St. Augustine
3Verum quia in omnibus rerum motibus, quid numeri valeant, facilius consideratur in vocibus eaque consideratio quibusdam quasi gradatis itineribus nititur ad superna intima veritatis, in quibus viis ostendit se sapientia hilariter et in omni providentia occurrit amantibus, initio nostri otii, cum a curis maioribus magisque necessariis vacabat animus, volui per ista quae a nobis desiderasti scripta proludere, quando conscripsi de solo rhythmo sex libros et de melo scribere alios forsitan sex, fateor, disponebam, cum mihi otium futurum sperabam. Sed postea quam mihi curarum ecclesiasticarum sarcina inposita est, omnes illae deliciae fugere de manibus, ita ut vix nunc ipsum codicem inveniam, quoniam tuam voluntatem nec petitionem sed iussionem contemnere nequeo. Quod sane opusculum si potuero mittere, non quidem me tibi obtemperasse, verum tamen te hoc a me tanto opere flagitasse, paenitebit. Difficillime quippe intelleguntur in eo quinque libri, si non adsit qui non solum disputantium possit separare personas, verum etiam pronuntiando ita sonare morulas syllabarum, ut eis exprimantur sensumque aurium feriant genera numerorum, maxime quia in quibusdam etiam silentiorum dimensa intervalla
Letters of St. Augustine
Now, since the power of rhythm in every kind of3 movement is most easily studied in sounds, and since the study of those leads upwards to the highest secrets of truth by a kind of gradual ascent in following which Wisdom pleasantly reveals herself and in every act of providencea meets those who love her, I intended at the beginning of my retirement, when my mind was free from greater and more necessary tasks, to make those books you asked from me a preliminary trial of strength. I then wrote six books exclusively on rhythm,b and proposed, I confess, to write others, six perhaps, on music, as I was expecting to have leisure before me. But after the burden of ecclesiastical concerns was laid upon me, all those trifles vanished from my hands so completely that now, when I cannot but respect your desire, which is more a command than a request, I can hardly find my own manuscript copy. But if I actually am able to send the treatise to you, the regret will not be mine for submitting to your pressure, but yours for so eagerly demanding it from me. For five books of it are very difficult to follow, unless you have beside you someone who can not only distinguish the parts of the interlocutors, but also give by his enunciation the proper quantity to the syllables uttered, so that in them the character of the metre is expressed and strikes the sensitive ear, especially as some of the feet contain, besides, pauses of fixed length, which cannot
- aWisdom vi. 17, where the Septuagint reads ἐν πάσῃ ἐπινοίᾳ. and the English version “in every thought.”
- bThese are the six books De Musica, projected when Augustine was in Milan but written only after he returned to Africa in 388 and was living in monastic retirement (“initio nostri otii” above) at Tagaste. They were intended as part of an encyclopaedic work, Libri disciplinarum, designed to include studies of dialectic, grammar, geometry, arithmetic and philosophy, but the only part finished at Milan was the De Grammatica. Posterity has endorsed Augustine’s own opinion of the six books De Musica (cf. the beginning of Bk. VI: “satis diu paene atque adeo plane pueriliter per quinque libros in vestigiis numerorum ad moras temporum pertinentium morati sumus”), for while the first five have only an antiquarian interest, the sixth book was a favourite with medieval mystics.