3 [It is interestiriK to observe how remote Augiistin was from attachin.i.' superior merit to voluntary poverty, or to other forms of asceticism as ends m themselves. What he prized was the ability to use without abusin.u;, to have without cleavmg to the good things which Cjod provides. — A. H. N.]
4 2 Mac. vii. 5 Ps, cxvi. 15. * Prov. xvi. 32.
[Chap. XXV.
thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience: for in fire are gold and silver tried V' ' Had she not heard, "The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?"^ These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these l)Ooks, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit who writes those in the New Testament.
CHAP. 24. — OF JUSTICE AND PRUDENCE.
44. What of justice that pertains to God? As the Lord says, " Ye cannot serve two masters," ^ and the apostle denounces those who serve the creature rather than the Creator,-* was it not said before in the Old Testament, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve? " ^ I need say no more on this, for these books are full of such passages. The lover, then, whom we are describing, will get from justice this rule of life, that he must with perfect readiness serve the God whom he loves, the highest good, the highest wisdom, the highest peace;* and as regards all other things, must either rule them as subject to himself, or treat them with a view to their subjection-. This rule of life, is, as we have shown, confirmed by the authority of both Testaments.
45. With equal brevity we must treat of prudence, to which it belongs to discern between what is to be desired and what to be shunned. Without this, nothing can be done of what we have already spoken of. It is the part of prudence to keep watch with most anxious vigilance, lest any evil influence should stealthily creep in upon us. Thus the Lord often exclaims, " Watch; "^ and He says, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."** And then it is said, " Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"^ And no passage can be quoted from the Old Testament more expressly condemning this mental somnolence, which makes us ins'ensible to destruction advancing on us step by step, than those words of the prophet, " He who despiseth small things shall fall by degrees." '" On this topic I might discourse at length did our haste allow of it. And did our present task demand it, we might perhaps prove the depth of these mysteries, by making a mock of which profane men in their perfect ignorance fall, not certainly by degrees, but witli a headlong overthrow.
6 A name given by Ausrus^tin to the Holy Spirit, r\ xxx.
CHAP. 25, FOUR MORAL DUTIES REGARDING THE LOVE OF GOD, OF WHICH LOVE THE RE- WARD IS ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.
46. I need say no more about right conduct. For if God is man's chief good, whicii you cannot deny, it clearly follows, since to seek the chief good is to live well, that to live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind; and, as arising from this, that this love must be preserved entire and incorrupt, which is the part of temperance; that it give way before no troubles, which is the part of fortitude; that it serve no other, which is the part of justice; that it be watchful in its inspection of things lest craft or fraud steal in, which is the part of prudence. This is the one perfection of man, by which alone he can succeed in attaining to the purity of truth. This both Testaments enjoin in concert; this is commended on both sides alike. Why do you continue to cast reproaches on Scriptures of which you are ignorant? Do you not see the folly of your attack upon books which only those who do not understand them find fault with, and which only those who find fault fail in understanding? For neither can an enemy know them, nor can one who knows them be other than a friend to them.
47. Let us then, as many as have in view to reach eternal life, love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind. For eternal life contains the whole reward in the promise of which we rejoice; nor can the reward precede desert, nor be given to a man before he is worthy of it. What can be more unjust than this, and what is more just than God? We should not then demand the reward before we deserve to get it. Here, perhaps, it is not out of place to ask what is eternal life; or rather let us hear the Bestower of it: " This," He says, " is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." " So eternal life is the knowledge of the truth. See, then, how perverse and preposterous is the character of those who think that their teaching of the knowledge of God will make us perfect, when this is the reward of those already perfect! What else, then, have we to do but first to love with full affection Him whom we desire to know?'" Hence arises that principle on which we have all II John xvii. 3...■.
'- Retract, i. -. § 4: — "I should have seXAsincere affection rather than full; or it mijrht be thought that the love of (;od Vk-ill be no greater when we shall see Him face to face. Full, then, must be here understood as meaning that it cannot be greater while we walk by faith. T"here will be greater, yea, perfect fullness, but only by sight."
Chap. XXVII.] OF THE MOR.\LS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
along insisted, that there is nothing more wholesome in the Cathohc Church than using authority ' before argument.
CHAP. 26. LOVE OF OURSELVES AND OF OUR NEIGHBOR.
