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| That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.
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Chapter IV.—That the Knowledge of
Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the
Knowledge of God Only.
7. Doth, then, O Lord God of truth, whosoever
knoweth those things therefore please Thee? For unhappy is the man
who knoweth all those things, but knoweth Thee not; but happy is he
who knoweth Thee, though these he may not know.381
| 381 What a contrast does his attitude here present to
his supreme regard for secular learning before his conversion! We
have constantly in his writings expressions of the same kind. On
Psalm ciii. he dilates lovingly on the fount of happiness the word
of God is, as compared with the writings of Cicero, Tully, and
Plato; and again on Psalm xxxviii. he shows that the word is the
source of all true joy. So likewise in De Trin. iv. 1:
“That mind is more praiseworthy which knows even its own
weakness, than that which, without regard to this, searches out and
even comes to know the ways of the stars, or which holds fast such
knowledge already acquired, while ignorant of the way by which
itself to enter into its own proper health and strength.…Such a
one has preferred to know his own weakness, rather than to know the
walls of the world, the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles
of heaven.” See iii. sec. 9, note, above. | But he who knoweth both Thee and
them is not the happier on account of them, but is happy on account
of Thee only, if knowing Thee he glorify Thee as God, and gives
thanks, and becomes not vain in his thoughts.382
But as he is happier who knows how
to possess a tree, and for the use thereof renders thanks to Thee,
although he may not know how many cubits high it is, or how wide it
spreads, than he that measures it and counts all its branches, and
neither owns it nor knows or loves its Creator; so a just man,
whose is the entire world of wealth,383
| 383 Prov. xvii. 6, in the LXX. | and who, as having nothing, yet
possesseth all things384
by cleaving unto Thee, to whom all
things are subservient, though he know not even the circles of the
Great Bear, yet it is foolish to doubt but that he may verily be
better than he who can measure the heavens, and number the stars,
and weigh the elements, but is forgetful of Thee, “who hast set
in order all things in number, weight, and measure.”385
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