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| To Zenobius
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Letter II.
(a.d. 386.)
To Zenobius Augustin Sends
Greeting.1442
| 1442 Zenobius was the friend to whom Augustin dedicated
his books De Ordine. In book i. ch. 1 and 2, we have a
delightful description of the character of Zenobius. |
1. We are, I suppose, both agreed in
maintaining that all things with which our bodily senses acquaint
us are incapable of abiding unchanged for a single moment, but, on
the contrary, are moving and in perpetual transition, and have no
present reality, that is, to use the language of Latin philosophy,
do not exist.1443
| 1443 Ut latiné loquar, non esse. |
Accordingly, the true and divine philosophy admonishes us to check
and subdue the love of these things as most dangerous and
disastrous, in order that the mind, even while using this body, may
be wholly occupied and warmly interested in those things which are
ever the same, and which owe their attractive power to no transient
charm. Although this is all true, and although my mind, without the
aid of the senses, sees you as you really are, and as an object
which may be loved without disquietude, nevertheless I must own
that when you are absent in body, and separated by distance, the
pleasure of meeting and seeing you is one which I miss, and which,
therefore, while it is attainable, I earnestly covet. This my
infirmity (for such it must be) is one which, if I know you aright,
you are well pleased to find in me; and though you wish every good
thing for your best and most loved friends, you rather fear than
desire that they should be cured of this infirmity. If, however,
your soul has attained to such strength that you are able both to
discern this snare, and to smile at those who are caught therein,
truly you are great, and different from what I am. For my part, as
long as I regret the absence of any one from me, so long do I wish
him to regret my absence. At the same time, I watch and strive to
set my love as little as possible on anything which can be
separated from me against my will. Regarding this as my duty, I
remind you, in the meantime, whatever be your frame of mind, that
the discussion which I have begun with you must be finished, if we
care for each other. For I can by no means consent to its being
finished with Alypius, even if he wished it. But he does not wish
this; for he is not the man to join with me now in endeavouring, by
as many letters as we could send, to detain you with us, when you
decline this, under the pressure of some necessity to us
unknown.
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