Contents – Book X

Contents – Book X Book X Chapter I In God alone is the hope and joy of man. Chapter II That all things are manifest...

Chapter I – In God Alone Is The Hope And Joy Of Man.

BOOK TEN From autobiography to self-analysis. Augustine turns from his memories of the past to the inner mysteries of memory itself. In doing so, he...

Chapter II – That All Things Are Manifest To God. That Confession Unto Him Is Not Made By The Words Of The FLesh, But Of The Soul, And The Cry Of Reflection.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER II 2. And what is there in me that could be hidden from thee, Lord, to whose eyes the abysses of man’s...

Chapter III – He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER III 3. What is it to me that men should hear my confessions as if it were they who were going to...

Chapter IV – That In His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER IV 5. But for what profit do they desire this? Will they wish me happiness when they learn how near I have...

Chapter V – That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER V 7. For it is thou, O Lord, who judgest me. For although no man “knows the things of a man, save...

Chapter VI – The Love Of God, In His Nature Superior To All Creatures, Is Acquired By The Knowledge Of The Senses And The Exercise Of Reason.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER VI 8. It is not with a doubtful consciousness, but one fully certain that I love thee, O Lord. Thou hast smitten...

Chapter VII – That God Is To Be Found Neither From The Powers Of The Body Nor Of The Soul.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER VII 11. What is it, then, that I love when I love my God? Who is he that is beyond the topmost...

Chapter VIII – Of The Nature And The Amazing Power Of Memory.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER VIII 12. I will soar, then, beyond this power of my nature also, still rising by degrees toward him who made me....

Chapter IX – Not Only Things, But Also Literature And Images, Are Taken From The Memory, And Are Brought Forth By The Act Of Remembering.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER IX 16. And yet this is not all that the unlimited capacity of my memory stores up. In memory, there are also...

Chapter X – Literature Is Not Introduced To The Memory Through The Senses, But Is Brought Forth From Its More Secret Places.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER X 17. But now when I hear that there are three kinds of questions–“Whether a thing is? What it is? Of what...

Chapter XI – What It Is To Learn And To Think.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XI 18. Thus we find that learning those things whose images we do not take in by our senses, but which we...

Chapter XII – On The Recollection Of Things Mathematical.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XII 19. The memory also contains the principles and the unnumbered laws of numbers and dimensions. None of these has been impressed...

Chapter XIII – Memory Retains All Things.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XIII 20. All these things I hold in my memory, and I remember how I learned them. I also remember many things...

Chapter XIV – Concerning The Manner In Which Joy And Sadness May Be Brought Back To The Mind And Memory.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XIV 21. This same memory also contains the feelings of my mind; not in the manner in which the mind itself experienced...

Chapter XV – In Memory There Are Also Images Of Things Which Are Absent.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XV 23. Now whether all this is by means of images or not, who can rightly affirm? For I name a stone,...

Chapter XVI – The Privation Of Memory Is Forgetfulness.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XVI 24. When I name forgetfulness, and understand what I mean by the name, how could I understand it if I did...

Chapter XVII – God Cannot Be Attained Unto By The Power Of Memory, Which Beasts And Birds Possess.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XVII 26. Great is the power of memory. It is a true marvel, O my God, a profound and infinite multiplicity! And...

Chapter XVIII – A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained In The Memory.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XVIII 27. For the woman who lost her small coin[339] and searched for it with a light would never have found it unless...

Chapter XIX – What It Is To Remember.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XIX 28. But what happens when the memory itself loses something, as when we forget anything and try to recall it? Where,...

Chapter XX – We Should Not Seek For God And The Happy Life Unless We Had Known It.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XX 29. How, then, do I seek thee, O Lord? For when I seek thee, my God, I seek a happy life....

Chapter XXI – How A Happy Life May Be Retained In The Memory.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXI 30. But is it the same kind of memory as one who having seen Carthage remembers it? No, for the happy...

Chapter XXII – A Happy Life Is To Rejoice In God, And For God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXII 32. Forbid it, O Lord, put it far from the heart of thy servant, who confesses to thee–far be it from...

