{"id":"01KJR8Q6E21YXB0T9VEQ1XEAC4","cid":"bafkreidey7t2huoukwbvatn3yefxntwv53i7mm4kwmybrkjqycgwbsrnde","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":335122,"char_start":327395,"chunk_index":46,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":1932,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"husband, not in deed only, but not even in word. Only when he was\r\nsmoothed and tranquil, and in a temper to receive it, she would give an\r\naccount of her actions, if haply he had overhastily taken offence. In\r\na word, while many matrons, who had milder husbands, yet bore even in\r\ntheir faces marks of shame, would in familiar talk blame their husbands'\r\nlives, she would blame their tongues, giving them, as in jest, earnest\r\nadvice: \"That from the time they heard the marriage writings read to\r\nthem, they should account them as indentures, whereby they were\r\nmade servants; and so, remembering their condition, ought not to set\r\nthemselves up against their lords.\" And when they, knowing what a\r\ncholeric husband she endured, marvelled that it had never been heard,\r\nnor by any token perceived, that Patricius had beaten his wife, or that\r\nthere had been any domestic difference between them, even for one day,\r\nand confidentially asking the reason, she taught them her practice above\r\nmentioned. Those wives who observed it found the good, and returned\r\nthanks; those who observed it not, found no relief, and suffered.\r\n\r\nHer mother-in-law also, at first by whisperings of evil servants\r\nincensed against her, she so overcame by observance and persevering\r\nendurance and meekness, that she of her own accord discovered to her\r\nson the meddling tongues whereby the domestic peace betwixt her and her\r\ndaughter-in-law had been disturbed, asking him to correct them. Then,\r\nwhen in compliance with his mother, and for the well-ordering of the\r\nfamily, he had with stripes corrected those discovered, at her will who\r\nhad discovered them, she promised the like reward to any who, to please\r\nher, should speak ill of her daughter-in-law to her: and none now\r\nventuring, they lived together with a remarkable sweetness of mutual\r\nkindness.\r\n\r\nThis great gift also thou bestowedst, O my God, my mercy, upon that good\r\nhandmaid of Thine, in whose womb Thou createdst me, that between any\r\ndisagreeing and discordant parties where she was able, she showed\r\nherself such a peacemaker, that hearing on both sides most bitter\r\nthings, such as swelling and indigested choler uses to break out into,\r\nwhen the crudities of enmities are breathed out in sour discourses to a\r\npresent friend against an absent enemy, she never would disclose aught\r\nof the one unto the other, but what might tend to their reconcilement.\r\nA small good this might appear to me, did I not to my grief know\r\nnumberless persons, who through some horrible and wide-spreading\r\ncontagion of sin, not only disclose to persons mutually angered things\r\nsaid in anger, but add withal things never spoken, whereas to humane\r\nhumanity, it ought to seem a light thing not to foment or increase ill\r\nwill by ill words, unless one study withal by good words to quench it.\r\nSuch was she, Thyself, her most inward Instructor, teaching her in the\r\nschool of the heart.\r\n\r\nFinally, her own husband, towards the very end of his earthly life,\r\ndid she gain unto Thee; nor had she to complain of that in him as a\r\nbeliever, which before he was a believer she had borne from him. She was\r\nalso the servant of Thy servants; whosoever of them knew her, did in her\r\nmuch praise and honour and love Thee; for that through the witness of\r\nthe fruits of a holy conversation they perceived Thy presence in her\r\nheart. For she had been the wife of one man, had requited her parents,\r\nhad governed her house piously, was well reported of for good works, had\r\nbrought up children, so often travailing in birth of them, as she saw\r\nthem swerving from Thee. Lastly, of all of us Thy servants, O Lord (whom\r\non occasion of Thy own gift Thou sufferest to speak), us, who before her\r\nsleeping in Thee lived united together, having received the grace of Thy\r\nbaptism, did she so take care of, as though she had been mother of us\r\nall; so served us, as though she had been child to us all.\r\n\r\nThe day now approaching whereon she was to depart this life (which day\r\nThou well knewest, we knew not), it came to pass, Thyself, as I believe,\r\nby Thy secret ways so ordering it, that she and I stood alone, leaning\r\nin a certain window, which looked into the garden of the house where we\r\nnow lay, at Ostia; where removed from the din of men, we were recruiting\r\nfrom the fatigues of a long journey, for the voyage. We were discoursing\r\nthen together, alone, very sweetly; and forgetting those things which\r\nare behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, we\r\nwere enquiring between ourselves in the presence of the Truth, which\r\nThou art, of what sort the eternal life of the saints was to be, which\r\neye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of\r\nman. But yet we gasped with the mouth of our heart, after those heavenly\r\nstreams of Thy fountain, the fountain of life, which is with Thee; that\r\nbeing bedewed thence according to our capacity, we might in some sort\r\nmeditate upon so high a mystery.