{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/101/1010310.htm","path":"chr/ecf/101/1010310.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/101/1010310.htm","text":"To Nebridius Augustin Sends Greeting. 1444\n1. Whether I am to regard it as the effect of what I may call your flattering language, or whether the thing be really so, is a point which I am unable to decide. For the impression was sudden, and I am not yet resolved how far it deserves to be believed. You wonder what this can be. What do you think? You have almost made me believe, not indeed that I am happy\u2014for that is the heritage of the wise alone\u2014but that I am at least in a sense happy: as we apply the designation man to beings who deserve the name only in a sense if compared with Plato\u2019s ideal man, or speak of things which we see as round or square, although they differ widely from the perfect figure which is discerned by the mind of a few. I read your letter beside my lamp after supper: immediately after which I lay down, but not at once to sleep; for on my bed I meditated long, and talked thus with myself\u2014Augustin addressing and answering Augustin: \u201cIs it not true, as Nebridius affirms, that I am happy?\u201d \u201cAbsolutely true it cannot be, for that I am still far from wise he himself would not deny.\u201d \u201cBut may not a happy life be the lot even of those who are not wise?\u201d \u201cThat is scarcely possible; because, in that case, lack of wisdom would be a small misfortune, and not, as it actually is, the one and only source of unhappiness.\u201d \u201cHow, then, did Nebridius come to esteem me happy? Was it that, after reading these little books of mine, he ventured to pronounce me wise? Surely the vehemence of joy could not make him so rash, especially seeing that he is a man to whose judgment I well know so much weight is to be attached. I have it now: he wrote what he thought would be most gratifying to me, because he had been gratified by what I had written in those treatises; and he wrote in a joyful mood, without accurately weighing the sentiments entrusted to his joyous pen. What, then, would he have said if he had read my Soliloquies? He would have rejoiced with much more exultation, and yet could find no loftier name to bestow on me than this which he has already given in calling me happy. All at once, then, he has lavished on me the highest p. 221 possible name, and has not reserved a single word to add to my praises, if at any time he were made by me more joyful than he is now. See what joy does.\u201d\n2. But where is that truly happy life? where? ay, where? Oh! if it were attained, one would spurn the atomic theory of Epicurus. Oh! if it were attained, one would know that there is nothing here below but the visible world. Oh! if it were attained, one would know that in the rotation of a globe on its axis, the motion of points near the poles is less rapid than of those which lie half way between them,\u2014and other such like things which we likewise know. But now, how or in what sense can I be called happy, who know not why the world is such in size as it is, when the proportions of the figures according to which it is framed do in no way hinder its being enlarged to any extent desired? Or how might it not be said to me\u2014nay, might we not be compelled to admit that matter is infinitely divisible; so that, starting from any given base (so to speak), a definite number of corpuscles must rise to a definite and ascertainable quantity? Wherefore, seeing that we do not admit that any particle is so small as to be insusceptible of further diminution, what compels us to admit that any assemblage of parts is so great that it cannot possibly be increased? Is there perchance some important truth in what I once suggested confidentially to Alypius, that since number, as cognisable by the understanding, is susceptible of infinite augmentation, but not of infinite diminution, 1445 because we cannot reduce it lower than to the units, number, as cognisable by the senses (and this, of course, just means quantity of material parts or bodies), is on the contrary susceptible of infinite diminution, but has a limit to its augmentation? This may perhaps be the reason why philosophers justly pronounce riches to be found in the things about which the understanding is exercised, and poverty in those things with which the senses have to do. For what is poorer than to be susceptible of endless diminution? and what more truly rich than to increase as much as you will, to go whither you will, to return when you will and as far as you will, and to have as the object of your love that which is large and cannot be made less? For whoever understands these numbers loves nothing so much as the unit; and no wonder, seeing that it is through it that all the other numbers can be loved by him. But to return: Why is the world the size that it is, seeing that it might have been greater or less? I do not know: its dimensions are what they are, and I can go no further. Again: Why is the world in the place it now occupies rather than in another? Here, too, it is better not to put the question; for whatever the answer might be, other questions would still remain. This one thing greatly perplexed me, that bodies could be infinitely subdivided. To this perhaps an answer has been given, by setting over against it the converse property of abstract number [viz. its susceptibility of infinite multiplication].\n3. But stay: let us see what is that indefinable object 1446 which is suggested to the mind. This world with which our senses acquaint us is surely the image of some world which the understanding apprehends. Now it is a strange phenomenon which we observe in the images which mirrors reflect to us,\u2014that however great the mirrors be, they do not make the images larger than the objects placed before them, be they ever so small; but in small mirrors, such as the pupil of the eye, although a large surface be placed over against them, a very small image is formed, proportioned to the size of the mirror. 