first man, and that God there saw the portion of it which was
to be honoured and rewarded, and that which was to be condemned
and punished._
With good cause, therefore, does the true religion recognise and
proclaim that the same God who created the universal cosmos, created
also all the animals, souls as well as bodies. Among the terrestrial
animals man was made by Him in His own image, and, for the reason
I have given, was made one individual, though he was not left
solitary. For there is nothing so social by nature, so unsocial by
its corruption, as this race. And human nature has nothing more
appropriate, either for the prevention of discord, or for the healing
of it, where it exists, than the remembrance of that first parent
of us all, whom God was pleased to create alone, that all men might
be derived from one, and that they might thus be admonished to
preserve unity among their whole multitude. But from the fact that
the woman was made for him from his side, it was plainly meant that
we should learn how dear the bond between man and wife should be.
These works of God do certainly seem extraordinary, because they are
the first works. They who do not believe them, ought not to believe
any prodigies; for these would not be called prodigies did they not
happen out of the ordinary course of nature. But, is it possible that
anything should happen in vain, however hidden be its cause, in so
grand a government of divine providence? One of the sacred Psalmists
says, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what prodigies He hath
wrought in the earth."[571] Why God made woman out of man's side, and
what this first prodigy prefigured, I shall, with God's help, tell
in another place. But at present, since this book must be concluded,
let us merely say that in this first man, who was created in the
beginning, there was laid the foundation, not indeed evidently, but
in God's foreknowledge, of these two cities or societies, so far
as regards the human race. For from that man all men were to be
derived--some of them to be associated with the good angels in their
reward, others with the wicked in punishment; all being ordered by
the secret yet just judgment of God. For since it is written, "All
the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,"[572] neither can His
grace be unjust, nor His justice cruel.
FOOTNOTES:
[520] _Vitium_: perhaps "fault" most nearly embraces all the uses of
this word.
[521] Essentia.
[522] Ex. iii. 14.
[523] Quintilian calls it _dura_.
[524] With this may be compared the argument of Socrates in the
_Gorgias_, in which it is shown that to escape punishment is worse
than to suffer it, and that the greatest of evils is to do wrong and
not be chastised.
[525] Eccles. x. 13.
[526] Specie.
[527] Ps. xix. 12.
[528] C. 13.
[529] Rom. v. 5.
[530] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
[531] _De Deo Socratis._
[532] Augustine no doubt refers to the interesting account given by
Critias, near the beginning of the _Timæus_, of the conversation of
Solon with the Egyptian priests.
[533] Augustine here follows the chronology of Eusebius, who reckons
5611 years from the Creation to the taking of Rome by the Goths;
adopting the Septuagint version of the patriarchal ages.
[534] See above, viii. 5.
[535] It is not apparent to what Augustine refers. The Arcadians,
according to Macrobius (_Saturn._ i. 7), divided their year into
three months, and the Egyptians divided theirs into three seasons:
each of these seasons having four months, it is possible that
Augustine may have referred to this. See Wilkinson's excursus on the
Egyptian year, in Rawlinson's _Herod._ Book ii.
[536] The former opinion was held by Democritus and his disciple
Epicurus; the latter by Heraclitus, who supposed that "God amused
Himself" by thus renewing worlds.
[537] The Alexandrian Neo-Platonists endeavoured in this way to
escape from the obvious meaning of the _Timæus_.
[538] Antoninus says (ii. 14), "All things from eternity are of
like forms, and come round in a circle." Cf. also ix. 28, and the
references to more ancient philosophical writers in Gataker's notes
on these passages.
[539] Eccles. i. 9, 10. So Origen, _de Prin._ iii. 5, and ii. 3.
[540] Rom. vi. 9.
[541] 1 Thess. iv. 16.
[542] Ps. xii. 7.
[543] Cf. _de Trin._ v. 17.
[544] Wisdom ix. 13-15.
[545] Gen. i. 1.
[546] Gen. i. 14.
[547] Rom. xii. 3.
[548] Titus i. 2, 3. Augustine here follows the version of Jerome,
and not the Vulgate. Comp. _Contra Priscill._ 6, and _de Gen. c.
Man._ iv. 4.
[549] 2 Cor. x. 12. Here, and in _Enar. in_ Ps. xxxiv., and also in
_Cont. Faust._ xxii. 47, Augustine follows the Greek, and not the
Vulgate.
[550] _i.e._ indefinite, or an indefinite succession of things.
[551] Again in the _Timæus_.
[552] Wisdom xi. 20.
[553] Isa. xl. 26.
[554] Matt. x. 30.
[555] Ps. cxlvii. 5.
[556] De sæculis sæculorum.
[557] Ps. cxlviii. 4.
[558] Cicero has the same (_de Amicitia_, 16): "Quonam modo quisquam
amicus esse poterit, cui se putabit inimicum esse posse?" He also
quotes Scipio to the effect that no sentiment is more unfriendly to
friendship than this, that we should love as if some day we were to
hate.
[559] C. 30.
[560] Coquæus remarks that this is levelled against the Pelagians.
[561]
"Quando leoni
Fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore unquam
Exspiravit aper majoris dentibus apri?
Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem
Perpetuam; sævis inter se convenit ursis.
Ast homini," etc.
JUVENAL, _Sat._ xv. 160-5.
--See also the very striking lines which precede these.
[562] See this further discussed in _Gen. ad Lit._ vii. 35, and in
Delitzsch's _Bibl. Psychology_.
[563] Jer. xxiii. 24.
[564] Wisdom viii. 1.
[565] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[566] 1 Cor. xv. 38.
[567] Jer. i. 5.
[568] Compare _de Trin._ iii. 13-16.
[569] See Book xi. 5.
[570] "The Deity, desirous of making the universe in all respects
resemble the most beautiful and entirely perfect of intelligible
objects, formed it into one visible animal, containing within itself
all the other animals with which it is naturally allied."--_Timæus_,
c. xi.
[571] Ps. xlvi. 8.
[572] Ps. xxv. 10.
BOOK THIRTEENTH.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK IT IS TAUGHT THAT DEATH IS PENAL, AND HAD ITS
ORIGIN IN ADAM'S SIN.