ths
stirred like an earthquake the age of St. Augustine. Men were inclined
to believe that the overthrow of the city was to be ascribed to the
anger felt by the old Roman deities at the neglect of their worship. St.
Augustine maintains the opposite thesis; he argues that the destruction
of the Roman Empire is due, not to the rise of Christianity, but to
the vices of Paganism. He wanders over Roman history, and over Greek
philosophy and mythology, and finds everywhere crime, impiety and
falsehood. He compares the worst parts of the Gentile religions with
the best elements of the faith of Christ. He shows nothing of the spirit
which led others of the early Christian Fathers to recognize in the
writings of the Greek philosophers the power of the divine truth. He
traces the parallel of the kingdom of God, that is, the history of the
Jews, contained in their scriptures, and of the kingdoms of the world,
which are found in gentile writers, and pursues them both into an ideal
future. It need hardly be remarked that his use both of Greek and
of Roman historians and of the sacred writings of the Jews is wholly
uncritical. The heathen mythology, the Sybilline oracles, the myths
of Plato, the dreams of Neo-Platonists are equally regarded by him as
matter of fact. He must be acknowledged to be a strictly polemical or
controversial writer who makes the best of everything on one side and
the worst of everything on the other. He has no sympathy with the old
Roman life as Plato has with Greek life, nor has he any idea of the
ecclesiastical kingdom which was to arise out of the ruins of the Roman
empire. He is not blind to the defects of the Christian Church, and
looks forward to a time when Christian and Pagan shall be alike brought
before the judgment-seat, and the true City of God shall appear...The
work of St. Augustine is a curious repertory of antiquarian learning and
quotations, deeply penetrated with Christian ethics, but showing little
power of reasoning, and a slender knowledge of the Greek literature
and language. He was a great genius, and a noble character, yet hardly
capable of feeling or understanding anything external to his own
theology. Of all the ancient philosophers he is most attracted by Plato,
though he is very slightly acquainted with his writings. He is inclined
to believe that the idea of creation in the Timaeus is derived from the
narrative in Genesis; and he is strangely taken with the coincidence (?)
of Plato