Chapter XXIII – All Wish To Rejoice In The Truth.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXIII 33. Is it, then, uncertain that all men wish to be happy, since those who do not wish to find their...

Chapter XXIV – He Who Finds Truth, Finds God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXIV 35. Behold how great a territory I have explored in my memory seeking thee, O Lord! And in it all I...

Chapter XXV – He Is Glad That God Dwells In His Memory.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXV 36. But where in my memory dost thou abide, O Lord? Where dost thou dwell there? What sort of lodging hast...

Chapter XXVI – God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel Of Him.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXVI 37. Where, then, did I find thee so as to be able to learn of thee? For thou wast not in...

Chapter XXVII – He Grieves That He Was So Long Without God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXVII 38. Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within...

Chapter XXVIII – On The Misery Of human Life.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXVIII 39. When I come to be united to thee with all my being, then there will be no more pain and...

Chapter XXIX – All Hope Is In The Mercy Of God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXIX 40. My whole hope is in thy exceeding great mercy and that alone. Give what thou commandest and command what thou...

Chapter XXX – Of The Perverse Images Of Dreams, Which He Wishes To Have Taken Away.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXX 41. Obviously thou commandest that I should be continent from “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,...

Chapter XXXI – About To Speak Of The Temptations Of The Lust Of The Flesh, He First Complains Of The Lust Of Eating And Drinking.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXI 43. There is yet another “evil of the day”[351] to which I wish I were sufficient. By eating and drinking we restore...

Chapter XXXII – Of The Charms Of Perfumes Which Are More Easily Overcome.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXII 48. I am not much troubled by the allurement of odors. When they are absent, I do not seek them; when...

Chapter XXXIII – He Overcame The Pleasures Of The Ear, Although In The Church He Frequently Delighted In The Song, Not In The Thing Sung.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXIII 49. The delights of the ear drew and held me much more powerfully, but thou didst unbind and liberate me. In...

Chapter XXXIV – Of The Very Dangerous Allurements Of The Eyes; On Account Of Beauty Of Form, God, The Creator, Is To Be Praised.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXIV 51. There remain the delights of these eyes of my flesh, about which I must make my confession in the hearing...

Chapter XXXV – Another Kind Of Temptation Is Curiosity, Which Is Stimulated By The Lust Of The Eyes.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXV 54. Besides this there is yet another form of temptation still more complex in its peril. For in addition to the...

Chapter XXXVI – A Third Kind Is “Pride,” Which Is Pleasing To Man, Not To God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXVI 58. Shall we, then, also reckon this vain curiosity among the things that are to be but lightly esteemed? Shall anything...

Chapter XXXVII – He Is Forcibly Goaded On By The Love Of Praise.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXVII 60. By these temptations we are daily tried, O Lord; we are tried unceasingly. Our daily “furnace” is the human tongue.[386] And...

Chapter XXXVIII – Vain-Glory Is The Highest Danger.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXVIII 63. “I am needy and poor.”[389] Still, I am better when in secret groanings I displease myself and seek thy mercy until...

Chapter XXXIX – Of The Vice Of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XXXIX 64. Within us there is yet another evil arising from the same sort of temptation. By it they become empty who...

Chapter XL – The Only Safe Resting-Place For The Soul Is To Be Found In God.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XL 65. Where hast thou not accompanied me, O Truth, teaching me both what to avoid and what to desire, when I...

Chapter XLI – Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives At Salvation.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XLI 66. And now I have thus considered the infirmities of my sins, under the headings of the three major “lusts,” and...

Chapter XLII – In What Manner Many Sought The Mediator.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XLII 67. Whom could I find to reconcile me to thee? Should I have approached the angels? What kind of prayer? What...

Chapter XLIII – That Jesus Christ, At The Same Time God And Man, Is The True And Most Efficacious Mediator.

BOOK TEN CHAPTER XLIII 68. But the true Mediator, whom thou in thy secret mercy hast revealed to the humble, and hast sent to them...

Book Ten

BOOK TEN From autobiography to self-analysis. Augustine turns from his memories of the past to the inner mysteries of memory itself. In doing so, he...

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