important, consisting of woollen, linen, cotton, and silk goods, watches, jewellery, and goldsmith-work, mathematical instruments, machinery, leather, paper, chemical stuffs, types, &c. Copper-engraving, for which it was formerly noted, is no longer carried on; but printing, lithography, and publishing have acquired a considerable development, one of the best-known Continental newspapers being the Allgemeine Zeitung or Augsburg Gazette. Augsburg is an important railway junction. On the opposite side of the river, which is here crossed by a bridge, lies the little village of Lechhausen. Population in 1871, 51,270.

AUGSBURG CONFESSION. See CREEDS.

AUGURS, in Roman Antiquities, a college or board appointed to interpret, according to the books (libri augurales) in which the science of divination was laid down, the auspicia or signs of approval or disapproval sent by Jupiter on the occasion of any public transaction. At first, it is said, there were only two augurs, one from each of the tribes Ramnes and Tities. Two more were added by Numa, and again other two for the third tribe of Luceres, that is six altogether. But in the year 300 B.C. it is certain that there were only four, to which number five plebeian places were added by the lex Ogulnia. Sulla increased the number to fifteen, at which it continued, with the exception that Cæsar appointed a sixteenth, and the emperors frequently added as supra numerum persons of distinction, or of their own family. An augur retained his office and sacred character for life. The college had the right of election of new members. The insignia of their office were the lituus, or crook, and the dress called trabea. The natural region to look to for signs of the will of Jupiter was the sky, where lightning and the flight of birds seemed directed by him as counsel to men. The latter, however, was the more difficult of interpretation, and upon it, therefore, mainly hinged the system of divination with which the augurs were occupied, and which is expressed in the terms augurium and auspicium (aves gerere, aves spicere). The presence of augurs was required only in observing signs in the sky, where their first duty was to mark out with the lituus a space or templum in the sky within which the omen must occur. Such observations being properly made only in the city of Rome, augurs are not found elsewhere. Signs of the will of the gods were of two kinds, either in answer to a request (auspicia impetrativa), or incidental (auspicia oblativa). Of such signs there were five classes: (1.) Signs in the sky (coelestia auspicia), consisting chiefly of thunder and lightning, but not excluding falling stars and other phenomena. Lightning from left to right was favourable, from right to left unfavourable; and this being a very direct and impressive token of the will of Jupiter, the observation of it was held to apply to all public transactions fixed for the day on which it occurred. Whether favourable or the reverse in its direction, the appearance of lightning was held as a voice of the god against business being done in the public assemblies. But since the person charged to take the auspices (de cœlo servasse) for a certain day was constitutionally subject to no other authority who could test the truth or falsehood of his statement that he had observed lightning, it happened that this became a favourite means of putting off meetings of the public assembly. Restrictions were, however, imposed on it in the later times of the republic. When a new consul, prætor, or quæstor entered on his first day of office and prayed the gods for good omens, it was a matter of custom to report to him that lightning from the left had been seen. (2.) Signs from birds (signa ex avibus), with reference to the direction of their flight, and also to their singing, or uttering other

the war of 1803 it suffered severely. Of its conventions the most memorable are those which gave birth to the Augsburg confession (1530) and to the Augsburg alliance (1686). The city is pleasantly situated in an extensive and fertile plain, between the rivers Wertach and Lech, 36 miles W.N.W. of Munich, lat. 48° 21' 44" N., long. 10° 54' 42" F. Its fortifications were dismantled in 1703, and have since been converted into public promenades. Maximilian Street is remarkable for its breadth and architectural magnificence. One of its most interesting edifices is the Fugger House, of which the entire front is painted in fresco. Among the public buildings of Augsburg most worthy of notice is the town-hall, said to be one of the finest in Germany, built by Elias Holl in 1616-20. One of its rooms, called the "Golden Hall," from the profusion of its gilding, is 113 feet long, 59 broad, and 53 high. The palace of the bishops, where the memorable Confession of Faith was presented to Charles V., is now used for Government offices. The cathedral dates in its oldest portions from the 10th century. There are also various churches and chapels, a school of arts, a polytechnic institution, a picture gallery in the former monastery of St Catherine, a museum, observatory, botanical gardens, an exchange, gymnasium, deaf-mute institution, orphan asylum, public library, several remarkable fountains dating from the 16th century, &c. The "Fuggerei," built in 1519 by the brothers Fugger, consists of 106 small houses, let to indigent Roman Catholic citizens at a merely nominal

