Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/442

 AUGUSTINE. t ftudy rhetoric; but whiift his father was railing money lib.ii. cap. 2. f or t ^j s p ur p f e? hefpenta whole year at Tagafte without em- ployment, and in this interval, though he was then hue fixteen, gave a loofe rein to his lafcivious appetite, difre- garding the afTedtion-.tt admonitions of his pious mother. He went to Carthage about the end of 371. Before he was twenty, he read by himfelf, and underftood perfectly, Ariftotle's Predicaments, and made a confiderable progrefs in nil ihe liberal Kiences. He was defirous of reading the holy Scriptures, but the fimplicity of their ftyle foon dif- B-y'e- gulled him : he was too great an admirer of the pagan elo- quence to have any relifh for the Bible. He had in general a ftiong defire to know the truth ; and imagining that he dffcovered it in the fet of the Manicheans, he entered him- felf" among them, and warmly maintained the greateft part of their opini ns. Af.er continuing at Carthage for fome time, he returned to Tagafte, where he gained fo much reputa- tion by teaching rhetoric, that his mother was congratulated upon her Ion's uncommon merit. The fatisfa&ion which this would otherwife have given her, was grea>ly diminifhed by the thoughts of his herefy and debau henes. He went back to Carthage in 380, and taught rhetoric in that city Ibid. w j t h extrordi. ary applaufe. It was here he took a woman into ket ping, to whom he was very coniiant : he had a fon by her, whom he named Adeodatus, God's Gift. Upon finding no body who could fully anfwer his difficul- ties, he began to waver in his Manichean notions. He had a penetrating genius, was a rhetorician by profeffion, and Ibid. underftood logic. It is eafy for a fubile and eloquent difpu- tant to ftart doubts, and find replies ; fo that it is no wonder he perplexed the Manichean doctors. Nor indeed is it at all ibangc that he fhould embarrafs a great many of the catholics, and that their weak anfwers to his objections fhould confirm De duabus him in his herefies. He acknowledges, that to his own lofs he had gained a thoufand advantages over them ; fo true it is (according to Bayle) that every orthodox perfon ought not to engage in deputation ; and that unlefs he has an heretic of his own ftreng'.h to contend with, he can do nothing, natu- rally fpeaking, but harden his antagonift. Auguftme ad- hered to his own notions, waiting for better folutions of his doubts. His good mother Monica made a journey to Car- thage, to prevail with him to renounce his herefy and vicious courle of life: her remonftrances were ineffectual ; however, fhe did not defpair of fucceeding in the end. Being