn away with contempt from those wretched centuries which underwent the descents of the Barbarians.