The Immortality of the Soul; The Magnitude of the Soul; On Music; The Advantage of Believing; On Faith in Things Unseen

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THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SOUL Chapter 1 IIVODIUS. I see that you have plenty of time on your hands; please tell me how you would answer some questions of mine which, I believe, are not foolish or out of order. For, more than once when I brought some problems for you to solve, you decided to put me off by quoting some Greek proverb or other which forbids us to pursue that which is over our heads. But, in my problem, I am sure, I am not reaching beyond myself. And so, if I ask you about the soul, I hope that you will not reply: 'What have we to do with what is above us?' Rather, [you may conclude that] I may deserve to learn what we are in ourselves. AUGUSTINE. State briefly what you want to hear about the soul. E. I will do so, for I have mulled over this so much that I have the points at my fingertips. My questions are: (1) What is the origin of the soul? (2) What is its nature? (3) What is its magnitude? (4) What is the reason for its union with the body? (5) What is the effect of this union? (6) What is the effect of its separation from the body? (2) A. Your question about the origin of the soul brings to my mind two interpretations. It is one thing to say: Whence is man? If what we want to know is the land of his birth. It is quite another thing to ask: What is he composed of, that 59 60 SAINT AUGUSTINE is, of what elements and realities is he made? Which of these do you expect to hear mentioned, when you ask: What is the origin of the soul? Do you want to know the district, if I may express it that way, or the country from which it came, or are you asking about its very substance? E. As a matter of fact, I should like to know about both of these, but I prefer to leave it to you to decide which of the two I am to hear about first. A. I believe that God, its Creator, is, so to speak, the soul's proper habitation and its home. As for its substance, I really cannot find a name. I certainly do not think that it belongs to those ordinary and familiar things of which we are aware through our senses. I do not think that the soul is composed either of earth or water or air or fire, or of all of these together, or of any combination of them. Now, if you were to ask me: What is a tree composed of?-I should mention those four well-known elements1 of which such things are supposed to consist. But, if you go on to ask: What does earth consist of or water or fire or air?-I should have no answer to make. In the same way, when you ask: What does man consist of?-I can reply: Of body and soul. If you were to ask further about the body, I 'shall fall back on those same four elements. However, since your question is about the soul, which appears to be simple and with a substance of its own, I am just as puzzled as though you were asking the previous question: What is earth composed of? E. But I do not understand why you want to say that the soul has a substance of its own, since you said it was created by God. 1 The Greek 'Physicists' of the Fifth Century B. C. taught that the universe is composed of (our material principles. earth. air. fire and water. Cf. Aristotle. Metaphysics I iii. At the time of Augustine this doctrine was still in vogue; d., De genesi ad litteram 2. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SOUL 61 A. Just as I cannot deny that earth was made by God and still I cannot say of what other elements, so to speak, earth is composed; for earth lacks parts in so far is it is earth,2 and for that reason is said to be an element of all those bodies that are formed from the four elements. Therefore, there is no contradiction in my statement that the soul is made by God and has its own proper nature. God Himself is the author of...