{"id":"01KJR8Q6BTR6BA492WAHP9RF6S","cid":"bafkreighy4rbiic5f5iwktbc6piel3tkveuntwhi2jeoapydxcnoi3ol2u","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":228544,"char_start":220562,"chunk_index":31,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1996,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"all these things good. He indeed, the greater and chiefest Good, hath\r\ncreated these lesser goods; still both Creator and created, all are\r\ngood. Whence is evil? Or, was there some evil matter of which He made,\r\nand formed, and ordered it, yet left something in it which He did not\r\nconvert into good? Why so then? Had He no might to turn and change the\r\nwhole, so that no evil should remain in it, seeing He is All-mighty?\r\nLastly, why would He make any thing at all of it, and not rather by\r\nthe same All-mightiness cause it not to be at all? Or, could it then be\r\nagainst His will? Or if it were from eternity, why suffered He it so to\r\nbe for infinite spaces of times past, and was pleased so long after to\r\nmake something out of it? Or if He were suddenly pleased now to effect\r\nsomewhat, this rather should the All-mighty have effected, that this\r\nevil matter should not be, and He alone be, the whole, true, sovereign,\r\nand infinite Good. Or if it was not good that He who was good should not\r\nalso frame and create something that were good, then, that evil matter\r\nbeing taken away and brought to nothing, He might form good matter,\r\nwhereof to create all things. For He should not be All-mighty, if He\r\nmight not create something good without the aid of that matter which\r\nHimself had not created. These thoughts I revolved in my miserable\r\nheart, overcharged with most gnawing cares, lest I should die ere I had\r\nfound the truth; yet was the faith of Thy Christ, our Lord and Saviour,\r\nprofessed in the Church Catholic, firmly fixed in my heart, in many\r\npoints, indeed, as yet unformed, and fluctuating from the rule of\r\ndoctrine; yet did not my mind utterly leave it, but rather daily took in\r\nmore and more of it.\r\n\r\nBy this time also had I rejected the lying divinations and impious\r\ndotages of the astrologers. Let Thine own mercies, out of my very\r\ninmost soul, confess unto Thee for this also, O my God. For Thou, Thou\r\naltogether (for who else calls us back from the death of all errors,\r\nsave the Life which cannot die, and the Wisdom which needing no light\r\nenlightens the minds that need it, whereby the universe is directed,\r\ndown to the whirling leaves of trees?)--Thou madest provision for my\r\nobstinacy wherewith I struggled against Vindicianus, an acute old man,\r\nand Nebridius, a young man of admirable talents; the first vehemently\r\naffirming, and the latter often (though with some doubtfulness) saying,\r\n\"That there was no such art whereby to foresee things to come, but that\r\nmen's conjectures were a sort of lottery, and that out of many things\r\nwhich they said should come to pass, some actually did, unawares to them\r\nwho spake it, who stumbled upon it, through their oft speaking.\"\r\nThou providedst then a friend for me, no negligent consulter of the\r\nastrologers; nor yet well skilled in those arts, but (as I said) a\r\ncurious consulter with them, and yet knowing something, which he said\r\nhe had heard of his father, which how far it went to overthrow the\r\nestimation of that art, he knew not. This man then, Firminus by name,\r\nhaving had a liberal education, and well taught in Rhetoric, consulted\r\nme, as one very dear to him, what, according to his so-called\r\nconstellations, I thought on certain affairs of his, wherein his worldly\r\nhopes had risen, and I, who had herein now begun to incline towards\r\nNebridius' opinion, did not altogether refuse to conjecture, and tell\r\nhim what came into my unresolved mind; but added, that I was now almost\r\npersuaded that these were but empty and ridiculous follies. Thereupon he\r\ntold me that his father had been very curious in such books, and had\r\na friend as earnest in them as himself, who with joint study and\r\nconference fanned the flame of their affections to these toys, so that\r\nthey would observe the moments whereat the very dumb animals, which bred\r\nabout their houses, gave birth, and then observed the relative position\r\nof the heavens, thereby to make fresh experiments in this so-called art.\r\nHe said then that he had heard of his father, that what time his mother\r\nwas about to give birth to him, Firminus, a woman-servant of that friend\r\nof his father's was also with child, which could not escape her master,\r\nwho took care with most exact diligence to know the births of his very\r\npuppies. And so it was that (the one for his wife, and the other for his\r\nservant, with the most careful observation, reckoning days, hours,\r\nnay, the lesser divisions of the hours) both were delivered at the same\r\ninstant; so that both were constrained to allow the same constellations,\r\neven to the minutest points, the one for his son, the other for his\r\nnew-born slave. For so soon as the women began to be in labour, they\r\neach gave notice to the other what was fallen out in their houses, and\r\nhad messengers ready to send to one another so soon as they had notice\r\nof the actual birth, of which they had easily provided, each in his own\r\nprovince, to give instant intelligence. Thus then the messengers of\r\nthe respective parties met, he averred, at such an equal distance from\r\neither house that neither of them could make out any difference in the\r\nposition of the stars, or any other minutest points; and yet Firminus,\r\nborn in a high estate in his parents' house, ran his course through\r\nthe gilded paths of life, was increased in riches, raised to honours;\r\nwhereas that slave continued to serve his masters, without any\r\nrelaxation of his yoke, as Firminus, who knew him, told me.