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| What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author.
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Chapter 3.—What Augustin
Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of
Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author.
5. Further let me ask of my
reader, wherever, alike with myself, he is certain, there to go on
with me; wherever, alike with myself, he hesitates, there to join
with me in inquiring; wherever he recognizes himself to be in
error, there to return to me; wherever he recognizes me to be so,
there to call me back: so that we may enter together upon the path
of charity, and advance towards Him of whom it is said, “Seek His
face evermore.”21
And I would
make this pious and safe agreement, in the presence of our Lord
God, with all who read my writings, as well in all other cases as,
above all, in the case of those which inquire into the unity of the
Trinity, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; because in
no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more
laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable. If, then, any
reader shall say, This is not well said, because I do not
understand it; such an one finds fault with my language, not with
my faith: and it might perhaps in very truth have been put more
clearly; yet no man ever so spoke as to be understood in all things
by all men. Let him, therefore, who finds this fault with my
discourse, see whether he can understand other men who have handled
similar subjects and questions, when he does not understand me: and
if he can, let him put down my book, or even, if he pleases, throw
it away; and let him spend labor and time rather on those whom he
understands.22
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[This request of Augustin to his reader, involves
an admirable rule for authorship generally—the desire, namely,
that truth be attained, be it through himself or through others.
Milton teaches the same, when he says that the author must “study
and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any other end, but
the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that lasting fame and
perpetuity of praise, which God and good men have consented shall
be the reward of those whose published labors advance the good of
mankind.”—W.G.T.S.] | Yet let him
not think on that account that I ought to have been silent, because
I have not been able to express myself so smoothly and clearly to
him as those do whom he understands. For neither do all things,
which all men have written, come into the hands of all. And
possibly some, who are capable of understanding even these our
writings, may not find those more lucid works, and may meet with
ours only. And therefore it is useful that many persons should
write many books, differing in style but not in faith, concerning
even the same questions, that the matter itself may reach the
greatest number—some in one way, some in another. But if he who
complains that he has not understood these things has never been
able to comprehend any careful and exact reasonings at all upon
such subjects, let him in that case deal with himself by resolution
and study, that he may know better; not with me by
quarrellings and wranglings, that I may hold my peace. Let him,
again, who says, when he reads my book, Certainly I understand what
is said, but it is not true, assert, if he pleases, his own
opinion, and refute mine if he is able. And if he do this with
charity and truth, and take the pains to make it known to me (if I
am still alive), I shall then receive the most abundant fruit of
this my labor. And if he cannot inform myself, most willing and
glad should I be that he should inform those whom he can. Yet, for
my part, “I meditate in the law of the Lord,”23
if not “day and night,” at least
such short times as I can; and I commit my meditations to writing,
lest they should escape me through forgetfulness; hoping by the
mercy of God that He will make me hold steadfastly all truths of
which I feel certain; “but if in anything I be otherwise minded,
that He will himself reveal even this to me,”24
whether through secret inspiration
and admonition, or through His own plain utterances, or through the
reasonings of my brethren. This I pray for, and this my trust and
desire I commit to Him, who is sufficiently able to keep those
things which He has given me, and to render those which He has
promised.
6. I expect, indeed, that some, who
are more dull of understanding, will imagine that in some parts of
my books I have held sentiments which I have not held, or have not
held those which I have. But their error, as none can be ignorant,
ought not to be attributed to me, if they have deviated into false
doctrine through following my steps without apprehending me, whilst
I am compelled to pick my way through a hard and obscure subject:
seeing that neither can any one, in any way, rightly ascribe the
numerous and various errors of heretics to the holy testimonies
themselves of the divine books; although all of them endeavor to
defend out of those same Scriptures their own false and erroneous
opinions. The law of Christ, that is, charity, admonishes me
clearly, and commands me with a sweet constraint, that when men
think that I have held in my books something false which I have not
held, and that same falsehood displeases one and pleases another, I
should prefer to be blamed by him who reprehends the falsehood,
rather than praised by him who praises it. For although I, who
never held the error, am not rightly blamed by the former, yet the
error itself is rightly censured; whilst by the latter neither am I
rightly praised, who am thought to have held that which the truth
censures, nor the sentiment itself, which the truth also censures.
Let us therefore essay the work which we have undertaken in the
name of the Lord. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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