sea extending on all sides through limitless. immensities and having within it a sponge, as vast as ever one can imagine it and yet finite, and as if that sponge were filled throughout every part of it by the infinite sea; so it was that I thought of Thy creation as filled with Thee." In the following, a very simple metaphor is reinforced by the arts of literary suggestion: 66 When my thought, ranging the secret depths, had swept together and piled up in the sight of my heart all my misery, a mighty storm broke forth, bringing with it a great rain of tears." Here only "storm" and "rain are strictly metaphorical, and the weight of language does the rest, almost compelling us to think of his misery as a piled-up cloud.1 " By way of contrast with these elaborate examples let us conclude the series with a metaphor in which he is content to trust the effect to a single full-charged word. It occurs towards the close of a keen dialectical discussion of the nature of time. Of the subjectmatter of the passage we shall have to speak 1 "Ubi vero a fundo arcano alta consideratio contraxit et congessit totam miseriam meam in conspectu cordis mei, oborta est procella ingens, ferens ingentem imbrem lacrymarum" (Conf. viii. 28). There is perhaps a reminiscence, though not, of course, direct imitation, of Virgil, Georg. i. 322-4: Saepe enim immensum caclo venit agmen aquarum, again in another connexion. Here it may suffice to remark that it is conducted throughout with a literary skill which makes the reader feel at each step the toil and the excitement of the search. Finally, when at last he comes in sight of his conclusion, Augustine makes the reader share the joy of discovery with the fine phrase: Attende ubi albescit veritas ("Mark where truth brightens to the dawn"). Even this hasty survey can hardly have failed to give us some impression of the man; for he is of those who impress themselves. A man of keen, subtle, penetrating intellect, delighting in the play of dialectic and the analysis of thought and feeling; possessing, too, a literary skill capable of doing full justice to his thought. A man sensitive to the beauty of nature and keenly alive to the ongoings of the world about him. A large-natured, warm-hearted, impulsive man, with a strong love for his fellows and a great capacity for friendship. That is the impression one gets of his temperament, of his natural endowment; in subsequent chapters we shall endeavour to trace some of the aspects of his "reaction upon life." II HIS CONVERSION-A STUDY IN CRITICISM AND RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY ST. AUGUSTINE'S account of his conversion in the Confessions is a locus classicus for the psychology of religion. Unfortunately, as is the case with so many of our most valuable documents, we are no longer at liberty to use it as it stands without first vindicating its trustworthiness. The question is not, of course, regarding the authorship, there has never been the slightest doubt that Augustine wrote the Confessions,nor, among sober critics, is there any doubt of his essential good faith. But the account was not written immediately after the events, and it has been suggested that it may have been so modified by later experiences as to be misleading. The question arises in this way. The Confessions was not written until some twelve years after the date at which its record closes; on the other hand, the Dialogues referred to in the previous essay were written a few months after 32 his conversion. These writings are, the Contra Academicos, a debate about the Sceptical philosophy; the De Beata Vita, a discussion about the highest good; the De Ordine, a discussion on Providence and the order of the universe; and the Soliloquia, dealing with the immortality of the soul. The last-named, in spite of its title, is not improperly called a dialogue, for it is arranged in the form of a colloquy between Augustine and Reason. It is contended by some critics that the impression as to Augustine's spiritual state which we should draw from these Dialogues is not reconcilable with the account given in the Confessions. These critics, of whom we may take as typical M. Louis Gourdon and Dr. Hans Becker,1 urge the following considerations: (1) That the whole situation implied in these Dialogues is incompatible with the representation of the Confessions. Augustine, they say, retires to a pleasant country-house to discuss philosophy and read literature with like-minded friends, whereas we should have expected him to retire into solitude to weep and pray. (2) Coming more to close quarters, it is urged that these writings make no mention of the conversion, and leave no place for it in his mental history. 1 L. Gourdon, Essai sur la conversion de Saint Augustin (Cahors, 1900); H. Becker, Augustin, Studien zu seiner geistigen Entwickelung (Leipzig, 1908). D (3) That they display a cheerfulness not to be expected in a man with the experiences of the Confessions behind him. (4) That they show a very limited knowledge of Christian theology. (5) That they are filled with the praises of philosophy and say little about Christianity. I propose first to deal with these objections. seriatim, endeavouring to show that they are untenable, and then to examine carefully the account in the Confessions with a view to showing its inherent credibility. Now First, as to the suggestion that Augustine retired to Cassiciacum with a company of philosophic friends to enjoy a philosopher's heaven of lettered ease and dialectical discussion. the passages on which this representation is based are precisely those which we noticed in the previous chapter, about the discussions under the trees, the reading of Virgil, and so forth. The aspect in which they were there presented did not in any way tend to minimise the interest or importance of these passages, but it does, I think, suggest a different explanation of them. There was, of course, a certain artificiality in speaking of the gathering as a reading-party, but nevertheless that representation is a good deal nearer to the facts than this picture of a philosophic coterie. That is to say, the youths really |