CONFESSIONS OF SAINT AUGUS TINE, The. Autobiographies are as a rule utterly conventional and commonplace, inter esting only to those immediately concerned with the author. We have any number of them that are waste paper, but a few of them like Cellini's life of himself, Montaigne's (Essays,' and Rousseau's (Confessions,' show that when a man pours himself out he can make a supremely human document that is enduring literature. Among these immortal autobiographies, prob ably the work that has had most influence, in intellectual ntellectual world at least, is (The Confes sions of Saint Augustine) (354-430 A.D.). He wrote them shortly after he became bishop of Hippo, just before 400 A.D., when he was in his early forties. The fact that the book has main tained its popularity now for over 1,500 years shows from how close to the human heart it is written. For the Confessions are the history of Augustine's heart. We have two other sets of autobiographic documents from his hands, the (Retractations,) which are the story of his mind, and his letters, which give an account of his activities. These two are little known beyond the narrow circle of students of theology and Church history. Most writers of autobiography seem to think that it is the story of their minds and actions that will interest men around them. Augustine's immortal record of his affections which still continues to attract the attention of each generation of thinkers shows that it is by the heart men live. Saint Augustine's Confessions are not, however, as so many people imagine, an account of past deeds and above all not an avowal of youth ful transgressions as such. The word con fession is used in the biblical sense of the Latin word confiteri as an acknowledgment. Augustine's Confessions are quite literally the acknowledgment of a soul forced to admire the action of God within itself, though it has to admit the many obstacles that it placed in the way of Divine influence. It is full of the psy chology of human conduct, though so many people seem to think that only in comparatively recent years have men begun to reflect thus carefully on their inner activities. It has been said of the book, ((neither in respect of pene trating analysis of the most complex impres sions of the soul nor communicative feeling, nor elevation of sentiment, nor depth of philoso phic views, is there any book like it in all litera ture." As Augustine was one of the profound est intellectual geniuses of human history, famous above all for his marvelous insight into human motives and his capacity to describe the various states of the soul and the facts of the spiritual world, it can be readily understood why this little book in which he set no barriers in his desire to reveal for God's honor and glory all that had gone on within him in the motivation of his life should be of supreme human interest. He was a psychologist of the
psychologists, and while he was the greatest of the Fathers of the Church in the sense of be ing the authoritative expounder of the esoteric meaning of more of her doctrines than any other, he is also the patron and master in their own estimation of more of the heretics of the ages than any other, because the matter that he dealt with was so profound that it is rather easy to twist his meaning to anyone that the disciple to have in order to support his own opinion. The psychology of the (Con fessions) has probably more interest for our generation than other features of the work. The excursions into child psychology in the first book exemplifying that a child has def inite tendencies away from law and order to ward neglect of study and precept, learns not by rules but by example, and observes closely the inconsistencies of elders, have drawn many a one to reading the rest of the book. The boy Augustine was very human, hated Greek and liked °the empty tales of the poets,* and blames like everyone else the method of his education and yet confesses how much more of good than of ill came to him from it. He went through his salad years when he liked to pity himself and has a chapter uOn Weeping and Why It is Pleasant to Be Wretched)) Above all he shows very clearly how much personal af fection meant to him. The death of a friend overwhelms him, but companions serve to dis tract him; his mother rescues him, not his principles; he comes under the personal in fluence of Ambrose; always it is personality that draws him. He soon came to realize that the claims of his intellect for satisfaction were incapable of fulfilment. (Tor I withheld my heart from all assent dreading a downfall; and came nearer being killed by the suspense. For I wished to be as assured of the things I saw not, as I was that seven and three are ten.... But as it happens that one who has tried a bad physician fears to trust himself to a good one, so was it with the health of my soul, which could not be healed, but by believing, and for fear of believing falsehoods, refused to be cured?) (Book VI, chap. 4). Augustine's (Confessions) will probably always continue to be a favorite book for those who like himself have learned the lesson that the heart life of man is ever so much more important than his intellectual life. Consult (The Confessions of Saint Augustine) (The Ancient and Modern Library of Theological Literature, New York 1886) ; Schaff, Augustine) (ib. 1854); Farrar, (Lives of the Fathers) (London 1889); Harnack, (Augustins Confessionen) (Giessen 1895).• any modern writers on philosophic subjects have monographs on some phase of Augustine's thought: Renan, Eucken, Spald ing, McCabe, Reuter, etc.