Brief Notices

BRIEF NOTICES Basic Writing$ of Saint .Augustine. Edited by WHITNEY J. OATES. New York: Random House, 1948. Vol. I, pp. 887; vol. II, pp. 898. Price $10.00. Volume I of this work contains the following treatises, each complete: The Confessions, Soliloquies, On The Immortality Of The Soul, On The Morals Of The Catholic Church, Concerning The Teacher, On The Profit Of Believing, Concerning The Nature Of The Good, On The Spirit .And The Letter, On Nature .And Grace, On The Grace of Christ .And On Original Sin, The Enchiridion, On Grace .And Free Will, On The Predestination Of The Saints. Volume II contains The City-of God (Books I, II 14, ~I. IV~. 4, V, Vl5, VII 6, VIII,IX 15, X ~. :XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII), and On The Trinity (Books I, II, IV, VI, VIII, IX, XII, XV) . In addition there is a " Preface " and a lengthy " Introduction " by the editor. At the end of volume one, in the form of an appendix, is a fourteen page analysis of On Free Will in lieu of the treatise itself, and an index to The Confessions only. At the end of volume two are two subject indices: one to The City of God and one to On The Trinity. The editor has also prefaced each treatise by a brief introductory note. The translations found here are all from a Select Library of the. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (edited by Philip Schaff) except On The Immortality of The Soul, and Concerning The Teacher in which cases the Leckie translations were used. The Nicene and Post-Nicene translations " have been checked against the original Latin and have been modified in certain respects either to make the version in question more accurate or to moderni~e the translations where this seemed to be desirable. The notes which appear in Dr. Schaff's edition, which contain references to the Bible and the Apocrypha, have been reproduced in their entirety. A selection has been made from the remaining notes in order that the reader may have the necessary information in order to understand any passage which might otherwise be obscure. A small number of other notes has been added [by the editor] with the same purpose in view" (vol. 1, p. V). The established pattern for ~eviewing mo~umental works of this kind is to quarrel first with the selections made, and second with the editor's " Introduction." i am chagrined to find that I have no qu'arrel at allonly pure enthusiasm. These selections are as representative of the thought of Augustine as anything short of his complete works can be. There are two slight reservations in that last sentence: first, the omission of parts of 122 BRIEF NOTICES any great work (The City of God and On The Trinity) is always painful, no matter how compelling the practical reasons necessitating it; second, if On Free Will is in certain passages too "prolix" (vol. l, p. 835) to be included, I am not sure that any useful purpose is served by the chapter by chapter analysis presented here (vol. l, pp. 8~1-834). But even if one does not antecedently approve these exact selections, he may find Prof. Oates' justification of them (vol. l, pp. XXXVI~XXXVIII) persuasive. As for the " Introduction," it is admirably informed, and intellectually stimulating. At the present moment, happily, two new series of translations of the Fathers, including St. Augustine, are under way in America. More advanced students will no doubt wish to have the most recent translations. But for a very large number of formal and informal students these volumes for years, be their Augustine. This great work is a fitting companion to the same publishers The Dialogues of Plato (Jowett), The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers (Oates), The Basic Works of Aristotle (McKeon), and The Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas (Pegis). An Introduction to Aesthetics. By E. F. CARRITT. London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1949. Pp. 151. 7j6. This elliptical approach to a discussion and a delimiting of esthetics is remarkable for its humility (at times a mere habitual tentativeness) and lack of...