\r\n\r\nUpon hearing and believing these things, told by one of such\r\ncredibility, all that my resistance gave way; and first I endeavoured to\r\nreclaim Firminus himself from that curiosity, by telling him that upon\r\ninspecting his constellations, I ought if I were to predict truly, to\r\nhave seen in them parents eminent among their neighbours, a noble family\r\nin its own city, high birth, good education, liberal learning. But if\r\nthat servant had consulted me upon the same constellations, since they\r\nwere his also, I ought again (to tell him too truly) to see in them\r\na lineage the most abject, a slavish condition, and every thing else\r\nutterly at variance with the former. Whence then, if I spake the truth,\r\nI should, from the same constellations, speak diversely, or if I\r\nspake the same, speak falsely: thence it followed most certainly that\r\nwhatever, upon consideration of the constellations, was spoken truly,\r\nwas spoken not out of art, but chance; and whatever spoken falsely, was\r\nnot out of ignorance in the art, but the failure of the chance.\r\n\r\nAn opening thus made, ruminating with myself on the like things, that\r\nno one of those dotards (who lived by such a trade, and whom I longed\r\nto attack, and with derision to confute) might urge against me that\r\nFirminus had informed me falsely, or his father him; I bent my thoughts\r\non those that are born twins, who for the most part come out of the womb\r\nso near one to other, that the small interval (how much force soever\r\nin the nature of things folk may pretend it to have) cannot be noted\r\nby human observation, or be at all expressed in those figures which the\r\nastrologer is to inspect, that he may pronounce truly. Yet they cannot\r\nbe true: for looking into the same figures, he must have predicted the\r\nsame of Esau and Jacob, whereas the same happened not to them. Therefore\r\nhe must speak falsely; or if truly, then, looking into the same figures,\r\nhe must not give the same answer. Not by art, then, but by chance, would\r\nhe speak truly. For Thou, O Lord, most righteous Ruler of the Universe,\r\nwhile consulters and consulted know it not, dost by Thy hidden\r\ninspiration effect that the consulter should hear what, according to the\r\nhidden deservings of souls, he ought to hear, out of the unsearchable\r\ndepth of Thy just judgment, to Whom let no man say, What is this? Why\r\nthat? Let him not so say, for he is man.\r\n\r\nNow then, O my Helper, hadst Thou loosed me from those fetters: and I\r\nsought \"whence is evil,\" and found no way."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8RD2NFT9YY9Y8DW1AWFFS","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RPFFQNGQEAJM7Q3KS2KE","peer_label":"christ","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S3Z9HA9Q3Y8PJDK3K21E","peer_label":"evil","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8S57KZ045A71K7SZZ7HR6","peer_label":"church catholic","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"organization","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RB14M0H2QPE7EC4PSWPY","peer_label":"nebridius","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SMPR4JNYR0WD4CPB1NTX","peer_label":"creator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_being","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SMQQQ4FSWZYYA0FPCXQT","peer_label":"good","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SN556HAKWCKS29YP8KGR","peer_label":"firminuss father","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SN8DB94AVAPJRRB0FH21","peer_label":"friend of firminuss father","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SN8TFPB2WVRKH4YG0J76","peer_label":"astrology","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"practice","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SNGJVHV0Q164N7NQH2AG","peer_label":"firminus","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SNFNX0T1KD1KJ0E1ZTGF","peer_label":"vindicianus","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SNSSYM2C1F2CGKGQR2TR","peer_label":"constellations astrological","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SNFTVV6S4G52C2QYSVKW","peer_label":"chance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SP3BAZRPH0DGNN1TAN00","peer_label":"woman-servants child","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SP22RRS2VGRWGGNFQ5R6","peer_label":"twins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_phenomenon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SP6GB0AVXT0HPH7JF8JQ","peer_label":"ruler of the universe","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_aspect","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SP1YX1HAX5XXENWHGN9B","peer_label":"esau","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SPDW3889YN7SG1M8DPD6","peer_label":"gods just judgment","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_attribute","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SPQDVPS3EXWFHPH1J689","peer_label":"narrators fetters","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"figurative_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SNVEVCJE1SD11FMXX003","peer_label":"divergent fates","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"observation","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SPMG3M8WA0M7XE4ETHWJ","peer_label":"divine helper","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"divine_aspect","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SPE2J8BXY3A5QNZJ42AC","peer_label":"jacob","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:50.230Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.762Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:51.756Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}