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Appendix (4)

St. Augustinus

The mysticism of St. Augustine is partly obscured for us by the wealth of his intellectual and practical life: yet no one can read the "Confessions" without being struck by the intensity and actuality of his spiritual experience, and the characteristically mystical formula under which he apprehended Reality. It is clear that when he composed this work he was already an advanced contemplative. The immense intellectual activities by which he is best remembered were fed by the solitary adventures of his soul. No merely literary genius could have produced the wonderful chapters in the seventh and eighth books, or the innumerable detached passages in which his passion for the Absolute breaks out. Later mystics, recognising this fact, constantly appeal to his authority, and his influence ranks next to that of the Bible in the formation of the medieval school.