sounds. In matters of ordinary life on which divine counsel was prayed for, it was usual to have recourse to this form of divination. For public affairs it was, by the time of Cicero, superseded by the fictitious observation of lightning. (3.) Feeding of birds (auspicia ex tripudiis), which consisted in observing whether a bird,-usually a fowl,-on grain being thrown before it, let fall a particle from its mouth (tripudium solistimum). If it did so, the will of the gods was in favour of the enterprise in question. The simplicity of this ceremony recommended it for very general use, particularly in the army when on service. The fowls were kept in cages by a servant, styled pullarius. In imperial times are mentioned the decuriales pullarii. (4.) Signs from animals (pedestria auspicia, or ex quadrupedibus), i.e., observation of the course of, or sounds uttered by, quadrupeds and serpents within a fixed space, corresponding to the observations of the flight of birds, but much less frequently employed. It had gone out of use by the time of Cicero. (5.) Warnings (signa ex diris), consisting of all unusual phenomena, but chiefly such as boded ill. Being accidental in their occurrence, they belonged to the auguria oblativa, and their interpretation was not a matter for the augurs, unless occurring in the course of some public transaction, in which case they formed a divine veto against it. Otherwise, reference was made for an interpretation to the Pontifices in olden times, afterwards frequently to the Sibylline books, or the Etruscan haruspices, when the incident was not already provided for by a rule, as, for example, that it was unlucky for a person leaving his house to meet a raven, that the sudden death of a person from epilepsy at a public meeting was a sign to break up the assembly, not to mention other instances of adverse omens. A Roman, however, did not necessarily regard a warning as binding unless it was clearly apprehended. Not only could an accidental oversight render it useless, but to some extent measures could be taken to prevent any warning being noticed. At sacrifices, for instance, the flute was played ne quid aliud exaudiatur (Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxviii. 2, 11).

Among the other means of discovering the will of the gods were casting lots, oracles of Apollo (in the hands of the college sacris faciundis), but chiefly the examination of the entrails of animals slain for sacrifice. Anything abnormal found there was brought under the notice of the augurs as warnings, but usually the Etruscan haruspices were employed for this. The persons entitled to ask for an expression of the divine will on a public affair were the magistrates. To the highest offices, including all persons of consular and prætorian rank, belonged the right of taking auspicia maxima; to the inferior offices of ædile and questor, the auspicia minora; the differences between these, however, must have been small. The subjects for which auspicia publica were always taken were the elec tion of magistrates, their entering on office, the holding of a public assembly to pass decrees, the setting out of an army for war. They could only be taken in Rome itself; and in case of a commander having to renew his auspicia, he must either return to Rome or select a spot in the foreign country to represent the hearth of that city. The time for observing auspices was, as a rule, between midnight and dawn of the day for which the transaction was fixed about which they were desired. But whether it was so ordered in the ritual, or whether this was to leave the whole day free, is not known. In military affairs this course was not always possible, as in the case of taking auspices before crossing a river. The founding of colonies, the beginning of a battle, before calling together an army, before sittings of the senate, at decisions of peace or war, were occasions, not always but frequently, for taking auspices. The place where the ceremony was performed was not fixed but

varied, so as to have a close relation to the object to which it referred. A spot being selected, the official charged to make the observation (spectio) pitched his tent there some days before. A matter postponed through adverse signs from the gods could on the following or some future day be again brought forward for the auspices (repetere auspicia). If an error (vitium) occurred in the auspices, the augurs could, of their own accord or at the request of the senate, inform themselves of the circumstances, and decree upon it. A consul could refuse to accept their decree while he remained in office, but on retiring he could be prosecuted. Auspicia oblativa referred mostly to the comitia. A magistrate was not bound to take notice of signs reported merely by a private person, but he could not overlook such a report from a brother magistrate. For example, if a quæstor on his entry to office observed lightning and announced it to the consul, the latter must delay the public assembly for the day. (A. S. M.)

