tyle in which St. Augustine conveyed his ideas is that of a
rhapsodical conversation with God. His works are an incoherent dream.
That the reader may appreciate this remark, I might copy almost at
random any of his paragraphs. The following is from the twelfth book:

"This then, is what I conceive, O my God, when I hear thy Scripture
saying, In the beginning God made heaven and earth: and the earth was
invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep, and not
mentioning what day thou createdst them; this is what I conceive,
that because of the heaven of heavens--that intellectual heaven, whose
intelligences know all at once, not in part, not darkly, not through a
glass, but as a whole, in manifestation, face to face; not this thing
now, and that thing anon; but (as I said) know all at once, without any
succession of times; and because of the earth, invisible and without
form, without any succession of times, which succession presents 'this
thing now, that thing anon;' because, where there is no form, there
is no distinction of things; it is, then, on account of these two, a
primitive formed, and a primitive formless; the one, heaven, but the
heaven of heavens; the other, earth, but the earth movable and without
form; because of these two do I conceive, did thy Scripture say without
mention of days, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
For, forthwith it subjoined what earth it spake of; and also in that the
firmament is recorded to be created the second day, and called heaven,
it conveys to us of which heaven he before spake, without mention of
days.

"Wondrous depth of thy words! whose surface behold! is before us,
inviting to little ones; yet are they a wondrous depth, O my God, a
wondrous depth! It is awful to look therein; an awfulness of honor, and
a trembling of love. The enemies thereof I hate vehemently; O that thou
wouldst slay them with thy two-edged sword, that they might no longer be
enemies to it: for so do I love to have them slain unto themselves, that
they may live unto thee."

As an example of the hermeneutical manner in which St. Augustine
unfolded the concealed facts of the Scriptures, I may cite the following
from the thirteenth book of the "Confessions;" his object is to show
that the doctrine of the Trinity is contained in the Mosaic narrative of
the creation:

"Lo, now the Trinity appears unto me in a glass darkly, which is thou my
God, because thou, O Father, in him