ST. AUGUSTINE'S HOLIDAY.

(AUGUST TO DECEMBER, A.D. 386.)

SYNOPSIS.

St. Augustine retires to Cassiciacum to prepare for his baptism-His company, especially his mother Monica, his natural son Adeodatus, and the young poet Licentius-Augustine's Latin-Employment of the party-Their studies and discussions-General condition of Christian art and thought-Augustine's love of light; of the seaSpeculations about disembodied spirits-Story of the Notary of Uzala; of Gennadius-Comments upon the Psalter, especially the Penitential Psalms; upon the Miracle of Cana-Licentius reads Virgil aloud-His version of the tale of Dido-Speculations of the young poet upon Virgil's condition in the world of spirits-Conclusion.

"De

NOTE.-The books of St. Augustine which belong to this period are these "De Ordine," "De Vit. Beat.," "Contra Academ.,' Immort.," and the "Soliloquia." Augustine's own narrative has been closely followed throughout this poem. The thoughts attributed to him are generally to be found in his writings. Thus, his feeling for light is beautifully marked in “Confess.,” lib. x. 34. His appreciation of the ocean will be doubted by no one who reads the following sentences. "In cœli et terræ et maris multimodâ et variâ pulchritudine, in ipsius quoque maris tam grandi spectaculo, cum sese diversis coloribus induit velut vestibus, et aliquando viride atque hoc multis modis, aliquando purpureum, aliquendo coeruleum est. Quàm porro delectabiliter spectatur

etiam quandocunque turbatur, et fit inde major suavitas." ("De Civ. Dei," xxii. 24). The stories of the Notary and of Gennadius are to be found in "Epp.," clviii. ix., so that the former at least is, literally speaking, an anachronism as it stands here. Licentius read Virgil to the party upon fine afternoons, substituting at times, apparently, poems of his own.

Now the sweet arrow of the Love divine

Resistlessly had pierced Augustine's heart.
The flowers of speech he will no more entwine,
Frequent no more the rhetorician's mart.

He gazes on the sun so long denied,

And the sun-gazer groweth sunny-eyed.

"His forehead, deep encrimson'd with the crown ;
His lips, so full of grace, all deadly pale;
My Shepherd's wounded heart with woe cast down,
My Shepherd's cheek cut with the cruel hail-

O'er what wild hills, in face of what a foam,
With what exultant arm He bore me home!

"Wholly for my poor love Himself He gave.
A great gift for a miserable whole;
An ocean for a little dying wave.

And shall I offer him a divided soul,
Half of the mud that in the street doth lie,
If half the azure of the starlit sky?"

Said Verecundus, "Thou art ill at ease.

My farm lies north from here but a few leagues ;

Fair is its meadow-land, fair its chestnut trees.

Go rest thee well from thy thoughts' long fatigues,

Thou and thy dearest." So Augustine went

On holiday to that green banishment