\r\n\r\nAnd when our discourse was brought to that point, that the very highest\r\ndelight of the earthly senses, in the very purest material light,\r\nwas, in respect of the sweetness of that life, not only not worthy of\r\ncomparison, but not even of mention; we raising up ourselves with a more\r\nglowing affection towards the \"Self-same,\" did by degrees pass through\r\nall things bodily, even the very heaven whence sun and moon and stars\r\nshine upon the earth; yea, we were soaring higher yet, by inward musing,\r\nand discourse, and admiring of Thy works; and we came to our own\r\nminds, and went beyond them, that we might arrive at that region of\r\nnever-failing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food\r\nof truth, and where life is the Wisdom by whom all these things are\r\nmade, and what have been, and what shall be, and she is not made, but\r\nis, as she hath been, and so shall she be ever; yea rather, to \"have\r\nbeen,\" and \"hereafter to be,\" are not in her, but only \"to be,\" seeing\r\nshe is eternal. For to \"have been,\" and to \"be hereafter,\" are not\r\neternal. And while we were discoursing and panting after her, we\r\nslightly touched on her with the whole effort of our heart; and we\r\nsighed, and there we leave bound the first fruits of the Spirit; and\r\nreturned to vocal expressions of our mouth, where the word spoken\r\nhas beginning and end. And what is like unto Thy Word, our Lord, who\r\nendureth in Himself without becoming old, and maketh all things new?\r\n\r\nWe were saying then: If to any the tumult of the flesh were hushed,\r\nhushed the images of earth, and waters, and air, hushed also the pole of\r\nheaven, yea the very soul be hushed to herself, and by not thinking on\r\nself surmount self, hushed all dreams and imaginary revelations, every\r\ntongue and every sign, and whatsoever exists only in transition, since\r\nif any could hear, all these say, We made not ourselves, but He made us\r\nthat abideth for ever--If then having uttered this, they too should be\r\nhushed, having roused only our ears to Him who made them, and He alone\r\nspeak, not by them but by Himself, that we may hear His Word, not\r\nthrough any tongue of flesh, nor Angel's voice, nor sound of thunder,\r\nnor in the dark riddle of a similitude, but might hear Whom in these\r\nthings we love, might hear His Very Self without these (as we two now\r\nstrained ourselves, and in swift thought touched on that Eternal Wisdom\r\nwhich abideth over all);--could this be continued on, and other visions\r\nof kind far unlike be withdrawn, and this one ravish, and absorb, and\r\nwrap up its beholder amid these inward joys, so that life might be for\r\never like that one moment of understanding which now we sighed after;\r\nwere not this, Enter into thy Master's joy? And when shall that be?"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8RBE420Z52P5C5FRBHSX6","peer_label":"god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"deity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RE71PSPPBJRG93SCC3AV","peer_label":"patricius","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDRQWGMRPCNWYD6HTBGE","peer_label":"narrators mother","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RY1K1EDJEAPZP8XTDBA9","peer_label":"creation","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RWT959EQ3JJA2N113Q78","peer_label":"augustine the narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SD4VDRZPC72AEXTXK49S","peer_label":"patriciuss mother","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SE1S0T92PAGK8J21TEMP","peer_label":"wisdom divine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SDCNGKGB1GJM1V4J77BM","peer_label":"ostia","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"settlement","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SE16H2DWYMHZZXPWEQ51","peer_label":"grace of baptism","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SEBGT2V19N4MYXK9W0P2","peer_label":"eternal life of the saints","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"theological_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SECRB0MFAQHR1V7A9R0P","peer_label":"marriage writings","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"legal_document","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SEJT52YMWJEMMGEDJEKJ","peer_label":"gods servants","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SEXR6AXXH5JJT8CCJA69","peer_label":"evil servants","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8SFF54BV53Z7NK75GZEHW","peer_label":"other matrons","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:42.026Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.834Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:43.272Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}