ted very little of those studious habits which were afterward to
distinguish and elevate him to universal honor. At great sacrifice on
his father's part, and with the princely generosity of a noted
inhabitant of Tagasta, named Romanian, he was sent to the better
equipped schools of the neighboring Madaura and later to Carthage. The
schools of Carthage, though not so renowned and exceptional as those of
Alexandria and Antioch, were yet among the most prominent of the Roman
World. He was sixteen years of age when he was taken to this city, and
after four years he had risen to the first place in the schools of
rhetoric and had mastered all the branches of the liberal arts then
taught. None could equal his penetration, none surpass him in the
readiness of his answers or in the clearness of his expositions. The
subtle distinctions and divisions of Aristotle were plain to him. And in
the arena of philosophical disputation he knew no superior. He was
particularly attracted to the study of eloquence; and the perusal of
Cicero's "Hortensius" (which unfortunately has been lost in the
vicissitudes of time) stirred his soul to higher flights and begot a
noble enthusiasm for the imperishable beauty of wisdom, made him
impatient of the evanescent hopes of men, and carried him onward to
further quest of truth.

When his studies were completed, he returned in 370 to Tagasta and
lodged with his wealthy patron and benefactor; for his father had died
the year after his arrival in Carthage. Though here he began to teach
grammar and kindred branches, he did not long remain at home; he soon
departed again for Carthage, where his successes as a master surpassed
those he had gained as a disciple. Led by his former fame and by the
daily increasing applause which greeted the youthful professor of
rhetoric, many gathered around him. He was then only twenty-three years
of age. Among his pupils he numbered Licentius and Alypius--two names
indissolubly bound up with the story of Augustine's life. His place
among the learned and first men of that ancient city was made doubly
secure when, at a public contest in poetry, he was awarded the prize,
and was crowned with the laurel by the Proconsul, Vindician, before the
assembled people and most celebrated minds of the city.

But while he was thus advancing in favor with men, while thirst for
truth was burning him, he yielded to the seductions of the wealthy youth
of his time; though he had been early tra