natures which have extension in space, and therefore cannot be all in one place. But even with the mind this is not the case; and this degrading and perverted idea of the mind is found among people who are unfit for such investigations.
CHAP. 20. REFUTATION OF THE ABSURD IDEA OF TWO TERRITORIES.
22. But perhaps, instead of thus addressing carnal minds, we should rather descend to the views of those who either dare not or are as yet unfit to turn frcm the consideration of material things to the study of an immaterial and spiritual nature, and who thus are unable to reflect upon their own power of reflection, so as to see how it forms a judgment of ma- terial extension without itself possessing it. Let us descend then to these material ideas, and let us ask in what direction, and on what border of the shining and sacred territory, to use the expressions of Manichseus, was the re- gion of darkness? For he speaks of one direc- tion and border, without saying which, whether the right or the left. In any case, it is clear that to speak of one side implies that there is another. But where there are three or more sides, either the figure is bounded in all direc- tions,or if it extends infinitely in one direction, still it must be limited in the directions where it has sides. If,then, on one side of the region of light there was the race of darkness, what bounded it on the other side or sides? The Manich^eans say nothing in reply to this; but when pressed, they say that on the other sides the region of light, as they call it, is infinite, that is, extends throughout boundless space. They do not see, what is plain to the dullest understanding, that in that case there could be no sides? For the sides are where it is bounded. What, then, he says, though there are no sides? But what you said of one di- rection or side, implied of necessity the exis- tence of another direction and side, or other directions and sides. For if there was only one side, you should have said, on the side, not on one side; as in reference to our body we say properly. By one eye, because there is another; or on one breast, because there is another. But if we spoke of a thing as being on one nose, or one navel, we should be ridiculed by learned and unlearned, since there is only one. But I do not insist on words, for you may have used one in the sense of the only one.
CHAP. 21. — THIS REGION OF LIGHT MUST BE MATERIAL IF IT IS JOINED TO THE REGION OF DARKNESS. THE SHAPE OF THE REGION OF DARKNFSS JOINED TO THE REGION OF LIGHT.
What, then, bordered on the side of tlie region which you call shining and sacred? The region, you reply, of darkness. Do you then allow this latter region to have been material? Of course you must, since you as- Chap. XXIII.
AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICH^US.
139 sert that all bodies derive their origin from it. How then is it that, dull and carnal as j'ou are, you do not see that unless both regions were material, they could not have their sides joined to one another? How could you ever be so blinded in mind as to say that only the region of darkness was material, and that the so-called region of light was immaterial and spiritual? My good friends, let us open our eyes for once, and see, now that we are told of it, what is most obvious, that two regions cannot be joined at their sides unless both are material.
23. Or if we are too dull and stupid to see this, let us hear whether the region of dark- ness too has one side, and is boundless in the other directions, like the region of light. They do not hold this from fear of making it seem equal to God. Accordingly they make it boundless in depth and in length; but up- wards, above it, they maintain that there is an infinity of empty space. And lest this re- gion should appear to be a fraction equal in amount to half of that representing the region of light, they narrow it also on two sides. As if, to give the simplest illustration, a piece of bread were made into four squares, three white and one black; then suppose the three white pieces joined as one, and conceive them as infinite upwards and downwards, and backwards in all directions: this repre- sents the Manichccan region of light. Then conceive the black square infinite downwards and backwards, but with infinite emptiness above it: this is their region of darkness. But these are secrets which they disclose to very eager and anxious inquirers.
CH.AP. 22. THE FORM OF THE REGION OF LIGHT THE WORSE OF THE TWO.
Well, then, if this is so, the region of dark- ness is clearly touched on two sides by the region of light. And if it is touched on two sides, it must touch on two. So much for its being on one side, as we were told before.
24. And what an unseemly appearance is this of the region of light! — like a cloven arch, with a black wedge inserted below, bounded only in the direction of the cleft, and having a void space interposed where the boundless emptiness stretches above the region of darkness. Indeed, the form of the region of darkness is better than that of the region of light: for the former cleaves, the latter is cloven; the former fills the gap which is made in the latter; the former has no void in it, while the latter is undefined in all direc- tions, except that where it is filled up by the wedge of darkness. In an ignorant and greedy notion of giving more honor to a number of parts than to a single one, so that the region of light should have six, three upwards and three downwards, they have made this region be split up, instead of sun- dering the other. For, according to this fig- ure, though there may be no commixture of darkness with light, there is certainl}'^ pene- tration.
CHAP. 23. THE ANTHROPOMORPHITES NOT SO BAD AS THE MANICH^ANS.
