§ 179. THE WOKKS OF AUGUSTINE. 1005
I. Autobiographical works. To these belong the Coiifes sions and the Eetractations ; the former acknowledging his sins, the latter his theoretical errors. In the one he subject! his life, in the other his writings, to close criticism ; and these productions therefore furnish the best standard for judging of his entire labors." ^
The Confessions are the most profitable, at least the most edifying, product of his pen ; indeed, we may no doubt say, the most edifying book in all the patristic literature. They were accordingly the most read even during his lifetime,* and they have been the most frequently published since.' A more
' For this reason the Benedictine editors have placed the Retractations and the Confessions at the head of his works.
' He himself says of them, Retract. 1. ii. c. 6 : " Multis fratribus eos [Confessionum libros tredecim] multum placuisse ei placere scio." Comp. De dono perseverantias, c. 20 : " Quid autem nieorum opusculorum frequentius et delectabiliua innotescere potuit quam libri Confessionum meanim?" Comp. Ep. 231 Dario comiti.
' ScHONEMANN (in the supplemental volume of Migne's ed. of Augustine, p. 134 sqq.) cites a multitude of separate editions of the Confessions in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, and German, from a. d. 1475 to 1776. Since that time several new editions have been added. There are German translations by H. Kautz (R. C, Amsberg, 1840), G. Rapp (Prot., 2d ed., Stuttg., 1847), and others. The best English edition is that of Dr. E. B. Puset : The Confessions of S. Augustine, Oxford (first in 18-38, as the first volume in the Oxf. Library of the Fathers, together with an edition of the Latin original). It is, however, as Dr. Pusey says, only a revision of the translation of Rev. W. Watts, D. D., London, 16.50, accompanied with a long preface (pp. i-xxxv) and elucidations from Augustine's works in notes and at the end (pp. 314-346). The edition of Dr. W. G. T. Shedd, Andover, 1860, is, as he says, "a reprint of an old translation by an author unknown to the editor, which was republished in Boston in 1843." A cursory comparison shows, that this anonymous Boston reprint agrees almost word for word with Pusey's revision of Watts, omitting his introduction and all his notes. Dr. Shedd has, however, added an excellent original introduction, in which he clearly and vigorously characterizes the Confessions and draws a comparison between them and the Confessions of Rousseau. He calls the former (p. xxvil) not inaptly the best commentary yet written upon the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans. "That quickening of the human spirit, which puts it igain into vital and sensitive relations to the holy and eternal ; that illumination of the mind, whereby it is enabled to perceive with clearness the real nature of truth and righteousness ; that empowering of the will, to th« conflict of \'ictory — the entire process of restoring the Divine image in the soul of man — is delineated in this book, with a vividness and reality never exceeded by the uninspired mind." . . . " It is the hfe of God in the soul of a strong man, r ish ■ ing and rippling with the freedom of the life of nature. He who watches can abnoal
1006 TIIIKD I'KRIOD. A.D. 311-590.
sincere and more earnest book was never .written. Tlie ]listo^ ieal part, to the tenth book, is one of the devotional classics of all creeds, and second in popularity only to the " Imitation of Christ," by Tiiomas a Kempis, and Banyan's " Pilgrim's Progress." Certainly no autobiography is superior to it in true liuniility, spiritual depth, and universal interest. Augustine's experience, as a heathen sensualist, a Maniclifean heretic, an anxious inquirer, a sincere penitent, and a grateful convert, is reflected in every human soul that struggles through the temptations of nature and the labyrinth of error to the knowledge of truth and the beauty of holiness, and after many sigha and tears finds rest and peace in the arms of a merciful Saviour. Rousseau's " Confessions," and Goethe's " Truth and Poetry," though written in a radically different spirit, may be compared with Augustine's Confessions as works of rare genius and of absorbing interest, but, by attempting to exalt human nature in its unsanctified state, they tend as much to expose its vanity and weakness, as the work of the bishop of Hip2:)0, being written with a single eye to the glory of God, raises man from the dust of repentance to a new and imperishable life of the Spirit.'
Augustine composed the Confessions about the year 397. The first ten books contain, in the form of a continuous prayer and confession before God, a general sketch of his earlier life, of his conversion, and of his return to Africa in the thirtyfourth year of his age. The salient points in tiiese l)ooks are the engaging history of his conversion in Milan, and the story of the last days of his noble mother in Ostia, spent as it were at the very gate of heaven and in full assurance of a blessed reunion at the throne of gl-ory. The last three books (and a part of the tenth) are devoted to speculative philosophy ; they treat, partly in tacit opposition to Manichseism, of the
Bee the growth ; he wlio listens can hear the perpetual motion ; and lie who ia in sympathy will be swept along."
' NoDRRissoN (1. c. torn. i. p. 19) calls the Confessions "cot ouvrage uniqiie, BOiivent imit6, toujours parodied, oi il s'acouse, se condamne et s'huinilic, priire ardonte, r^eit entrainant, md'taphysique incomparable, histoire de tout un mondf •jui se reflJite dans Thistoire d'une !ime."