{"id":"01KJR8Q6AHBG22RK001W0055VV","cid":"bafkreihk4ke5hczmidc65bjfvugt3z6gqgcs4wvvqn5djhhqx7cjxfnmde","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":120988,"char_start":113009,"chunk_index":16,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1995,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"truth is loved. He is within the very heart, yet hath the heart strayed\r\nfrom Him. Go back into your heart, ye transgressors, and cleave fast to\r\nHim that made you. Stand with Him, and ye shall stand fast. Rest in Him,\r\nand ye shall be at rest. Whither go ye in rough ways? Whither go ye?\r\nThe good that you love is from Him; but it is good and pleasant through\r\nreference to Him, and justly shall it be embittered, because unjustly is\r\nany thing loved which is from Him, if He be forsaken for it. To what end\r\nthen would ye still and still walk these difficult and toilsome ways?\r\nThere is no rest, where ye seek it. Seek what ye seek; but it is not\r\nthere where ye seek. Ye seek a blessed life in the land of death; it is\r\nnot there. For how should there be a blessed life where life itself is\r\nnot?\r\n\r\n\"But our true Life came down hither, and bore our death, and slew him,\r\nout of the abundance of His own life: and He thundered, calling aloud to\r\nus to return hence to Him into that secret place, whence He came forth\r\nto us, first into the Virgin's womb, wherein He espoused the human\r\ncreation, our mortal flesh, that it might not be for ever mortal, and\r\nthence like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, rejoicing as a giant\r\nto run his course. For He lingered not, but ran, calling aloud by words,\r\ndeeds, death, life, descent, ascension; crying aloud to us to return\r\nunto Him. And He departed from our eyes, that we might return into our\r\nheart, and there find Him. For He departed, and lo, He is here. He would\r\nnot be long with us, yet left us not; for He departed thither, whence\r\nHe never parted, because the world was made by Him. And in this world\r\nHe was, and into this world He came to save sinners, unto whom my soul\r\nconfesseth, and He healeth it, for it hath sinned against Him. O ye sons\r\nof men, how long so slow of heart? Even now, after the descent of Life\r\nto you, will ye not ascend and live? But whither ascend ye, when ye are\r\non high, and set your mouth against the heavens? Descend, that ye may\r\nascend, and ascend to God. For ye have fallen, by ascending against\r\nHim.\" Tell them this, that they may weep in the valley of tears, and\r\nso carry them up with thee unto God; because out of His spirit thou\r\nspeakest thus unto them, if thou speakest, burning with the fire of\r\ncharity.\r\n\r\nThese things I then knew not, and I loved these lower beauties, and I\r\nwas sinking to the very depths, and to my friends I said, \"Do we love\r\nany thing but the beautiful? What then is the beautiful? and what is\r\nbeauty? What is it that attracts and wins us to the things we love? for\r\nunless there were in them a grace and beauty, they could by no\r\nmeans draw us unto them.\" And I marked and perceived that in bodies\r\nthemselves, there was a beauty, from their forming a sort of whole, and\r\nagain, another from apt and mutual correspondence, as of a part of\r\nthe body with its whole, or a shoe with a foot, and the like. And this\r\nconsideration sprang up in my mind, out of my inmost heart, and I wrote\r\n\"on the fair and fit,\" I think, two or three books. Thou knowest, O\r\nLord, for it is gone from me; for I have them not, but they are strayed\r\nfrom me, I know not how.\r\n\r\nBut what moved me, O Lord my God, to dedicate these books unto Hierius,\r\nan orator of Rome, whom I knew not by face, but loved for the fame\r\nof his learning which was eminent in him, and some words of his I had\r\nheard, which pleased me? But more did he please me, for that he pleased\r\nothers, who highly extolled him, amazed that out of a Syrian, first\r\ninstructed in Greek eloquence, should afterwards be formed a wonderful\r\nLatin orator, and one most learned in things pertaining unto philosophy.\r\nOne is commended, and, unseen, he is loved: doth this love enter the\r\nheart of the hearer from the mouth of the commender? Not so. But by one\r\nwho loveth is another kindled. For hence he is loved who is commended,\r\nwhen the commender is believed to extol him with an unfeigned heart;\r\nthat is, when one that loves him, praises him.\r\n\r\nFor so did I then love men, upon the judgment of men, not Thine, O my\r\nGod, in Whom no man is deceived. But yet why not for qualities, like\r\nthose of a famous charioteer, or fighter with beasts in the theatre,\r\nknown far and wide by a vulgar popularity, but far otherwise, and\r\nearnestly, and so as I would be myself commended? For I would not be\r\ncommended or loved, as actors are (though I myself did commend and love\r\nthem), but had rather be unknown, than so known; and even hated, than\r\nso loved. Where now are the impulses to such various and divers kinds of\r\nloves laid up in one soul? Why, since we are equally men, do I love\r\nin another what, if I did not hate, I should not spurn and cast from\r\nmyself? For it holds not, that as a good horse is loved by him, who\r\nwould not, though he might, be that horse, therefore the same may be\r\nsaid of an actor, who shares our nature. Do I then love in a man, what I\r\nhate to be, who am a man? Man himself is a great deep, whose very hairs\r\nThou numberest, O Lord, and they fall not to the ground without Thee.\r\nAnd yet are the hairs of his head easier to be numbered than his\r\nfeelings, and the beatings of his heart.