25. Compare, now, not spiritual men of the Catholic faith, whose mind, as far as is pos- sible in this life, perceives that the divine substance and nature has no material exten- sion, and has no shape bounded by lines, but the carnal and weak of our faith, who, when they hear the members of the body used fig- uratively, as, when God's eyes or ears are spoken of, are accustomed, in the license of fancy, to picture God to themselves in a human form; compare these with the Man- ichasans, whose custom it is to make known rheir silly stories to anxious inquirers as if they were great m3^steries: and consider who have the most allowable and respectable ideas of God, — those who think of Him as having a human form which is the most excellent of its kind, or those who think of Him as hav- ing boundless material extension, yet not in all directions, but with three parts infinite and solid, while in one part He is cloven, with an empty void, and with undefined space above, while the reeion of darkness is inserted wedge-like below. Or perhaps the proper expression is, that He is unconfined above in His own nature, but encroached on below by a hostile nature. I join with you in laugh- ing at the folly of carnal men, unable as yet to form spiritual conceptions, who think of God as having a human form. Do you too join me, if you can, in laughing at those whose unhappy conceptions represent God as having a shape cloven or cut in such an un- seemly and unbecoming way, with such an empty gap above, and such a dishonorable curtailment below. Besides, there is this dif- ference, that these carnal people, who think of God as having a human form, if they are content to be nourished witii milk from the breast of the Catholic Church, and do not rush headlong into rash opinions, but cultivate in the Church the pious habit of inquiry, and there ask that they may receive, and knock that it may be opened to them, begin to understand spiritually the figures and parables of the Scriptures, and gradually to perceive that the divine energies are suitably set forth under the name, sometimes of ears, some- times of eyes, sometimes of hands or feet, cr r40 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XXV.
even of wings and feathers a shield too, and sword, and helmet, and all the other in- numerable things. And the more progress they make in this understanding, the more are they confirmed as Catholics. The Mani- chajans, on the other hand, when they abandon their material fancies,cease to be Manichaeans. For this is the chief and special point in their praises of Manichseus, that the divine mys- teries which were taught figuratively in books from ancient times were kept for Manichaius, who was to come last, to solve and demon- strate; and so after him no other teacher will come from God, for he has said nothing in figures or parables, but has explained ancient sayings of that kind, and has himself taught in plain, simple terms. Therefore, when tlie Man- ichfeans hear these words of their founder, on one side and border of the shining and sacred region was the region of darkness, they have no interpretations to fall back on. Wherever they turn, the wretched bondage of their own fancies brings them upon clefts or sudden stoppages and joinings or sunder- ings of the most unseemly kind, which it would be shocking to believe as true of any immaterial nature, even though mutable, like the mind, not to speak of the immutable nature of God. And yet if I were unable to rise to higher things, and to bring my thoughts from the entanglement of false im- aginations which are impressed on the mem- ory by the bodily senses, into the freedom and purity of spiritual existence, how much better would it be to think of God as in the form of a man, than to fasten that wedge of darkness to His lower edge, and, for want of a covering for the boundless vacuity above to leave it void and unoccupied throughout in- finite space! What notion could be worse than this? What darker error can be taught or imagined?
CHAP. 24.— OF THE NUMBER OF NATURES IN THE MANICH^AN FICTION.
26. Again, I wish to know, when I read of God the Father and His kingdoms foundfed on the shining and happy region, whether the Father and His kingdoms, and the region, are all of the same nature and substance. If they are, then it is not another nature or sort of body of God which the wedge of the race of darkness cleaves and penetrates, which itself is an unspeakably revolting thing, but it is actually the very nature of God which undergoes this. Think of this, I beseech you: as you are men, think of it, and flee from it; and if by tearing open your breasts you can cast out by the roots such profane fancies from your faith, I pray you to do it.
Or will you say that these three are not of one and the same nature, but that the Father is of one, the kingdoms of another, and the region of another, so that each has a peculiar nature and substance, and that they are arranged according to their degree of excellence? If this is true, Manichseus should have taught that there are four natures, not two; or if the Father and the kingdoms have one nature, and the region only one of its own, he should have made three. Or if he made only two, because the region of darkness does not be- long to God, in what sense does the region of light belong to God? For if it has a nature of its own, and if God neither generated nor made it, it does not belong to Him, and the seat of His kingdom is in what belongs to another. Or if it belongs to Him because of its vicinity, the region of darkness must do so too; for it not only borders on the region of light, but penetrates it so as to sever it in two. Again, if God generated it, it cannot have a separate nature. For what is gen- erated by God must be what God is, as the Catholic Church believes of the only begotten Son. So you are brought back of necessity to that shocking and detestable profanity, that the wedge of ciarkness sunders not a region distinct and separate from God, but the very nature of God. Or if God did not generate, but make it, of what did He make it? Or if of Himself, what is this but to gen- erate? If of some other nature, was this nature good or evil? If good, there must have been some good nature not belonging to God; which you will scarcely have the boldness to assert. If evil, the race of dark- ness cannot have been the only evil nature. Or did God take a part of that region and turn it into a region of light, in order to found His kingdom upon it? If He had, He would have taken the whole, and there would have been no evil nature left. If God, then, did not make the region of light of a substance distinct from His own, He must have made it of nothing.'
