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AUG exerted a potent and beneficial effect upon his mind. This treatise he read in his twentieth year; and about the same time he mastered, by his own efforts, "omnes libros artium quos liberales vocant," including, apparently, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, and music. He now became impelled by a love of truth to pursue his studies, having before only aspired to be an adroit master of words. With this, however, was mixed up much of carnal pride and self-conceit, which led him to despise the scriptures for their simplicity, and paved the way for his embracing the doctrines of the Manicheans. He was attracted to these by their offering to his ardent thirst for knowledge a pretended solution of the great problems which arise out of our spiritual relations; and so strong was the hold which they took upon him, that he remained for ten years in the condition of a student of them, aspiring to be received into the number of the elect, to whom all mysteries were supposed to be revealed. During this period he was engaged in teaching grammar and rhetoric, first in his native place, afterwards at Carthage. In his twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year he composed his first work, a treatise "De Pulchro et Apto," (On the Beautiful and Befitting); this is lost, and indeed seems to have been so in its author's lifetime, for he says in his Confessions that he cannot tell whether it was in two books or three, and that it had gone from him he knew not how.

Various circumstances conspired to detach Augustine from the Manichean party. He was disappointed in the teacher whose instructions he attended, a person named Faustus, whose eloquence for a while concealed his ignorance, but could not permanently hide it from the scrutiny of such an observer as Augustine. He was much influenced also by a disputation held at Carthage against the Manicheans by one Helpidius, in which the latter brought forward so many things concerning the scriptures which his opponents could not meet, that Augustine longed to confer seriously with some one who was learned in these writings. Still he did not formally break off at this time from the Manicheans; he knew but very imperfectly the system of Christian truth, and did not believe that his difficulties could be solved by embracing it; and his mind appears to have been tossed upon a sea of doubts amidst an almost unmitigated darkness. In this state of mind, and sorely against the wishes of his mother, he went to Rome, being disgusted with the license of the students in Carthage, who seem to have behaved with the utmost rudeness and indecency. Whilst at Rome he was seized with a dangerous fever while resident in the house of an adherent of the Manichean sect, during which his mind was in great distress, but more than ever turned against Christianity. After his recovery he taught rhetoric for some time at Rome, all the time seeking to make himself better acquainted with the doctrines of the Manicheans and to test their validity. He had soon occasion to find that the students at Rome were, in principle, no better than those at Carthage, though their outward behaviour might be more courteous; and he accordingly availed himself of a request from Milan to the prefect of the city to send a master of rhetoric to that town, to offer himself as a candidate for that appointment. He was successful in his application, and went to Milan with a diploma from the prefect. Here he came under the influence of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, a man of eminence alike for his piety and his eloquence. To him Augustine was attracted in the first instance by his kindness to him. "The man of God," says he, "received me like a father, and loved the stranger like a true bishop. And I began to love him, at first indeed not as a teacher of the truth, which I had no hope of then finding in the church, but as a man who had been kind to me." He became an assiduous attendant on Ambrose's ministry, not, as he confesses, from any great interest he took in the matter of his discourses, but because he was delighted with the elegance and suavity of his style, and, as a teacher of rhetoric, wished to study him as a master of oratory. Gradually, however, he found that there was something beyond the mere elocution of the preacher deserving his attention. He felt convinced that the Christian faith could, in many points, be successfully defended against the Manicheans, and at length he was brought to renounce his adherence to that sect. At this time, however, his mind was in anything but a settled state: he was in fact neither a Manichean nor a Christian; and though he became a catechumen, and so placed himself under Christian instruction, he was in reality a sceptic, "in doubt about all things, and fluctuating from one thing to another through all." Still he adopted the wise expedient of thoroughly exploring the Christian doctrine, if, haply, he might find a resting-place in it for his intellect and heart; he was a diligent hearer of Ambrose, from whom he imbibed, with much readiness, the maxim often enunciated by him, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life;" but he demanded a certainty of conviction before he would embrace Christianity, which the nature of the case did not admit—a mathematical certainty, such as we have for the belief that "seven and three are ten;" and, consequently, he still remained in doubt and perplexity, like a man afraid of falling over a precipice should he advance. He seems at this time also to have been still under the influence of those sensual lusts which had tyrannized over him at an earlier period of his life, and to have led a life by no means pure. He was helped to a healthier state of mind by the perusal, through means of a Latin translation, of several treatises of Plato and the Platonists, which, says he, "enkindled within me an incredible conflagration." The effect of these on his mind was to counteract the materializing tendency of Manicheism, and to prepare him for the reception of the spiritualities of Christianity. Platonism of itself could not satisfy him; he rested in it for a while; but ere long found that it was not adequate to his inner needs; it taught him to seek "incorporeal verity," and helped him "to prattle as if he were a proficient," but it could not satisfy the conscience nor purify the heart. "I was puffed up," says he, "with knowledge; for where was that charity which buildeth on the foundation of humility, which foundation is Christ Jesus? or how could these books teach me it?" Reinvigorated, however, by his Platonic studies, he turned with fresh ardour to the perusal of scripture, and especially to the epistles of St. Paul. These he read with a mind gradually opening to divine truth, and growing into a conformity to the mould of doctrine therein taught; and to this, aided by the teaching of Ambrose and the conversations of Simplician, a presbyter of the church at Milan, his ultimate conversion to Christianity is to be instrumentally ascribed. Having, after many struggles, and as the result of grave deliberation, resolved publicly to profess himself a Christian, he was baptized by Ambrose on the 25th of April,. 307. A friend and fellow-townsman, named Alypius, and his natural son Adeodatus, born whilst he was pursuing his studies at Carthage, were baptized along with him. His mother Monnica, to whom he had conveyed the news of his conversion, was present at this ceremony, having hastened from Africa on purpose; to her it was an occasion of joy and exultation, when her mourning was turned into gladness, and a full reward for all her instructions, anxieties, and prayers, was poured into her bosom. As if the great end of her life was now gained, she did not long survive this event. Her son having resolved to return with her to Africa, she was taken ill during her journey at Ostia, on the banks of the Tiber, and died there after a short illness in the fifty-sixth year of her age.

After her death Augustine remained some time at Rome, where he composed his treatises "De Moribus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ;" "De Moribus Manichæorum;" "De quantitate Animæ;" and "De Libero Arbitrio;" the last of which, however, was not completed till some years afterwards. He had previously, whilst at Milan, written his treatises "Contra Academicos;" "De Ordine;" and "De Immortalitate Animæ." After spending some time in Rome, Augustine returned in the year 388 to Tagaste, where he sold the remains of his paternal property, and gave the proceeds to the poor. The next three years he spent in retirement, devoting himself to devotional exercises, and to the composition of his treatises "De Genesi contra Manichæos;" "Da Musica;" "De Magistro;" and "De Vera Religione." In the year 391 he was, somewhat against his own wishes, ordained a presbyter by Valerian, bishop of Hippo; and, after some time devoted to the study of Scripture as a preparative for his work, he entered upon the public discharge of the duties of his office. Though much immersed in these, he still found time for the exercise of his pen, and it is to this period of his life that we owe his tract "De utilitate credendi," and two treatises in confutation of the Manicheans. He also wrote at this time his discourse upon the Creed ("De Fide et Symbolo"), which was delivered as an address before the council of Hippo, held. 393. Two years subsequent to this, he was elected bishop of Hippo, as colleague of Valerian, and in accordance with Valerian's earnest wish. From this time his history and writings are closely associated with the Donatist and Pelagian controversies, in which he took the main