St. Augustine
7Misi et alios libros, quos non petisti, ne hoc tantum modo facerem quod petisti: de fide rerum quae non videntur, de patientia, de continentia, de providentia, et unum grandem de fide et spe et caritate. Hos omnes si dum es intra Africam, legeris, iudicium tuum mitte de illis, aut mitte nobis aut quod nobis a domino sene Aurelio mittatur, ibi dimitte. Quamquam et ubicumque fueris, speramus inde litteras tuas et hinc tu, dum possumus, nostras. Suscepi gratissime quae misisti, ubi et salutem meam quamvis corporalem, quoniam vis me utique sine impedimento malae valitudinis deo vacare, et bibliothecam nostram, ut sit unde libri vel parentur vel reparentur, adiuvare dignatus es. Rependat tibi dominus et hic et in futuro saeculo bona quae talibus, qualem te esse voluit, praeparavit. Pignus pacis apud te depositum nostrumque utrique dulcissimum, sicut ante a me salutari, ita nunc resalutari peto.
1Si forte illi qui inter vos catholici Christiani sunt, talia mihi scripta miserunt, hoc tantum miror, quod
Letters of St. Augustine
I am sending other books as well, though you did7 not ask for them; I did not want to do only what you asked and nothing more. They are On Faith in Things Unseen, On Patience, On Continence, On Providence, and a bulky book On Faith, Hope and Charity. If you read all these while in Africa, send me your opinion of them; either send it to me or send it to a place from which it can be sent to me by my lord, the Senior Aurelius.a Yet wherever you are, I hope to receive letters from you and to send some to you while I am able. I have been very glad to receive the materials you were kind enough to send to the assistance both of my health, though it is only of the body, since you want me to suffer no impediment in the devotion of my time to God, and also of our library,b so that we may have the means of either preparing books or repairing them. May the Lord recompense you, both in this life and in the life to come, with those blessings He has preparedc for such as He has willed that you should be! I beg you to convey my greetings once again, as you did before, to the pledge of peaced entrusted to you and very dear to us both.
If perchance those who are Catholic Christians1 among you have sent me a letter of this kind, my
- aFor Aurelius see p. 40, note.
- bFor the library at Hippo see note on p. 398.
- c1 Cor. ii. 9.
- dVerimodus, his son, as on p. 446.
- eTo this point the letters have been arranged in chronological order, but the remaining letters cannot be dated and are grouped in two divisions, controversial letters, and letters to private individuals. Florentius is not further known; Madaura was mentioned on p. 16, note b. The letter is interesting for its indication of the survival and the strength of paganism, for which see also Nos. 5–6, 16 and 24 above.