King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies Part 2

_R._ Dost thou, then, not know thy servant?

_A._ How can I know him, seeing I am not certain that I know myself? It is said in the law that one shall love his neighbor even as himself. How then do I know in what way I should love him, if I do not know whether I love myself? Nor do I know how he loveth me; yet I know that it is the same with him in regard to me.

_R._ If thou with the inner sense wouldst know G.o.d, why pointest thou me to the outer senses, as if thou wouldst see Him bodily, just as thou formerly saidst thou sawest the moon? I know not therefore how thou teachest it to me, nor can I teach it to any one, by the outer senses.

But tell me whether it seemeth enough for thee to know G.o.d as Plato and Plotinus knew him?

_A._ I dare not say that it would seem to me enough, because I know not whether it seemed to them enough in regard to that which they knew. I know not whether it seemed to them that they needed to know more of Him, but even so they formerly seemed to me.[5] When I prayed, methought I did not so fully understand that which I besought as I would. But I still could not forbear to speak about it, just as it seemed to me that I needed, and just as I supposed it was.

[5] Doubtful rendering of and _swa-swa me er puhton_.

_R._ _Methinks now it seemeth to thee that_ it is one thing _to know, and quite another only to suppose_.

_A._ _Yea, so methinks; therefore I would now that thou tell me what difference there is between these, or what one certainly knoweth._

_R._ _Knowest thou that thou didst learn the science which we call geometry? In that science thou learnedst on a ball, or an apple, or a painted egg, that thou mightest by the painting understand the motion of the heavens and the course of the stars. Knowest thou that thou didst learn in the same science about a line drawn along the middle of the ball? Knowest thou what was there taught thee about the positions of the twelve stars and the path of the sun?_

[Sidenote: 20.17--22.10]

_A._ Yea; I know well enough what the line signifieth.

_R._ _Now that thou sayest thou doubtest this no whit_, dost thou not fear the Academicians, _those philosophers who said that there was never anything certain beyond a doubt_?

_A._ Nay; I do not fear them much, _for they said that there never was a wise man_. Therefore I am not at all ashamed not to be wise, for I know that as yet I am not wise; but if I ever become as wise as they, then I will do as they teach, _until I can say that I know without doubt what I seem to myself to know_.

_R._ I do not object at all to thy doing so. But thou sayest thou knowest about the line _which was painted on the ball on which thou learnedst the revolution of this heaven_; I would know whether thou also knowest about the ball _on which the line is drawn_.

_A._ Yea; I know both. _No man can mistake that._

_R._ Didst thou learn with the eyes or with the mind?

_A._ With both: first with the eyes, then with the mind. The eyes brought me to the understanding; but after I had perceived it, I left off looking with the eyes, and reflected, _for it seemed to me that I could contemplate much more of it than I could see, after the eyes had fixed it in my mind. Just so a s.h.i.+p bringeth one over the sea; when he cometh ash.o.r.e, he letteth the s.h.i.+p stand, for it seemeth to him that he can travel more easily without it than with it._ However, it seemeth easier to me to travel by skiff on dry land than to learn any science with the eyes, but without the reason--though the eyes must at times give aid.

_R._ _Therefore thou must needs look rightly with the eyes of the mind to G.o.d, just as the s.h.i.+p's anchor-cable is stretched direct from the s.h.i.+p to the anchor, and fasten the eyes of thy mind on G.o.d, just as the anchor is fastened in the earth. Though the s.h.i.+p be out among the sea-billows, it will remain sound and unbroken if the cable holdeth, since one end of it is fast to the earth and the other to the s.h.i.+p._

[Sidenote: 22.11--24.7]

_A._ _What is that which thou callest the mind's eyes?_

_R._ _Reason, in addition to other virtues._

_A._ _What are the other virtues?_

_R._ _Wisdom, and humility, and honor, and moderation, and righteousness, and mercy, and prudence, and constancy, and benevolence, and chast.i.ty, and abstinence. With these anchors thou art able to fasten to G.o.d the cable that shall hold the s.h.i.+p of thy mind._

_A._ _May the Lord G.o.d make me entirely as thou teachest me [to be]. I would if I could, but I can not understand how I shall be able to obtain these anchors, or how I shall fasten them, except thou teach it to me more clearly._