\r\n\r\nBut that orator was of that sort whom I loved, as wishing to be myself\r\nsuch; and I erred through a swelling pride, and was tossed about with\r\nevery wind, but yet was steered by Thee, though very secretly. And\r\nwhence do I know, and whence do I confidently confess unto Thee, that\r\nI had loved him more for the love of his commenders, than for the very\r\nthings for which he was commended? Because, had he been unpraised, and\r\nthese self-same men had dispraised him, and with dispraise and contempt\r\ntold the very same things of him, I had never been so kindled and\r\nexcited to love him. And yet the things had not been other, nor he\r\nhimself other; but only the feelings of the relators. See where the\r\nimpotent soul lies along, that is not yet stayed up by the solidity\r\nof truth! Just as the gales of tongues blow from the breast of the\r\nopinionative, so is it carried this way and that, driven forward and\r\nbackward, and the light is overclouded to it, and the truth unseen. And\r\nlo, it is before us. And it was to me a great matter, that my discourse\r\nand labours should be known to that man: which should he approve, I were\r\nthe more kindled; but if he disapproved, my empty heart, void of Thy\r\nsolidity, had been wounded. And yet the \"fair and fit,\" whereon I wrote\r\nto him, I dwelt on with pleasure, and surveyed it, and admired it,\r\nthough none joined therein.\r\n\r\nBut I saw not yet, whereon this weighty matter turned in Thy wisdom,\r\nO Thou Omnipotent, who only doest wonders; and my mind ranged through\r\ncorporeal forms; and \"fair,\" I defined and distinguished what is so\r\nin itself, and \"fit,\" whose beauty is in correspondence to some other\r\nthing: and this I supported by corporeal examples. And I turned to\r\nthe nature of the mind, but the false notion which I had of spiritual\r\nthings, let me not see the truth. Yet the force of truth did of itself\r\nflash into mine eyes, and I turned away my panting soul from incorporeal\r\nsubstance to lineaments, and colours, and bulky magnitudes. And not\r\nbeing able to see these in the mind, I thought I could not see my mind.\r\nAnd whereas in virtue I loved peace, and in viciousness I abhorred\r\ndiscord; in the first I observed a unity, but in the other, a sort\r\nof division. And in that unity I conceived the rational soul, and the\r\nnature of truth and of the chief good to consist; but in this division\r\nI miserably imagined there to be some unknown substance of irrational\r\nlife, and the nature of the chief evil, which should not only be a\r\nsubstance, but real life also, and yet not derived from Thee, O my God,\r\nof whom are all things. And yet that first I called a Monad, as it had\r\nbeen a soul without sex; but the latter a Duad;--anger, in deeds of\r\nviolence, and in flagitiousness, lust; not knowing whereof I spake."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8R5M8VXDW8Z6YHQTCPK14","peer_label":"god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_being","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RAPB0WWXA289YX71C14C","peer_label":"rome","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RM7YG5SEXHBRC0W84Y9G","peer_label":"truth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RNQGDCZJYQB426MTA3K6","peer_label":"augustine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMCHASPYH9FMTMDKEGPX","peer_label":"rational soul","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMJJWXFR3WYYR9N68JJV","peer_label":"chief good","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMSVEDWPZZD1PQ29EFYN","peer_label":"chief evil","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMC9QSV76TKK67YM9KTT","peer_label":"heart","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"spiritual_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMGG69MK3TR3Y356CQA7","peer_label":"beauty","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMHW9PS3KERAAF0RH9VX","peer_label":"blessed life","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMHH691CD6ES8FP92Q8K","peer_label":"death","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RMD9M7KRR73A678TVC3N","peer_label":"on the fair and fit","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_work","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RN4C8MS1XT3HK514KBHN","peer_label":"monad","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RN1664DA21CS6YPBZ6GX","peer_label":"virgins womb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RN28BF2HCNVDGJ2T1TZM","peer_label":"human creation mortal flesh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RN6X09YCFPZ7T0KNNFZW","peer_label":"duad","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RNQ983X83VKERKDCC35F","peer_label":"fair beauty aspect","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RNWQQ2XKC2Q6N31KWKG7","peer_label":"hierius","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RP1NPRPXRQD5AQWD1NWQ","peer_label":"fit beauty aspect","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RNXF8E927KB351F7GRTN","peer_label":"philosophy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"field_of_study","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RPD1MXBNQGKTCHE1MRN7","peer_label":"syrian","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RQ1SBBXDVS1WESHZPCDY","peer_label":"greek eloquence","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RQTR7HG4NHXJQBW02C97","peer_label":"our true life","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:17.270Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.721Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:18.361Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}