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| Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away.
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Chapter XXX.—Of the Perverse
Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away.
41. Verily, Thou commandest that I should be
continent from the “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life.”880
Thou hast commanded me to abstain
from concubinage; and as to marriage itself, Thou hast advised
something better than Thou hast allowed. And because Thou didst
give it, it was done; and that before I became a dispenser of Thy
sacrament. But there still exist in my memory—of which I have
spoken much—the images of such things as my habits had fixed
there; and these rush into my thoughts, though strengthless, when I
am awake; but in sleep they do so not only so as to give pleasure,
but even to obtain consent, and what very nearly resembles
reality.881
| 881 In Augustin’s view, then, dreams appear to result
from our thoughts and feelings when awake. In this he has the
support of Aristotle (Ethics, i. 13), as also that of
Solomon, who says (Eccles. v. 3), “A dream cometh through
the multitude of business.” An apt illustration of this is found
in the life of the great Danish sculptor, Thorwaldsen. It is said
that he could not satisfy himself with his models for The
Christ, in the Frauenkirche at Copenhagen,—as Da Vinci before
him was never able to paint the face of the Christ in His
noble fresco of the Last Supper,—and that it was only in
consequence of a dream (that dream doubtless the result of his
stedfast search for an ideal) that this great work was
accomplished. But see Ep. clix. | Yea, to such
an extent prevails the illusion of the image, both in my soul and
in my flesh, that the false persuade me,
when sleeping, unto that which the true
are not able when waking. Am I not myself at that time, O Lord my
God? And there is yet so much difference between myself and myself,
in that instant wherein I pass back from waking to sleeping, or
return from sleeping to waking! Where, then, is the reason which
when waking resists such suggestions? And if the things themselves
be forced on it, I remain unmoved. Is it shut up with the eyes? Or
is it put to sleep with the bodily senses? But whence, then, comes
it to pass, that even in slumber we often resist, and, bearing our
purpose in mind, and continuing most chastely in it, yield no
assent to such allurements? And there is yet so much difference
that, when it happeneth otherwise, upon awaking we return to peace
of conscience; and by this same diversity do we discover that it
was not we that did it, while we still feel sorry that in some way
it was done in us.
42. Is not Thy hand able, O Almighty God, to
heal all the diseases of my soul,882
and by Thy more abundant grace to
quench even the lascivious motions of my sleep? Thou wilt increase
in me, O Lord, Thy gifts more and more, that my soul may follow me
to Thee, disengaged from the bird-lime of concupiscence; that it
may not be in rebellion against itself, and even in dreams not
simply not, through sensual images, commit those deformities of
corruption, even to the pollution of the flesh, but that it may not
even consent unto them. For it is no great thing for the Almighty,
who is “able to do . . . above all that we ask or think,”883
to bring it
about that no such influence—not even so slight a one as a sign
might restrain—should afford gratification to the chaste
affection even of one sleeping; and that not only in this life, but
at my present age. But what I still am in this species of my ill,
have I confessed unto my good Lord; rejoicing with trembling884
in that
which Thou hast given me, and bewailing myself for that wherein I
am still imperfect; trusting that Thou wilt perfect Thy mercies in
me, even to the fulness of peace, which both that which is within
and that which is without885
| 885 See note 4, p. 140, above. | shall have with Thee, when death is
swallowed up in victory.886
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