_R._ _I could teach thee, but I ought first to ask thee how many of this world's l.u.s.ts thou hast renounced for G.o.d. After thou hast told me that, then I can say to thee without any doubt that thou hast obtained so many of the anchors as thou hast renounced the l.u.s.ts of the world._

_A._ _How can I forsake that which I know and am familiar with, and have been used to from childhood, and love that which is unknown to me except by hearsay? Howbeit, I feel sure that if I knew what thou sayest about me as certainly as what I here see for myself, I would love that, and despise this._

_R._ _I wonder why thou speakest so. Suppose now if a letter with seal from thy lord should come to thee, canst thou say thou art not able to understand him by that, nor to recognise his will therein? If thou sayest that thou canst know his will therein, say then whether it seemeth to thee better to follow his will, or to follow after the wealth which he gave thee over and above his friends.h.i.+p._

_A._ _Whether I will or not, I must speak truly, unless I am prepared to lie. If I lie, G.o.d knoweth it. Therefore I dare speak only the truth, so far as I can know it. Methinks it is better to forsake the gift, and follow the giver, who is to me the steward both of the riches and of his friends.h.i.+p, unless I can have both. I should like, however, to have both, if I could follow both the wealth and also his will._

[Sidenote: 24.7--25.23]

_R._ _Full rightly hast thou answered me, but I would ask thee whether thou supposest that thou canst have all that thou now hast without thy lord's friends.h.i.+p._

_A._ _I do not suppose that any man is so foolish as to think that._

_R._ _Thou understandest it rightly enough, but I would know whether thou thinkest that what thou hast is temporal or eternal._

_A._ _I never supposed it to be eternal._

_R._ _What thinkest thou about G.o.d and the anchors which we spake of--are they like these, or are they eternal?_

_A._ _Who is so mad as to dare say that G.o.d is not eternal?_

_R._ _If He is eternal, why lovest thou not the eternal Lord more than the temporal? Lo, thou knowest that the Eternal will not leave thee, except thou go from Him; and thou must needs depart from the other whether thou will or no; thou must either leave him, or he thee. Howbeit I perceive that thou lovest him very much, and also fearest and dost well; very rightly and very becomingly thou dost. But I wonder why thou dost not love the Other much more, Him who giveth thee both the friends.h.i.+p of the worldly lord and His own, and, after this world, life eternal. The Lord is the ruler of you both--thine and thy lord's whom thou so immeasurably lovest._

_A._ _I confess to thee that I would love Him above all other things, if I could understand and know Him as I would. But I can understand very little of Him, or nothing at all, and yet at times, when I think carefully of Him, and any inspiration cometh to me about the eternal life, then I by no means prefer this present life to that, nor even love it so much._

_R._ _Wishest thou now to see Him and clearly understand Him?_

_A._ _I have no wish above that._

_R._ _Keep, then, His commandments._

[Sidenote: 25.24--27.13]

_A._ _What commandments?_

_R._ _I named them to thee before._

_A._ _Methinks they are very burdensome and very manifold._

_R._ _What one loveth, methinks, is not burdensome._

_A._ _Nor doth any work seem burdensome to me if I can see and have what I work for. But doubt begetteth heaviness._

_R._ _Thou graspest it well enough in speech, and well enough thou understandest it._ But I can say to thee that I am the faculty of Reason, which argueth with thee--the discursive faculty whose province it is to explain to thee in such wise that thou mayest see G.o.d with thy mind's eyes as clearly as thou now seest the sun with the eyes of the body.

_A._ _Almighty G.o.d reward thee! I am truly grateful for thy promise to teach it to me so clearly. Although I was ignorant, yet I emerge from this condition to a clearer vision of Him_, if I come to see Him as I now see the sun. _Howbeit I do not see the sun so clearly as I would like to. I know very little better what the sun is, though I look on it every day. Still it seemed good to me that I might thus clearly see G.o.d._

_R._ _Now consider very earnestly what I formerly said to thee._

_A._ _I will, so much as possible._

_R._ First know of a truth that the mind is the eye of the soul; secondly, thou must know that it is needful for one to see what one looketh at; the fourth is what one would see. For every one having eyes first looketh at that which he would see till he hath beheld it. When he hath beheld it then he truly seeth it. But thou must know that I who now speak with thee am Reason, and I am to every human mind what looking is to the eyes. Three things it behooveth the eyes of every human body to have; the fourth is what it seeketh and would draw to them. One is that thou hast and usest and lovest that which thou formerly didst hope for.