48. To proceed to what remains. It may be thought that there is nothing here about man himself, the lover. But to think this, shows a want of clear perception. For it is impossible for one who loves God not to love himself. For he alone has a proper love for himself who aims diligently at the attainment of the chief and true good; and if this is nothing else but God, as has been shown, what is to prevent one who loves God from loving himself? And then, among men should there be no bond of mutual love? Yea, verily; so that we can think of no surer step towards the love of God than the love of man to man.
49. Let the Lord then supply us with the other precept in-answer to the question about the precepts of life; for He was not satisfied with one as knowing that God is one thing and man another, and that the difference is nothing less than that between the Creator and the thing created in the likeness of its Creator. He says then that the second precept is, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'' ^ Now you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection. For you do not love him as yourself, unless you try to draw him to that good which you are yourself pursuing. For this is the one good which has room for all to pursue it along with thee. From this precept proceed the duties of human society, in which it is hard to keep from error. But the first thing to aim at is, tnat we should be benevolent, that is, that we cherish no malice and no evil design against another. For man is the nearest neighbor of man.
50. Hear also what Paul says: " The love of our neighbor/' he says, " worketh no ill." ^ llie testimonies here made use of are very short, but, if I mistake not, they are to the point, and sufficient for the purpose. And every one knows how many and how weighty are the words to be found everywhere in these l)Ooks on the love of our neighbor. But as a man may sin against another in two ways, either by injuring him or by not helping him ' [By authority Augustin does not mean the authority of the Church or of Scripture, but he refers to the loving recognition of the authority of God as the condition of true discipleship. — A. H. X.)
when it is in his power, and as it is for these things which no loving man would do that men are called wicked, all that is required is, I think, proved by these words, "The love of our neighbor worketh no ill." And if we cannot attain to good unless we first desist from working evil, our love of our neighbor is a sort of cradle of our love to God, so that, as it is said, " the love of our neighbor worketh no ill," we may rise from this to these other words, " We know that all things issue in good to them that love God."''
51. But there is a sense in which these either rise together to fullness and perfection, or, while the love of God is first in beginning, the love of our neighbor is first in coming to perfection. For perhaps divine love takes hold on us more rapidly at the outset, but we reach perfection more easily in lower things. However that may be, the main » point is this, that no one should think that while he despises his neighbor he will come to happiness and to the God whom he loves. And would that it were as easy to seek the good of our neighbor, or to avoid hurting him, as it is for one well trained and kindhearted to love his neighbor! These things require more than mere good-will, and can be done only by a high degree of thoughtfulness and prudence, which belongs only to those to whom it is given by God, the source of all good. On this topic — which is one, I think, of great difficulty — I will try to say a few words such as my plan admits of, resting all my hope in Him whose gifts these are.
CHAP. 27. ON DOING GOOD TO THE BODY OF OUR NEIGHBOR.
52. Man, then, as viewed by his fellow-, man, is a rational soul with a mortal and earthly body in its service. Therefore he who loves his neighbor does good partly to the man's body, and partly to his soul. What benefits the body is called medicine; what benefits the soul, discipline. Medicine here includes everything that either preserves or restores bodily health. It includes, therefore, not only what belongs to the art of medical men, properly so called, but also food and drink, clothing and shelter, and every means of covering and protection to guard our l)odies against injuries and mishaps from without as well as from within. For hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and all violence from without, produce loss of that health which is the point to be considered.
53. Hence those who seasonably and wisely supply all the things required for warding off 4 Rom. viii. 28.
5^ [Chap. XXVIII.
these evils and distresses ure called compassionate, although they may hav^e been so wise that no painful feeling disturbed their mind in the exercise of compasr:ion.' No doubt the word compassionate implies suffering in the heart of the man who feels for the sorrow of another. And it is equally true that a wise man ought to be free from all painful emotion when he assists the needy, when he gives food to the hungry and water to the thirsty, when he clothes the naked, when he takes the stranger into his house, when he sets free the oppressed, when, lastly, he extends his charity to the dead in giving them burial. Still the epithet compassionate is a proper one, although he acts with tranquillity of mind, not from the stimulus of painful feeling, but from motives of benevolence. There is no harm in the word compassionate when there is no passion in the case.
