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Letter XXXVIII.
(a.d. 397.)
To His Brother Profuturus Augustin
Sends Greeting.
1. As for my spirit, I am well, through the
Lord’s good pleasure, and the strength which He condescends to
impart; but as for my body, I am confined to bed. I can neither
walk, nor stand, nor sit, because of the pain and swelling of a
boil or tumour.1599
But even
in such a case, since this is the will of the Lord, what else can I
say than that I am well? For if we do not wish that which He is
pleased to do, we ought rather to take blame to ourselves than to
think that He could err in anything which He either does or suffers
to be done. All this you know well; but what shall I more willingly
say to you than the things which I say to myself, seeing that you
are to me a second self? I commend therefore both my days and my
nights to your pious intercessions. Pray for me, that I may not
waste my days through want of self-control, and that I may bear my
nights with patience: pray that, though I walk in the midst of the
shadow of death, the Lord may so be with me that I shall fear no
evil.
2. You have heard, doubtless, of the death of
the aged Megalius,1600
| 1600 Megalius, Bishop of Calama and Primate of Numidia,
by whom two years before Augustin had been ordained Bishop of
Hippo. The reflections upon anger which follow the allusion here to
the death of Megalius were probably suggested by the remembrance of
an incident in the life of that bishop. While Augustin was a
presbyter, Megalius had written in anger a letter to him for which
he afterwards apologized, formally retracting calumny which it
contained. | for it is now twenty-four days
since he put off this mortal body. I wish to know, if possible,
whether you have seen, as you proposed, his successor in the
primacy. We are not delivered from offences, but it is equally true
that we are not deprived of our refuge; our griefs do not cease,
but our consolations are equally abiding. And well do you know, my
excellent brother, how, in the midst of such offences, we must
watch lest hatred of any one gain a hold upon the heart, and so not
only hinder us from praying to God with the door of our chamber
closed,1601
but also
shut the door against God Himself; for hatred of another
insidiously creeps upon us, while no one who is angry considers his
anger to be unjust. For anger habitually cherished against any one
becomes hatred, since the sweetness which is mingled with what
appears to be righteous anger makes us detain it longer than we
ought in the vessel, until the whole is soured, and the vessel
itself is spoiled. Wherefore it is much better for us to forbear
from anger, even when one has given us just occasion for it, than,
beginning with what seems just anger against any one, to fall,
through this occult tendency of passion, into hating him. We are
wont to say that, in entertaining strangers, it is much better to
bear the inconvenience of receiving a bad man than to run the risk
of having a good man shut out, through our caution lest any bad man
be admitted; but in the passions of the soul the opposite rule
holds true. For it is incomparably more for our soul’s welfare to
shut the recesses of the heart against anger, even when it knocks
with a just claim for admission, than to admit that which it will
be most difficult to expel, and which will rapidly grow from a mere
sapling to a strong tree. Anger dares to increase with boldness more suddenly
than men suppose, for it does not blush in the dark, when the sun
has gone down upon it.1602
You will understand with how great
care and anxiety I write these things, if you consider the things
which lately on a certain journey you said to me.
3. I salute my brother Severus, and those who are
with him. I would perhaps write to them also, if the limited time
before the departure of the bearer permitted me. I beseech you also
to assist me in persuading our brother Victor (to whom I desire
through your Holiness to express my thanks for his informing me of
his setting out to Constantina) not to refuse to return by way of
Calama, on account of a business known to him, in which I have to
bear a very heavy burden in the importunate urgency of the elder
Nectarius concerning it; he gave me his promise to this effect.
Farewell!
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