AUGUST, originally Sextilis, as being the sixth month in the pre-Julian Roman year, received its present name from the Emperor Augustus. The preceding month, Quintilis, had been called July after the great Julius Cæsar, and the senate thought to propitiate the emperor by conferring a similar honour upon him. August was selected, not as being the natal month of Augustus, but because in it his greatest good fortune had happened to him. In that month he had been admitted to the consulate, had thrice celebrated a triumph, had received the allegiance of the soldiers stationed on the Janiculum, had concluded the civil wars, and had subdued Egypt. As July contained thirty-one days, and August only thirty, it was thought necessary to add another day to the latter month, in order that Augustus might not be in any respect inferior to Julius.

AUGUSTA, the capital of the State of Maine, and seat of justice, is situated on the Kennebec River (in Kennebec county), 43 miles from its mouth, in lat. 44° 19′ N., long. 69° 50′ W. The city lies mainly on the right bank of the Kennebec River, which is here crossed by a bridge 520 feet long. The business portion of the city was destroyed by fire in 1865, but has since been rebuilt. Its principal public buildings are the State house, State insane asylum, and United States' arsenal. It has several banks, daily and weekly newspapers, and numerous churches. The population of Augusta, by the census of 1870, was 7808.

AUGUSTA, a city of Georgia, in the United States of America, the capital of the county of Richmond. It is situated in a beautiful plain, on the Savannah River, 231 miles from its mouth, and has extensive railway communication. Like other American cities it is spacious and regular in its plan, Greene Street, for example, being 168 feet in width, with a row of trees extending along each side. The principal buildings are the city hall, a masonic hall, an oddfellows' hall, the Richmond academy, the Georgia medical college, the opera-house, and an orphan asylum. Besides these, the city possesses an arsenal, water-works, a number of banks, newspaper offices, extensive cotton factories and flour mills, several foundries, two tobacco factories, &c. Water-power is abundantly supplied from the river by the Augusta canal, which was constructed in 1845. Augusta was an important place during the revolutionary war, and continued to flourish amazingly till the opening of the Georgia railway. A temporary decline then took place, owing to the change in the methods of traffic; but a new current of prosperity speedily set in, which still continues. Population in 1870, 15,386.

AUGUSTAN HISTORY is the title bestowed upon a collection of the biographies of the Roman emperors, from Hadrian to Carinus, written under Diocletian and Constan

tine, and usually regarded as the composition of six authors, Ælius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Ælius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, and Flavius Vopiscus. Upon investigation, however, there appears good reason for reducing these writers to four. The distribution of the respective biographies among them, according to the arrangement of the MSS., is supported by no extraneous authority, and depends upon no intelligible principle. Without entering into detail, for which space fails us, it must suffice to state that up to and including the biography of Alexander Severus, the authorship of the various memoirs is interchanged among Spartianus, Lampridius, and Capitolinus, in a manner only explicable upon the hypothesis of a division of labour among these writers, or on that of their having selected their subjects entirely at random. The latter is contradicted by their own affirmations, and no trace of any mutual concert is discoverable, neither is there any perceptible difference of style. When, therefore, we find the excerpts in the Palatine MS. assigning all the biographies preceding that of Maximin to Spartianus alone, and remark that his prænomen and that of Lampridius are alike given as Ælius, we cannot avoid suspecting with Casaubon and Salmasius that the full name was Ælius Lampridius Spartianus, and that two authors have been manufactured out of one. We further find Spartianus observing, at the commencement of his life of Ælius Verus, that having written the lives of all the emperors who had borne the title of Augustus from Julius Cæsar down to Hadrian, he purposes from that point to comprise the Cæsars also. This excludes the idea of his having written without a plan, or in concert with any colleague. His biographies are regularly dedicated to Diocletian down to that of Pescennius Niger, after which, with one exception, probably due to the corruption of the MSS., they are inscribed to Constantine, as would naturally be the case with a work continued under this prince's reign after having been commenced under his predecessor's. We may also with probability ascribe to Spartianus the life of Avidius Cassius, attributed in the MSS. to Vulcatius Gallicanus, but whose author describes his undertaking in terms almost identical with those employed by Spartianus. No biography subsequent to that of Alexander Severus is attributed to Spartianus by any MS., and the next series, comprising the Maximins, the Gordians, and Maximus and Balbinus, is undoubtedly the production of Julius Capitolinus, who addresses his work to Constantine, and professedly proceeds, in some respects, upon a different plan from his predecessor. The work of Spartianus must have remained incomplete, and Capitolinus must have proposed to fill up the interval between him and Trebellius Pollio, who dedicates his life of Claudius Gothicus to Constantius Chlorus, and whom we know, from the testimony of Vopiscus, to have written the lives of the Philippi and their successors up to Claudius, some years before 303 a.d. In that year (and not 291 A.D., as supposed by Salmasius and Clinton) Vopiscus was solicited by the urban prefect, Junius Tiberianus, to undertake the life of Aurelian; this biography appears from internal evidence to have been published by 307 A.D., and the lives of Aurelian's successors down to Carinus were added before the death of Diocletian in 313. We may therefore reduce the Augustan historians from six to four, and assign their respective shares as follows: To Spartianus, the biographies from Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus, all anterior to Hadrian being lost; to Capitolinus, those from Maximin to the younger Gordian; to Trebellius Pollio, the lives of Valerian, Gallienus, the "Thirty Tyrants," and Claudius Gothicus, those of the Philippi, the Decii, Gallus, Æmilianus, and part of Vale. rian's being lost; to Vopiscus, the remainder, from Aurelian to Carinus. Some difficulty is created by the mention of