54. Fools, again, who avoid the exercise of compassion as a vice, because they are not sufficiently moved by a sense of duty without feeling also distressful emotion, are frozen into hard insensibility, which is very different from the calm of a rational serenity. God, on the other hand, is properly called compassionate; and the sense in which He is so will be understood by those whom piety and diligence have made fit to understand. There is a danger lest, in using the words of the learned, we harden the souls of the unlearned by leading them away from compassion instead of softening them with the desire of a charitable disposition. As compassion, then, requires us to ward off these distresses from others, so harmlessness forbids the infliction of them.
CHAP. 28. ON DOING GOOD TO THE SOUL OF OUR NEIGHBOR. TWO PARTS OF DISCIPLINE, RESTRAINT AND INSTRUCTION. THROUGH GOOD CONDUCT WE ARRIVE AT THE KNOWL- EDGE OF THE TRUTH.
55. As regards discipline, by which the health of the mind is restored, without which bodily health avails nothing for security against misery, the subject is one of great difficulty. And as in the body we said it is one thing to cure diseases and wounds, which few can do properly, and another thing to meet the cravings of hunger and thirst, and to give assistance in all the other ways in which any man may at any time help another; so in the mind there are some things in which I Retract, i. 7. § 4: — " This does not mean that there are actually in this life wise men such as are here spoken of. My words are not, 'although they are so wise,' but 'although they were so wise.' " [Augustin's ideal wise man was evidently the " Gnostic " of Clement of Alexandria. The conception is Stoical and Neo-Platonic — A. H. N.]
the high and rare offices of the teacher are not much called for, — as, for instance, in advice and exhortation to give to the needy the things already mentioned as required for the body. To give such advice is to aid the mind by discipline, as giving the things themselves is aiding the body by our resources. But there are other cases where diseases of the mind, many and various in kind, are healed in a way strange and indescribable. Unless His medicine were sent from heaven to men, so heedlessly do they go on in sin, there would be no hope of salvation; and, indeed, even bodily health, if you go to the root of the matter, can have com.e to men from none but God, who gives to all things their being and their well-being.
56. This discipline, then, which is the medicine of the mind, as far as we can gather from the sacred Scriptures, includes two things, restraint and instruction. Restraint implies fear, and instruction love, in the person benefited by the discipline; for in the giver of the benefit there is the love without the fear. In both of these God Himself, bv whose goodness and mercy it is that we are anything, has given us in the two Testaments a rule of discipline. For though both are found in both Testaments, still fear is prominent in the Old, and love in the New; which the apostle calls bondage in the one, and liberty in the other. Of the marvellous order and divine harmony of these Testaments it would take long to speak, and many pious and learned men have discoursed on it. The theme demands many books to set it forth and explain it as far as is possible for man. He, then, who loves his neighbor endeavors all he can to procure his safety in body and in soul, making the health of the mind the standard in his treatment of the body. And as regards the mind, his endeavors are in this order, that he should first fear and then love God. This is true excellence of conduct, and thus the knowledge of the truth is acquired which we are ever in the pursuit of.
57. The Manichseans agree with me as regards the duty of loving God and our neighbor, but they deny that this is,.taught in th'e Old Testament. How greatly they err in this is, I think, clearly shown by the passages quoted above on both these duties. But, in a single word, and one which only stark madness can oppose, do they not see the unreasonableness of denying that these very two precepts which they commend are quoted by the Lord in the Gospel from the Old Testament, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and the other, "Thou Chap. XXIX.] OF THE MORALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?" ' Or if they dare not deny this, from the light of truth being too strong tor them, let tliem deny that these precepts are salutary; let them deny, if they can, that they teach the best morality; let them assert that it is not a duty to love God, or to love our neighbor; that all things do not issue in good to them that love God; that it is not true that the love of our neighbor worketh no ill (a two-fold regulation of human life which is most salutary and excellent). By such assertions they cut themselves off not only from Christians, but from mankind. But if they dare not speak thus, but must confess the divinity of the precepts, why do they not desist from assailing and maligning with horrible profanity _^the books from which they are quoted?
58. Will they say, as they often do, that although we find these precepts in the books, it does not follow that all is good that is found there? How to meet and refute this quibble I do not well see. Shall I discuss the words of the Old Testament one by one, to prove to stubborn and ignorant men their perfect agreement with the New Testament? But when will this be done? When shall I have time, or they patience? What, then, is to be done? Shall I desert the cause, and leave them to escape detection in an opinion which, though false and impious, is hard to disprove? I will not. God will Himself be at hand to aid me; nor will He suffer me in those straits to remain helpless or forsaken.
CHAP. 29. OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPT- I URES.
