A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

422 AUGUSTINUS.
them all for the composition of many of his ablest
and most interesting works. His history, from the
time of his elevation to the see of Hippo, is so
closely implicated with the Donatistic and Pelagian controversies, that it would be impracticable
to pursue its details within our prescribed limits.
For a full and accurate account of the part which
he took in these memorable contentions, the reader
is referred to the life of Augustin contained in the
eleventh volume of the Benedictine edition of his
works, and to the thirteenth volume of Tillemont's
" Memoires pour servir l'PHistoire Ecclesiastique,"
-a quarto of 1075 pages devoted entirely to the
life and writings of this eminent father. Of those
of his numerous works which we have not already
noticed, we mention the three following, as especially interesting and important: His Confessions,
in thirteen books, were written in the year 397.
They are addressed to the Almighty, and contain
an account of Augustin's life down to the time
when he was deprived of his mother by death.
The last three books are occupied with an allegorical explanation of the Mosaic account of the creation. His autobiography is written with great
genius and feeling; and though the interspersed
addresses to the Deity break the order of the narrative, and extend over a large portion of the work,
they are too fine in themselves, and too characteristic of the author, to allow us to complain of their
length and frequency. The celebrated treatise, de
Civitate Dei, commenced about the year 413, was
not finished before A. D. 426. Its object and structure cannot be better exhibited than in the author's
own words, taken from the 47th chapter of the second book of his Retractationes: "Interea Roma
Gothorum irruptione, agentium sub rege Alarico,
atque impetu magnae cladis eversa est: cujus eversionem deorum falsorum multorumque cultores,
quos usitato nomine Paganos vocamus, in Christianam religionem referre conantes, solito acerbius
et amarius Deum verum blasphemare coeperunt.
Unde ego exardescens zelo domus Dei, adversus
eorum blasphemias vel errores, libros de Civilate
Dei scribere institui. Quod opus per aliquot ann6s
me tenuit, eo quod alia multa intercurrebant, quae
differre non oporteret, et me prius ad solvendum
occupabant. Hoc autem de Civitate Dei grande
opus tandem viginti duobus libris est terminatum.
Quorum quinque primi eos refellunt, qui res humanas ita prosperari volunt, ut ad hoc multorum
deorum cultum, quos Pagani colere consuerunt, necessarium esse arbitrentur; et quia prohibetur, mala
ista exoriri atque abundare contendunt. Sequentes
autem quinque adversus eos loquuntur, qui fatentur
haec mala, nec defuisse unquam, nec defutura mortalibus; et ea nunc magna, nunc parva, locis, temporibus, personisque, variari: sed deorum multorum
cultum, quo eis sacrificatur, propter vitam post
mortem futuram, esse utilem disputant. His ergo
decem libris duae istae vanae opiniones Christianae
religionis adversariae refelluntur. Sed ne quisquam
nos aliena tantum redarguisse, non autem nostra
asseruisse, reprehenderet, id agit pars altera operis
hujus, quae duodecim libris continetur. Quamquam,
ubi opus est, et in prioribus decem quae nostra sunt
asseramus, et in duodecim posterioribus redarguamus adversa. Duodecim ergo librorum sequentium,
primi quatuor continent exortum duarum Civitatum,
quarum est una Dei, altera hujus mundi. Secundi
quatuor excursum earum sive procursum. Tertii
vero, qui et postremi, debitos fines. Ita omnes

AUGUSTINUS.
viginti et duo libri cum sint de utraque Civitate
conscripti, titulum tamen a meliore acceperunt, ut
de Civitate Dei potius vocarentur." The learning
displayed in this remarkable work is extensive rather than profound; its contents are too miscellaneous and desultory, and its reasonings are often
more ingenious than satisfactory. Yet, after every
due abatement has been made, it will maintain its
reputation as one of the most extraordinary productions of human intellect and industry. The
Retractationes of Augustin, written in the year
428, deserve notice as evincing the singular candour of the author. It consists of a review of all
his own productions; and besides explanations and
qualifications of much that he had written, it not
unfrequently presents acknowledgments of downright errors and mistakes. It is one of the noblest
sacrifices ever laid upon the altar of truth by a
majestic intellect acting in obedience to the purest
conscientiousness.
The life of Augustin closed amidst scenes of
violence and blood. The Vandals under the ferocious Genseric invaded the north of Africa, A. D.
429, and in the following year laid siege to Hippo.
Full of grief for the sufferings which he witnessed
and the dangers he foreboded, the aged bishop
prayed that God would grant his people a deliverance from these dreadful calamities, or else supply
them with the fortitude to endure their woes: foi
himself he besought a speedy liberation from the
flesh. His prayer was granted; and in the third
month of the siege, on the 28th of August, 430,
Augustin breathed his last, in the seventy-sixth
year of his age. The character of this eminent
man is admitted on all hands to have been marked
by conspicuous excellence after his profession of
the Christian faith. The only faults of which he
can be accused are an occasional excess of severity
in his controversial writings, and a ready acquiescence in the persecution of the Donatists. His intellect was in a very high degree vigorous, acute,
and comprehensive; and he possessed to the last a
fund of ingenuous sensibility, which gives an indescribable charm to most of his compositions. His
style is full of life and force, but deficient both in
purity and in elegance. His learning seems to
have been principally confined to the Latin authors;
of Greek he knew but little, and of Hebrew nothing. His theological opinions varied considerably
even after he became a Christian; and it was
during the later period of his life that he adopted
those peculiar tenets with regard to grace, predestination, and free-will, which in modern times
have been called Augustinian. His influence in
his own and in every succeeding age has been immense. Even in the Roman Catholic Church his
authority is professedly held in high esteem; although his later theological system has in reality
been proscribed by every party in that communion,
except the learned, philosophic, and devout fraternity of the Jansenists. The early Reformers drank
deeply into the spirit of his speculative theology;
and many even of those who recoil most shrinkingly from his doctrine of predestination, have
done ample justice to his surpassing energy of intellect, and to the warmth and purity of his religious feelings.
The earliest edition of the collected works of
Augustin is that of the celebrated Amerbach, which
appeared in nine volumes folio, at Basle, 1506, and
was reprinted at Paris in 1515. This edition did