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Capitolinus, the latest biographer in order of composition, by his predecessor Vopiscus, but the passage may be an interpolation, or may refer to some other work.

The importance of the Augustan history as a repertory of information is very considerable, but its literary pretensions are of the humblest order. The writers' standard was confessedly low. "My purpose," says Vopiscus, "has been to provide materials for more eloquent persons than myself." Considering the perverted taste of the age, it is perhaps fortunate that the task fell into the hands of no showy declaimer, who measured his success by his skill in making surface do duty for substance, but of homely, matter-of-fact scribes, whose sole concern was to record what they knew. Their narrative is most unmethodical and inartificial; their style is tame and plebeian; their conception of biography is that of a collection of anecdotes ; they have no notion of arrangement, no measure of proportion, and no criterion of discrimination between the important and the trivial; they are equally destitute of critical and of historical insight, unable to sift the authorities on which they rely, and unsuspicious of the stupendous social revolution comprised within the period which they undertake to describe. Their value, consequently, depends very much on that of the sources to which they happen to have recourse for any given period of history, and on the fidelity of their adherence to these when valuable. Marius Maximus and Junius Cordus, to whose qualifications they themselves bear no favourable testimony, were their chief authorities for the earlier lives of the series. For the later they have been obliged to resort more largely to public records, and have thus preserved matter of the highest importance, rescuing from oblivion many imperial rescripts and senatorian decrees, reports of official proceedings and speeches on public occasions, and a number of interesting and characteristic letters from various emperors. Their incidental allusions sometimes cast vivid though undesigned light on the circumstances of the age, and they have made large contributions to our knowledge of imperial jurisprudence in particular. Even their trivialities have their use; their endless anecdotes respecting the personal habits of the subjects of their biographies, if valueless to the historian, are most acceptable to the archæologist, and not unimportant to the economist and moralist. Their errors and deficiencies may in part be ascribed to the contemporary neglect of history as a branch of instruction. Education was in the hands of rhetoricians and grammarians; historians were read for their style, not for their matter, and since the days of Tacitus, none had arisen worth a schoolmaster's notice. We thus find Vopiscus acknowledg ing that when he began to write the life of Aurelian, he was entirely misinformed respecting the latter's competitor Firmus, and implying that he would not have ventured on Aurelian himself if he had not had access to the MS. of the emperor's own diary in the Ulpian library. The writers' historical estimates are superficial and conventional, but report the verdict of public opinion with substantial accuracy. The only imputation on the integrity of any of them lies against Trebellius Pollio, who, addressing his work to a descendant of Claudius, the successor and probably the assassin of Gallienus, has dwelt upon the latter versatile sovereign's carelessness and extravagance without acknowledgment of the elastic though fitful energy he so frequently displayed in defence of the empire. The caution of Vopiscus's references to Diocletian cannot be made a reproach to him.