59. Attend, then, ye Manichaeans, if perijhance there are some of you of whom your superstition has hold so as to allow you yet to I escape. Attend, I say, without obstinacy, ' without the desire to oppose, otherwise your decision will be fatal to yourselves. No one can doubt, and you are not so lost to the truth as not to understand that if it is good, as all allow, to love God and our neighbor, whatever hangs on these two precepts cannot rightly be pronounced bad. What it is that langs on them it would be absurd to think of 'earning from me. Hear Christ Himself; lear Christ, I say; hear the Wisdom of God: ■'On these two commandments," He says, ■ iiang all the law and the prophets.""
60. What can the most shameless obstinacy I say to this? That these are not Christ's words? But they are written in the Gospel s His words. That the writing is false? Is ' Dent. vi. 5; I,ev. xix. iS; Matt. xxii. 37, 39. '.Matt. xxii. 40.
not this most profane blasphemy? Is it not most presumptuous to speak thus? Is it not m.ost foolhardy? Is it not most criminal? The worshippers of idols, who hate even the name of Christ, never dared to speak thus against these Scriptures. For the utter overthrow of all literature will follow, and there will be an end to all books handed down from the past, if what is supported by such a strong popular belief and established by the uniform testimony of so many men and so many times, is brought into such suspicion, that it is not allowed to have the credit and the authority of common history. In fine, what can you quote from any writings of which I may not speak in this way, if it is quoted against m)' opinion and my purpose? ^ 61. And is it not intolerable that they forbid us to believe a book widely known and placed now in the hands of all, wliile they insist on our believing the book which they quote? If any writing is to be suspected, what should be more so than one which has not merited notoriety, or which may be throug*hout a forgery, bearing a false name? If you force such a writing on me against my will, and make a display of authority to drive me into belief, shall I, when I have a writing which I see spread far and wide for a length of time, and sanctioned by the concordant testimony of churches scattered over all the world, degrade myself by doubting, and, worse degradation, by doubting at your suggestion? Even if you brought forward other readings, I should not receive them unless supported by general.agreement; and this being the case, do you think that now, when you bring forward nothing to compare with the text except your own silly and inconsiderate statement, mankind are so unreasonable and so forsaken by divine Providence as to prefer to those Scriptures not others quoted by you in^ refutation, but merely your own words? You ought to bring forward another manuscript with the same contents, but incorrupt and more correct, with only the passage wanting which you charge with being spurious. For example, if you hold that the Epistle of Paul to the Romans is spurious, you must bring forward another incorrupt, or rather another manuscript with the same epistle of the same apostle, free from error and corruption. You say you will not, lest you be suspected of corrupting it. This is your usual reply, and a true one. Were you to do this, we should assuredly have this very suspicion; and all men of any sense would have it too. See then 3 [The stroHR testimony borne by Aucfustin asiainst the perver.se subjective criticism of the Manicha:ans has an important application to the present time. — A. H. N.]
5S [Chap. XXX.
what you nre to think of your own authority; and consider whetiier it is right to believe your words against these Scriptures, when the simple fact that a manuscript is brought forward by you makes it dangerous to put faith in it.
CHAP. 30. THE CHURCH APOSTROPHISED AS TEACHER OF ALL WISDOM. DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
62. But why say more on this? For who but sees that men who dare to speak thus against the Christian Scriptures, though they may not be what they are suspected of bemg, are at least no Christian^? For to Christians this rule of life is given, that we should love the Lord our God with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind, and our neighbor as ourselves; for on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Rightly, then, Catholic Church, most true mother of Christians, dost thou not only teach that God alone, to find whom is the happiest life, must be worshipped in perfect purit}^ and chastity, bringing in no creature as an object of adoration whom we should be required to serve; and from that incorrupt and inviolable eternity to which alone man should be made subject, in cleaving to which alone the rational soul escapes misery, excluding everything made, everything liable to change, everything under the power of time; without confounding what eternity, and truth, and peace itself keeps separate, or separating what a common majesty unites: but thou dost also contain love and charity to our neighbor in such a way, that for all kinds of diseases with which souls are for their sins afflicted, there is found with thee a medicine of prevailing efficacy.