1447 Therefore if the mirrors be reduced in size, the images reflected in them are also reduced; but it is not possible for the images to be enlarged by enlarging the mirrors. Surely there is in this something which might reward further investigation; but meanwhile, I must sleep. 1448 Moreover, if I seem to Nebridius to be happy, it is not because I seek, but because perchance I have found something. What, then, is that something? Is it that chain of reasoning which I am wont so to caress as if it were my sole treasure, and in which perhaps I take too much delight?\n4. \u201cOf what parts do we consist?\u201d \u201cOf soul and body.\u201d \u201cWhich of these is the nobler?\u201d \u201cDoubtless the soul.\u201d \u201cWhat do men praise in the body?\u201d \u201cNothing that I see but comeliness.\u201d \u201cAnd what is comeliness of body?\u201d \u201cHarmony of parts in the form, together with a certain agreeableness of colour.\u201d \u201cIs this comeliness better where it is true or where it is illusive?\u201d \u201cUnquestionably it is better where it is true.\u201d \u201cAnd where is it found true? In the soul.\u201d \u201cThe soul, therefore, is to be loved more than the body; but in what part of the soul does this truth reside?\u201d \u201cIn the mind and understanding.\u201d \u201cWith what has the understanding to contend?\u201d \u201cWith the senses.\u201d \u201cMust we then resist the senses with all our might?\u201d \u201cCertainly.\u201d \u201cWhat, then, if the things with which the senses acquaint us give us pleasure?\u201d \u201cWe must prevent them from doing so.\u201d \u201cHow?\u201d p. 222 \u201cBy acquiring the habit of doing without them, and desiring better things.\u201d \u201cBut if the soul die, what then?\u201d \u201cWhy, then truth dies, or intelligence is not truth, or intelligence is not a part of the soul, or that which has some part immortal is liable to die: conclusions all of which I demonstrated long ago in my Soliloquies to be absurd because impossible; and I am firmly persuaded that this is the case, but somehow through the influence of custom in the experience of evils we are terrified, and hesitate. But even granting, finally, that the soul dies, which I do not see to be in any way possible, it remains nevertheless true that a happy life does not consist in the evanescent joy which sensible objects can yield: this I have pondered deliberately, and proved.\u201d\nPerhaps it is on account of reasonings such as these that I have been judged by my own Nebridius to be, if not absolutely happy, at least in a sense happy. Let me also judge myself to be happy: for what do I lose thereby, or why should I grudge to think well of my own estate? Thus I talked with myself, then prayed according to my custom, and fell asleep.\n5. These things I have thought good to write to you. For it gratifies me that you should thank me when I write freely to you whatever crosses my mind; and to whom can I more willingly write nonsense 1449 than to one whom I cannot displease? But if it depends upon fortune whether one man love another or not, look to it, I pray you, how can I be justly called happy when I am so elated with joy by fortune\u2019s favours, and avowedly desire that my store of such good things may be largely increased? For those who are most truly wise, and whom alone it is right to pronounce happy, have maintained that fortune\u2019s favours ought not to be the objects of either fear or desire.\nNow here I used the word \u201ccupi:\u201d 1450 will you tell me whether it should be \u201ccupi\u201d or \u201ccupiri?\u201d And I am glad this has come in the way, for I wish you to instruct me in the inflexion of this verb \u201ccupio,\u201d since, when I compare similar verbs with it, my uncertainty as to the proper inflexion increases. For \u201ccupio\u201d is like \u201cfugio,\u201d \u201csapio,\u201d \u201cjacio,\u201d \u201ccapio;\u201d but whether the infinitive mood is \u201cfugiri\u201d or \u201cfugi,\u201d \u201csapiri\u201d or \u201csapi,\u201d I do not know. I might regard \u201cjaci\u201d and \u201ccapi\u201d 1451 as parallel instances answering my question as to the others, were I not afraid lest some grammarian should \u201ccatch\u201d and \u201cthrow\u201d me like a ball in sport wherever he pleased, by reminding me that the form of the supines \u201cjactum\u201d and \u201ccaptum\u201d is different from that found in the other verbs \u201cfugitum,\u201d \u201ccupitum\u201d and \u201csapitum.\u201d As to these three words, moreover, I am likewise ignorant whether the penultimate is to be pronounced long and with circumflex accent, or without accent and short. I would like to provoke you to write a reasonably long letter. I beg you to let me have what it will take some time to read. For it is far beyond my power to express the pleasure which I find in reading what you write.\nThe character of Nebridius, and the intimacy of friendship between him and Augustin, may be seen in the Confessions, b. ix. c. 3.\n221:1445\nHad Augustin been acquainted with the decimal notation, he would not have made this remark to Alypius; for in the decimal scale, when the point is inserted, fractional parts go on diminishing according to the number of cyphers between them and the point (e.g .001), precisely as the integers increase according to the number of cyphers between them and the decimal point (e.g. 100.),\u2014there being no limit to the descending series on the right hand of the decimal point, any more than to the ascending series on the left hand of the same point.\n221:1446 221:1447\nAugustin\u2019s acquaintance with the first principles of optics, and with the properties of reflection possessed by convex, plane, and concave mirrors, was very limited.\n221:1448 222:1449 222:1450\nPresent infinitive passive of cupere, to desire.\n222:1451\nInfinitive passive of verbs signifying respectively to \u201cthrow\u201d and to \u201ccatch.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Post Nicene-Fathers, Vol. I: Letters of St. Au...","type":"page"}