No biographical particulars are recorded respecting any of these writers. From their acquaintance with Latin and Greek literature they must have been men of letters by profession, and very probably secretaries or librarians to persons of distinction. They appear particularly versed in

The first edition of the Augustan History was printed at Milan in 1475, by Bonus Accursius, along with Suetonius. Being based upon the best MSS. it is superior to any of its successors until Casaubon's (1603). Casaubon manifested great critical ability in his notes, but for want of a good MS. left the restoration of the text to Salmasius (1620), whose notes are a most remarkable monument of erudition combined with acuteness in verbal criticism and general vigour of intellect. Little has since been done for the improvement of the text, which is still in a very unsatisfactory state. The most accurate edition is that by Jordan and Eyssenhardt (Berlin, 1863), grounded on a collation of the Bamberg MS. with the Palatine (now the Vatican) used by Salmasius. The most important separate dissertations on the Augustan historians are that on the sixth volume of Heine's Opuscula Philologica; Brocks's essay on the first four of them (Königsberg, 1869); Dirksen's elucidation of their references to Roman jurisprudence (Leipsic, 1842); Peter's critical emendations (Posen, 1863); Brunner's monograph on Vopiscus in the second volume of Büdinger's Untersuchungen zur Römischen Kaisergeschichte, and J. Müller's disquisition in the third (Leipsic, 1868-69). There is no English translation. (R. G.) AUGUSTI, JOHN CHRISTIAN WILLIAM, a distinguished German theologian, was born at Eschenberga, near Gotha, in 1772. He was of Jewish descent, his grandfather having been a rabbi who had been converted to the Christian faith. His early education he received partly from Moller, pastor of Gierstädt, who introduced him to the study of Hebrew, and partly at the gymnasium at Gotha. He then proceeded to the university of Jena, and completed his studies there in 1793. In 1798 he obtained a post as privat-docent, or university lecturer on philosophy, and began to turn his attention chiefly to Oriental subjects. In 1800 he was made professor extraordinary of philosophy, and three years after was appointed to the chair of Oriental languages. In 1808 he received the degree of doctor of theology, and in 1812 accepted a call to the chair of theology at the recently renovated university of Breslau. During the troubled years 1813 and 1814 he acted as rector, and received great praise for his firm and judicious conduct. In 1819 he was transferred to the university of Bonn, and in 1828 he united with his professorship the office of director of the consistory. He died at Coblentz in 1841. Augusti had little sympathy with the modern philosophical interpretations of dogma, and although he took up a position of free criticism with regard to the Biblical narratives, he yet held fast to the traditional faith. His works on theology (History of Dogma, 1805, and System of Dogmatics, 1809) are simple statements of fact, and do not attempt a speculative treatment of their subjects. In addition to several exegetical works, his most important writings are the Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Christlichen Archäologie, 12 vols., 1817-31, a partially digested mass of materials, and the Handbuch der Christ. Archäologie, 3 vols., 1836-7, which gives the substance of the larger work in a more compact and systematic form.

AUGUSTINE (AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS), one of the four great fathers of the Latin Church, and admittedly the greatest of the four, more profound than Ambrose, his spiritual father, more original and systematic than Jerome, his contemporary and correspondent, and intellectually far more distinguished than Gregory the Great, the last of the ries. The theological position and influence of Augustine ay be said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever xercised such power over the Christian church, and no one nind ever made such an impression upon Christian thought. Aurelius Augustinus was born at Tagaste (Tajelt), a town of Numidia, on the 13th of November 354 A.D. His father, Patricius, was a burgess of this town, and was still a

was not only a Christian, but a woman of the most elevated, tender, and devoted piety, whose patient prayerfulness for both her husband and son (at length crowned with success in both cases), and whose affectionate and beautiful enthusiasm, have passed into a touching type of womanly saintliness for all ages. She early instructed her son in the faith and love of Jesus Christ, and for a time her instruction seems to have impressed his youthful mind. Falling ill he wished to be baptised; but when the danger was past, the rite was deferred, and, notwithstanding all his mother's admonitions and prayers, he grew up without any profession of Christian piety, or any devotion to Christian principles. Inheriting from his father a vehement and sensual disposition, he early gave way to the unbridled impulses of passion, and while still a mere youth, formed a connection, common enough at the time, but at variance with the principles of Christian morality. As the result of the connection he became the father of a son, whom he named Adeodatus in a fit of pious emotion, and to whom he was passionately attached.