CHAP. 25. — OMNIPOTENCE CREATES COOP THINGS DIFFERING IN DEGREE. IN EVERY DESCRIPTION WHATSOEVER OF THE JUNCTION OF THE TWO REGIONS THERE IS EITHER IM- PROPRIETY OR ABSURDITY.
27. If, then, you are now convinced that God is able to create some good thing out of nothing, come into the Catholic Church, and learn that all the natures which God has created and founded in their order of excel- I [There is sufficient reason to think that Mani identified God with the kingdom and the region of light. See Introduction. — A. H. N.]
I Chap. XXVI. J AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICH^US.
141 lence from the highest to the lowest are good, and some better than others; and that they were made of nothing, though God, their Maker, made use of His oivn wisdom as an in- strument, so to speak, to give being to what was not, and that as far as it had being it might be good, and that the limitation of its being might show that it was not begotten by- God, but made out of nothing. If you ex- amine the matter, you will find nothing to keep you from agreeing to this. For you can- not make your region of light to be wiiat God is, without making the dark section an in- fringement on the very nature of God. Nor can you say that it was generated by God, with- out being reduced to the same enormity, from the necessity of concluding that as begotten of God, it must be what God is. Nor can you say that it was distinct from Him, lest you should be forced to admit that God placed His kingdom in what did not belong to Him, and that there are three natures. Nor can you say that God made it of a substance distinct from His own, without making something good besides God, or something evil besides the race of darkness. It remains, therefore that you must confess that God made the region of light out of nothing: and you are unwilling to believe this; because if God could make out of nothing some great good which yet was inferior to Himself, He could also, since He is good, and grudges no good, make another good inferior to the former, and again a third inferior to the second, and so on, in order down to the lowest good of created natures, so that the whole aggregate, instead of extend- ing indefinitely without number or measure, should have a fixed and definite consistency. Again, if you will not allow this either, that God made the region of light out of nothing, you will have no escape from the shocking profanities to which your opinions lead.
28. Perhaps, since the carnal imagination can fancy any shapes it likes, you might be able to devise some other form for the junc- tion of the two regions, instead of presenting to the mind such a disagreeable and painful description as this, that the region of God, whether it be of the same nature as God or not, [where at least God's kingdoms are founded, lies through immensity in such a huge mass [that its members stretch loosely to an infinite [extent, and that on their lower part that wedge of the region of darkness, itself of boundless size encroaches upon them. But whatever other form you contrive for the junction of these two regions, you cannot erase what Manichceus has written. I refer not to other treatises where a more particular description is given, — for perhaps, because they are in the hands of only a few, there might not be so much dif- ficulty with them, — but to this Fundamental Epistle which we are now considering, with which all of you who are called enlightened are usually quite familiar. Here the words are: " On one side the border of the shining and sacred region was the region of darkness, deep and boundless in extent."
CHAP. 26. THE MANICH.EANS ARE REDUCED TO THE CHOICE OF A TORTUOUS, OR CURVED, OR STRAIGHT LINE OF JUNCTION. THE THIRD KIND OF LINE WOULD GIVE SYMMETRY AND BEAUTY SUITABLE TO BOTH REGIONS.
What more is to be got? we have now heard what is on the border. Make what shape you please, draw any kind of lines you like, it is certain that the junction of this boundless mass of the region of darkness to the region of light must have been either by a straight line, or a curved, or a tortuous one. If the line of junction is tortuous the side of the region of light must also be tortuous; otherwise its straight side joined to a tortuous one would leave gaps of infinite depth, instead of having vacuity only above the land of dark- ness, as we were told before. And if there were such gaps, how much better it would have been for the region of light to have been still more distant, and to have had a greater vacuity between, so that the region of darkness might not touch it at all! Then there might have been such a gap of bottomless depth, that, on the rise of any mischief in that race, although the chiefs of darkness might have the foolhardy wish to cross over, they would fall headlong into the gap (for bodies cannot fly without air to support them); and as there is infinite space downwards, they could do no more harm, though they might live for ever, for they would be for ever falling. Again, if the line of junction was a curved one, the re- gion of light must also have had the disfigure- ment of a curve to answer it. Or if the land of darkness were curved inwards like a thea- tre, there would be as much disfigurement in the corresponding line in the region of light. Or if the region of darkness had a curved line, and the region of light a straight one, they cannot have touched at all points. And cer- tainly, as I said before, it would have been better if they had not touched, and if there was such a gap between that the regions might be kept distinctly separate, and that rash evil- doers might fall headlong so as to be harm- less. If, then, the line of junction was a straight one, there remain, of course, no more gaps or grooves, but, on the contrary, so perfect a junction as to make the greatest possible peace and harmonv between the two regions. What 142 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XXVIII.
