written from the Year 411. to the end of his Life, that is, to 430. And the Fourth contains those whereof the time is not justly known, though they were certainly written after he was made Bishop. There are Two hundred and seventy in all. The Benedictines have taken away some Treatises, which were put among the Letters; and they have added those which he An∣swered. And lastly, Some are added, that were not published before.
The thirteen or fourteen first are about Philosophical Matters that St. Augustin used to dis∣course about with his Friends, when he was first Converted.
The First was written by St. Augustin to Hermogenianus, about the latter end of the Year 380. concerning the Books that he wrote against the Academicks. He tells him what his Aim was in writing them, and asketh his Advice about what he had said concerning those Philosophers. About the latter end of the Third Book, he commends the Academicks, and saith, That he was so far from Condemning them, that he had Imitated them. He blameth the false Acade∣micks of his own time, and calleth them stupid who believed the Soul to be Corporeal. He concludes, with saying, That he flatter'd not himself with triumphing over the Academicks, as Hermogenianus said; but that he thought himself happy, for being above despair of finding the Truth, which is the Food of the Soul; and that he had thereby broken that troublesom Chain which hinder'd him from fast'ning, as one may say, to the Breasts of the True Philosophy.
In the Second Letter, to Zenobius, he testifies his Sorrow for his being Absent, and his Impa∣tience to see him again, that they might resolve a Question which he had begun to examine. This Letter was written the same time with the foregoing.
The Third, to Nebridius, is about his Books of Soliloquies, composed in the beginning of the year 387. He speaketh there of his Happiness of having attained to the Knowledge of some particular Truths, and particularly of those concerning our Nature; confessing withal, That he was ignorant of many things. Among things unknown to Man, he proposeth these: Why the World is of such Bigness? or rather, How big it is? Why it is where it is, rather than any where else? He observes, That Bodies may be infinitely divided; and, That there is no Quantity but may be both infinitely encreased and diminished: That it is not so with Num∣bers, which may be infinitely encreased, but not diminished proportionably, seeing there is no∣thing below Unity.
In the next, directed to the same, and written about the same time, St. Augustin acquaints him with the Progress that he had made in the Knowledge of the Truth, during the time of his Retirement. We have not the other Letters, which he writ at that time to Nebridius, as appears by the Ninth Book of Confessions.
The Fifth and Sixth, are Letters written in Africa, by Nebridius, to St. Augustin, about the end of the Year 388. or the beginning of 389. In the First, Nebridius pitieth St. Austin, that he was interrupted in the Contemplation of the Truth by other Businesses. And in the Seeond, he tells him his Notion, That Memory cannot act without Imagination; and, That the Imagi∣nation draws her Images of Things from itself, and not from the Senses. St. Augustin resolves both these Questions in the Seventh Letter. To the former, he answereth, That we remember things which cannot be represented by Sensible Idea's: whence he concludes, That there is a Memory independent upon the Imagination. To the latter, That there are Three sorts of Images or Phantoms, in our Imagination; that some are transmitted by the Senses, and these represent such things as we have seen and felt. That the Second, that are formed by Imagina∣tion, represent such things as we never saw; and which, perhaps, are not, but which we fansie, or suppose to be, or to have been: And that the last arise from the Consideration of some Spe∣culative Truths, as Numbers and Dimensions. That without doubt, the first sort do not pro∣ceed from Sense; but we must grant, that the Second have their Original from Sense, since they represent nothing but what is true. That the last, though they seem to spring from the Reasons and Principles of Sciences, which lead not into Error, yet are false; because they re∣present Spiritual Things, as if they were Corporeal and Extended. Whence he concludes, That the Soul doth not imagine the things that it does not see, and that it doth not feel, but either by lessening or by encreasing the Images of what it hath seen or felt.
The following Letters, to the Thirteenth, are directed to Nebridius, though the Years are not precisely known: it is certain, that they were written before St. Augustin was Ordained, be∣cause Nebridius died before that time. In the Eighth, Nebridius asketh St. Augustin, How Daemons can make us Dream? St. Augustin answers him in the Ninth, That they do it, by stir∣ring those Parts of the Body which can make an Impression upon the Soul, after the same man∣ner as Musical Instruments excite in us certain Thoughts, Passions and Affections. In the Tenth, St. Augustin proposes to Nebridius, To live together retired: And he setteth forth the Advantages of Solitude. In the Eleventh, he endeavours to explain that Question in Divinity, How the Three Persons being inseparable, the Son alone was made Man? Having diligently studied how to answer it, he tells Nebridius, That the understanding of Mysteries, is got only by Piety: That this is the surest way to compass it, and therefore that Men ought chiefly to give up themselves to the Practice thereof. He had also handled that Question in the Twelfth Letter, but it is imperfect. In the Thirteenth, he advises Nebridius not to think any longer, that the Soul hath another thinner Body than that which we see, it being impossible to resolve that Question, since our Senses cannot discern such a Body, and Reason cannot discover any such thing to us.