In the midst of all his youthful pleasures Augustine was an earnest student. His father, observing the early development of his talents, formed the ambition of training him to the brilliant and lucrative career of a rhetorician, and he seems to have spared no expense to equip him for this career. The youth studied not only at his native town, but at Madaura and Carthage, and especially devoted himself to the Latin poets-many traces of his love for which are to be found in his writings. His acquaintance with Greek literature was much more limited, and, indeed, it has been doubted whether he could use, in the original, either the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures. Apparently, he was in the habit of using translations of Plato (Confess., viii. 2), but, on the other hand, Greek words frequently occur in his writings correctly rendered and discriminated; and he speaks in one of his epistles to Marcellinus (LIX. tom. ii. 294) of referring to the Greek Psalter and finding, in reference to certain difficulties, that it agreed with the Vulgate. Clausen, who has particularly investigated the point, sums up the evidence to the effect that Augustine was "fairly instructed in Greek grammar, and a subtle distinguisher of words," but that beyond this his knowledge was insufficient for a thorough comprehension of Greek books, and especially for those in the Hellenistic dialect.

While a student at Carthage he was particularly attracted by the theatre, the spectacles at which were of unusual magnificence. To his enthusiastic and sensuous spirit they were irresistible, and the extent to which he seems to have yielded to the fascination is sufficient proof of his active alienation from Christianity at this period. The Christian church, as it has been said, "abhorred the pagan theatre. The idolatrous rites, the lascivious attitudes, the gladiatorial shows, which were its inseparable accompaniments, were equally opposed to the dogmatic monotheism, to the piety, and to the mercy of the gospel." One of the most significant signs of a man having become a Christian was his habitual absence from the theatre. No one was more emphatic on this point afterwards than Augustine himself, and as the result of his own experience, he seems to have doubted, apart from the gross immoralities of the pagan stage, whether the indulgence in fictitious joys and woes is a warrantable excitement (Confess., iii. 2).

Cicero's Hortensius, which he read in his nineteenth year, first awakened in Augustine's mind the spirit of specula

(Walch, Bibl. Patrist., p. 352.) "Imperitus non tantum Hebraicæ sed

1 "Augustinus extitit, ut alii, Ebrææ ac Græcæ linguæ ignarus."

etiam Græcæ linguæ, ipsos fontes adire non potuit, sed solam fere translationem Latinam explicare conatus est."-(Rosenmüller, Hist. Interpret., iii. 40.)

tion. He engaged restlessly in philosophical studies, and passed from one phase of thought to another, unable to find satisfaction in any. Manichæism first enthralled him. Its doctrine of two principles, one of good and one of evil, seemed to answer to the wild confusion of his own heart, and the conflict of higher and lower impulses which raged within him. It seemed to solve the mysteries which perplexed him in his own experience and in the world. He became a member of the sect, and entered into the class of auditors. His ambition was to be received among the number of the Elect, and so get to the heart of what he believed to be their higher knowledge. But falling in with Faustus, a distinguished Manichæan bishop and disputant, and entering into discussion with him, he was greatly disappointed. The system lost its attraction for him; he gradually became disgusted, and abandoned it. But before this he had left Carthage, shocked with the licence of the students, and had betaken himself for a time to Rome in the pursuit of his profession. There he also soon became dissatisfied, and accepted an invitation to proceed to Milan, where the people were in search of a teacher of rhetoric. He travelled thither at the public expense, and welcomed by friends who already seem to have recognised his distinction (Confess., i. 16).

