Contents – Book XI Book XI Chapter I By confession he desires to stimulate towards God his own love and that of his readers. Chapter...
BOOK ELEVEN The eternal Creator and the Creation in time. Augustine ties together his memory of his past life, his present experience, and his ardent...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER II 2. But how long would it take for the voice of my pen to tell enough of thy exhortations and of...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER III 5. Let me hear and understand how in the beginning thou madest heaven and earth.[419] Moses wrote of this; he wrote and...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER IV 6. Look around; there are the heaven and the earth. They cry aloud that they were made, for they change and...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER V 7. But how didst thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the tool of such a mighty work as thine?...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER VI 8. But how didst thou speak? Was it in the same manner in which the voice came from the cloud saying,...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER VII 9. Thou dost call us, then, to understand the Word–the God who is God with thee–which is spoken eternally and by...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER VIII 10. Why is this, I ask of thee, O Lord my God? I see it after a fashion, but I do...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER IX 11. In this Beginning, O God, thou hast made heaven and earth–through thy Word, thy Son, thy Power, thy Wisdom, thy...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER X 12. Now, are not those still full of their old carnal nature[429] who ask us: “What was God doing before he made heaven and...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XI 13. Those who say these things do not yet understand thee, O Wisdom of God, O Light of souls. They do...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XII 14. How, then, shall I respond to him who asks, “What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?” I do not...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XIII 15. But if the roving thought of someone should wander over the images of past time, and wonder that thou, the...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XIV 17. There was no time, therefore, when thou hadst not made anything, because thou hadst made time itself. And there are...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XV 18. And yet we speak of a long time and a short time; but never speak this way except of time...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XVI 21. And yet, O Lord, we do perceive intervals of time, and we compare them with each other, and we say...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XVII 22. I am seeking the truth, O Father; I am not affirming it. O my God, direct and rule me. Who...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XVIII 23. Give me leave, O Lord, to seek still further. O my Hope, let not my purpose be confounded. For if...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XIX 25. Now, therefore, O Ruler of thy creatures, what is the mode by which thou teachest souls those things which are...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XX 26. But even now it is manifest and clear that there are neither times future nor times past. Thus it is...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXI 27. I have said, then, that we measure periods of time as they pass so that we can say that this...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXII 28. My soul burns ardently to understand this most intricate enigma. O Lord my God, O good Father, I beseech thee...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXIII 29. I once heard a learned man say that the motions of the sun, moon, and stars constituted time; and I...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXIV 31. Dost thou command that I should agree if anyone says that time is “the motion of a body”? Thou dost...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXV 32. And I confess to thee, O Lord, that I am still ignorant as to what time is. And again I...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXVI 33. Does not my soul most truly confess to thee that I do measure intervals of time? But what is it...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXVII 34. Press on, O my mind, and attend with all your power. God is our Helper: “it is he that hath...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXVIII 37. But how is the future diminished or consumed when it does not yet exist? Or how does the past, which...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXIX 39. But “since thy loving-kindness is better than life itself,”[450] observe how my life is but a stretching out, and how thy...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXX 40. And I will be immovable and fixed in thee, and thy truth will be my mold. And I shall not...
BOOK ELEVEN CHAPTER XXXI 41. O Lord my God, what a chasm there is in thy deep secret! How far short of it have the...
BOOK ELEVEN The eternal Creator and the Creation in time. Augustine ties together his memory of his past life, his present experience, and his ardent...