more beautiful or more suitable than that one side should meet the other in a straight line, without bends or breaks to disturb the natural and permanent connection throughout endless space and endless duration? And even though there was a separation, the straight sides of both regions would be beautiful in themselves, as being straight; and besides, even in spite of an interval, their correspondence, as run- ning parallel, though not meeting, would give a symmetry to both. With the addition of the junction, both regions become perfectly reg- ular and harmonious; for nothing can be de- vised more beautiful in description or in con- ception than this junction of two straight lines.'
CHAP. 27. THE BEAUTY OF THE STRAIGHT LINE MIGHT BE TAKEN FROM THE REGION OF DARKNESS WITHOUT TAKING ANYTHING FRO;\I ITS SUBSTANCE. SO EVIL NEITHER TAKES FROM NOR ADDS TO THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SOUL. THE STRAIGHTNESS OF ITS SIDE WOULD BE SO FAR A GOOD BESTOWED ON THE REGION OF DARKNESS BY GOD THE CREATOR.
29. What is to be done with unhappy minds, perverse in error, and held fast by custom? These men do not know what they say when they say those things; for they do not consider. Listen to me; no one forces you, no one quarrels with )^ou, no one taunts you with past errors, unless some one who has not experienced the div ne mercy in de- liverance from error: all we desire is that the errors should some time or other be aban- doned. Think a little without animosity or bitterness. We are all human beings: let us hate, not one another, but errors and lies. Think a little, I pray you. God of mercy, help them to think, and kindle in the minds of inquirers the true light. If anything is plain, is not this, that right is better than wrong? Give me, then, a calm and quiet an- swer to this, whether making crooked the right line of the region of darkness which joins on to the right line of the region of light, would not detract from its beauty. If you will not be dogged, you must confess that not only is beauty taken from it by its being made crooked, but also the beauty which it might have had from connection with the right line of the region of light. Is it the case, then, that in this loss of beauty, in which right is made crooked, and harmony becomes discord, and agreement disagreement, there is any loss of substance? Learn, then, from this that substance is not evil; but as in the I [This discussion of the lines bounding the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness seems very much like trifling, biut Augustin's aim was to bring the Manichaean representations into ridicule. —A. H. N.]
body, by change of form for the worse, beauty is lost, or rather lessened, and what was called fair before is said to be ugly, and what was pleasing becomes displeasing, so in the mind the seemliness of a right will, which makes a just and pious life, is injured when the will changes for the worse; and by this sin the mind becom.es miserable, instead of enjoying as before the happiness which comes from the ornament of a right will, without any gain or loss of substance.
30. Consider, again, that though we admit that the border of the region of darkness was evil for other reasons, such as that it was dim and dark, or any other reason, still it was not evil in being straight. So, if I admit that there was some evil in its color, you must admit that there was some good in its straightness. Whatever the amount of this good, it is not allowable to attribute it to any other than God the Maker, from whom we must believe that all good in whatsoever nature comes, if we are to escape deadly error. It is absurd, then, to say that this region is perfect evil, when in its straightness of border is found the good of not a little beauty of a material kind; and also to make this region to be al- together estranged from the almighty and good God, when this good which we find in it can be attributed to no other but the author of all good things. But this border, too, we are told, was evil. Well, suppose it evil: it would surely have been worse had it been crooked instead of straight. And how can that be the perfection of evil than which something worse than itself can be thought of? And to be worse implies that there is some good, the want of which makes the thing worse. Here the want of straightness would make the line worse. Therefore its straight- ness is something good. And you will never answer the question whence this goodness comes, without reference to Him from whom we must acknowledge that all good things come, whether small or great. But now we shall pass on from considering this border to something else.
CHAP. 28. — MANICH^US PLACES FIVE NATURKS IN THE REGION OF DARKNESS.
31. "There dwelt," he says, " in that re- gion fiery bodies, destructive races." By speaking of dwelling, he must mean that those bodies were animated and in life. But, not to appear to cavil at a word, let us see how he divides into five classes all these in- habitants of this region. " Here," he says, "was boundless darkness, flowing from the same source in immeasurable abundance, with the productions properly belonging to it.
I ¥ Chap. XXX.]
AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICH^US.
143