The Trinity

Book XII

BOOK TWELVE Chapter 1 i\1ELL NOW! Let us see where the boundary line, as it were, between the outer and the inner man is to be placed. For it is correctly said, that whatever we have in our soul, in common with the beasts, pertains to the outer man, since by the outer man we mean not the body alone, but also its own peculiar kind of life, whence the structure of the body and all the senses derive their vigor, and .by which they are equipped to perceive external things. And we are still concerned with something pertaining to the outer man when the images of things that have already been perceived and have been fixed in our memory are again seen through remembrance. And in all these things we do not differ from the beasts, except that our bodily figure is not bent over but erect. We are thereby admonished by Him who made us that we should not be like the animals in our better part, that is, in our mind, from whom we are different by the erectness of our body. Not that we should throw our mind into those things which are more sublime in bodies, for even to desire the repose of the will in such things is to degrade the mind. But just as the body by its own nature is lifted up to those bodily things that are most exalted, that is to heavenly things, so the mind, which is a spiritual substance, should be lifted up to the most exalted in spiritual things, not by the elation of pride, but by the piety of justice. 343 344 SAINT AUGUSTINE Chapter 2 (2) Even beasts can perceive corporeal things outwardly through the senses of the body, can recall them when they are fixed in the memory, can seek for what is beneficial in them, and flee from what is unpleasant. But to make note of them, to retain them not only as caught up naturally, but also as deliberately committed to the memory, and to impress them again by remembrance and reflection, when they are gradually slipping away into forgetfulness, in order that, as the thought is formed from that which the memory bears, so too this very same thing, which is in the memory, may be firmly fixed in thought; to combine also imaginary visions by taking pieces of recollection from here and there and, as it were, sewing them together, to see how in this kind of things the probable differs from the true, and this not in spiritual but in corporeal things themselves-these and similar operations, although performed in sensible things, and in those which the mind has drawn from them through the sense of the body, are yet not lacking in reason, nor are they common to men and beasts. But it is the province of the superior reason to judge of these corporeal things according to incorporeal and eternal reasons which, if they were not above the human mind, would certainly not be unchangeable; and yet unless something of our own were subjoined to them, we should not be able to employ them as standards by which to judge of corporeal things. But we judge of corporeal things according to the standard of dimensions and figures which, as the mind knows, remain unchangeable. Chapter 3 (3) That part of us, however, which is thus concerned with the treatment of corporeal and temporal things, in that it is not common to us and beasts, is indeed rational, but is BOOK TWELVE drawn, as it were, out of that rational substance of our minds, by which we depend upon and adhere to the intelligible and unchangeable truth, and which is deputed to handle and to direct the inferior things. For just as among all the beasts, a help like unto himself was not found for man, unless one were taken from himself and formed into his consort, so for our mind, by which we consult the superior and inner things, for such employment of corporeal things as the nature of man requires, no help like unto itself was found in the parts of the soul which we have in common with the beasts. And, therefore, a certain part of our reason, not separated so as to sever unity, but diverted, as it were, so as to help fellowship, is set aside for the performing of...