* * * * *

ST. AUGUSTINE

Confessions

Aurelius Augustine was born at Tagaste, a city of Numidia, on November 13, 354.  This greatest of the Latin Christian Fathers was the son of a magistrate named Patricius, who was a pagan till near the close of his life.  Augustine was sent to school at Madaura, and next to study at Carthage.  His mother, Monica, early became an ardent Christian, and her saintly influence guided the youth towards the light; but entanglement in philosophic doubts constrained him to associate with the Manichaeans, and then with the Platonists.  His mental struggles lasted eleven years.  Going to Rome to teach rhetoric, he was invited to Milan to lecture, and there was attracted by the eloquent preaching of Bishop Ambrose.  His whole current of thought was changed, and the two became ardent friends.  In 391, Augustine was ordained priest by Valerius, Bishop of Hippo, whose colleague he was appointed in 395.  At the age of 41, he was designated Bishop of Hippo, and filled the office for 35 years, passing away in his 76th year, on August 28, 430, during the third year of the siege of Hippo by the Vandals under Genseric.  His numerous and remarkable works stamp him as one of the world’s transcendent intellects.  His two monumental treatises are the “Confessions” and “The City of God.”

I.—­Regrets of a Mis-spent Youth

“Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised.”  My faith, Lord, should call on Thee, which Thou hast given me by the incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the preacher, Ambrose.  How shall I call upon my God?  What room is there within me, wherein my God can come?  Narrow is the house of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that it may be able to receive Thee.  Thou madest us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

I began, as yet a boy, to pray to Thee, that I might not be beaten at school; but I sinned in disobeying the commands of parents and teachers through love of play, delighting in the pride of victory in my contests.  I loved not study, and hated to be forced to it.  Unless forced, I did not learn at all.  But no one does well against his will, even though what he does is good.  But what was well came to me from Thee, my God, for Thou hast decreed that every inordinate affection should carry with it its own punishment.

But why did I so much hate the Greek which I was taught as a boy?  I do not yet fully know.  For the Latin I loved; not what my first masters, but what the so-called grammarians taught me.  For those first lessons—­reading, writing, and arithmetic—­I thought as great a burden and as vexatious as any Greek.  But in the other lessons I learned the wanderings of AEneas, forgetful of my own, and wept for the dead Dido because she killed herself for love; while, with dry eyes, I endured my miserable self-dying among these things, far from Thee, my God, my life.