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TITLE: SAINT AUGUSTIN
AUTHOR: LOUIS BERTRAND
EBOOK: E07136 (O'Briens Book Cellar)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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, _frere 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 qua 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 pretexte qu'elle empechait mon
    mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps,
    la ou mon coeur etait attache au sien, il se dechira, et je trainais
    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

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