was

At Milan the conflict of his mind in search of truth still continued. He was now in his thirtieth year, and for eleven years he had been seeking for mental rest, unable to find it. "To-morrow," he said to himself, "I shall find it it will appear manifestly, and I shall grasp it (Confess., vi. 18). But it still eluded his grasp, and he sunk back again into despondency. The way, however, was being prepared for his conversion. Ambrose was bishop of Milan, and, although he had a weak voice, was noted for his eloquence. Augustine was attracted by his reputation, and went to hear the famous Christian preacher in order, as he himself relates (Confess., v. 23), "to see whether his eloquence answered what was reported of it. I hung on his words attentively," he adds, "but of the matter I was but an unconcerned and contemptuous hearer." He confesses his delight so far: "The bishop's eloquence was more full of knowledge, yet in manner less pleasurable and soothing, than that of Faustus." He wished an opportunity of conversation with him, but this was not easily found. Ambrose had no leisure for philosophic discussion. He was accessible to all who sought him, but never for a moment free from study or the cares of duty. "Augustine used to enter, as all persons might, without being announced; but after staying for a while, afraid of interrupting him, he departed again.' He continued, however, to hear Ambrose preach, and gradually the gospel of divine truth and grace was received into his heart. First Plato and then St Paul opened his mind to higher thoughts, and at length certain words of the latter were driven home with irresistible force to his conscience. He was busy with his friend Alypius in studying the Pauline epistles. His struggle of mind became intolerable; the thought of divine purity fighting in his heart with the love of the world and of the flesh. He burst into an incontrollable flood of tears and rushed out into his garden, flinging himself under a fig tree that he might allow his tears to have full vent, and pour out his heart to God. Suddenly he seemed to hear voice calling upon him to consult the divine oracle, "Take up and read, take up and read." He left off weeping, rose up, and sought the volume where Alypius was sitting, and opening it read in silence the following passage: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom. xiii. 13, 14). He adds, "I had neither desire nor need to

read farther. As I finished the sentence, as though the light of peace had been poured into my heart, all the shadows of doubt dispersed. Thus hast Thou converted me to Thee, so as no longer to seek either for wife or other hope of the world, standing fast in that rule of faith in which Thou so many years before hadst revealed me to my mother" (Confess., viii. 30).

After his conversion, which is supposed to have occurred in the summer of 386, Augustine gave up his profession as a teacher of rhetoric, and retired to a friend's house in the country, in order to prepare himself for baptism. His religious opinions were still to some extent unformed, and even his habits by no means altogether such as his great change demanded. He mentions, for example, that during this time he broke himself off a habit of profane swearing, and in other ways sought to discipline his character and conduct for the reception of the sacred rite. He received baptism in Easter following, in his thirty-third year; and along with him his son Adeodatus and his friend Alypius were admitted to the Christian church. Monica, his mother, had rejoined him, and at length rejoiced in the fulfilment of her prayers. Dying before his return to his native country, her last hours were gladdened by his Christian sympathy. She implored him to lay her body anywhere, but wherever he might be to remember her "at the altar of the Lord," a devout duty which he invites others to share with him, so that her last request may, "through the prayers of many," receive a more abundant fulfilment.

Augustine went back to Rome for a short period and then returned to his native city, where he took up his abode in retirement, forming, with some friends who joined him in devotion, a small religious community, which looked to him as its head. They had all things in common, as in the early church, and fasting and prayer, Scripture reading and almsgiving, formed their regular occupations. Their mode of life was not formally monastic according to any special rule, but the experience of this time of seclusion was, no doubt, the basis of that monastic system which Augustine afterwards sketched, and which derived from him its name. Solitary monasticism had sprang up in the Egyptian deserts before this. The life of St Anthony by Athanasius had widely diffused the fervour for religious solitariness, and greatly touched Augustine at this period of his profession. It did not remain for him, therefore, to originate the monastic idea; but the association of monks in communities under a definite order and head received a special impulse both from Ambrose and his illustrious convert. As may be imagined, the fame of such a convert in such a position soon spread, and invitations to a more active ecclesiastical life came to him from many quarters. He shrank from the responsibility, but his destiny was not to be avoided. After three years spent in retirement he took a journey to Hippo, to see a Christian friend, who desired to converse with him as to his design of quitting the world and devoting himself to a religious life. He was the less reluctant to make this journey, because there being already a bishop at Hippo he hoped to escape all solicitation. But although the Christian community there had a bishop, they wanted a presbyter; and Augustine being present at the meeting called to choose a presbyter, the people unanimously chose him. He burst into tears, and would fain have escaped; but the church could not spare his services. He was ordained to the presbyterate, and in a few years afterwards he was made coadjutor to the bishop, and finally became sole bishop of the see.

Henceforth Augustine's life is filled up with his ecclesiastical labours, and is more marked by the series of his numerous writings and the great controversies in which they engaged him than by anything else. Already he had distinguished himself as an author. He had written several