63. Thy training and teaching are childlike for children, forcible for youths, peaceful for the aged, taking into account the age of the mind as well as of the body. Thou subjectest women to their husbands in chaste and faithful obedience, not to gratify passion, but for the propagation of offspring,' and for domestic society. Thou givest to men authority over their wives, not to mock the weaker sex, but in the laws of unfeigned love. Thou dost subordinate children to their parents in a kind of free bondage, and dost set parents over their children in a godly rule. Thou bindest brothers to brothers in a religious tie stronger and closer than that of I [This view of the marriage relation seems to have been almost universal in the ancient Church. TertuUian and Clement of Alexandria are fond of dwelling upon it. For Augustin's views more fully stated see his De Bono Conjug-ali, 6. See also an interesting excursus on " Continence in Married Life" in Cunningham's St. Austin, p. 168. sq. — A. H. N.]
blood. Without violation of the connections of nature and of choice, thou bringest within the bond of mutual love every relationship of kindred, and every alliance of affinity. Tnou teachest servants to cleave to their masters from delight in their task rather than from the necessity of their position. Thou renderest masters forbearing to their servants, from a regard to God their common Master, and more disposed to advise than to compel. Thou unitest citizen to citizen, nation to nation, yea, man to man, from the recollection of their first parents, not only in society but in fraternity. Thou teachest kings to seek the good of their peoples; thou counsellest peoples to be subject to their kings. Thou teachest carefully to whom honor is due, to whom regard, to whom reverence, to whom fear, to wnom consolation, to whom admonition, to whom encouragement, to whom discipline, to whom rebuke, to whom punishment; showing both how all are not due to all, and how to all love is due, and how injury is due to none.^ 64. Then, after this human love has nourished and invigorated the mind cleaving to thy breast, and fitted it for following God, when the divine majesty has begun to disclose itself as far as suffices for man while a dweller on the earth, such fervent charity is produced, and such a flame of divine love is kindled, that by the burning out of all vices, and by the purification and sanctification of the man, it becomes plain how divine are these words, "I am a consuming fire," ^ and, "I have come to send fire on the earth.'' "• These two utterances of one God stamped on both Testaments, exhibit with harmonious testimony the sanctification of the soul, pointing forward to the accomplishment of tnat which 2 [If this apostrophe had been addressed to " Christianity " rather than to the " Catholic Church," no Christian could fail to see in it one of the noblest tributes ever bestowed on the religion of Christ. Augustin identified Christianity with the organized body which was far from realizing the ideal that he here sets forth. As an apostrophe to ideal Christianity nothing could be finer. — A. H. N.]
3Deut.iv. 24. Retract, i. 7, §5: — "The Pelagians may think that I have spoken of perfection as attainable in this life. Kut they must not think so. For the fervor of charity which is fitted for following God, and of force enough to consume all vices, can have its origin and growth in this life; but it does not follow that it can here accomplish the purpose of its origin, so that no vice shall remain in the man; although this great effect is produced by this same fervor of charity, when and where this is possible, that as the laver of regeneration purifies from the guilt of all the sins which attach to man's birth, or come from his evil conduct, so this perfection may purify him from all stain from the vices which necessarily attend human infirmity in this world. So we must understand the words of the apostle: 'Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; cleansing it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Chureh, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ' (Eph. v. 25-27). For in this world there is the washing of water by the word which purifies the Church. But as the whole Church, as long as it is here, says, ' Forgive us our debts,' it certainly is not while here without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but from that which it here receives, it is led on to the glory which is not here, and to perfection.
4 Luke xii. 49.
CHAP. XXXI.] OF THE MORALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
is also quoted in the New Testament from the Old: " Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? Where. O death, is thy contest?" ' Could these heretics understand this one saying, no longer proud but quite reconciled, they would worship God nowhere but with thee and in thy bosom. In thee, as is fit, divine precepts are kept by widely-scattered multitudes. In thee, as is fit, it is well understood how much more heinous sin is when the law is known than when it is unknown. For "the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law," ^ which adds to the force with which the consciousness of disregard of the precept strikes and slays. In thee it is seen, as is fit, how vain is effort under the law, when lust lays waste the mind, and is held in check by fear of punishment, instead of being overborne by the love of virtue. Thine, as is fit, are the man}' hospitable, the many friendly, the many compassionate, the many learned, the many chsste, the many saints, the many so ardent in their love to God, that in perfect continence and amazing indifference to this world they find happiness even in solitude.
CHAP. 31. THE LIFE OF THE ANACHORETES AND CCENOBITES SET AGAINST THE CONTI- NENCE OF THE MANICH^ANS.
65. What must we think is seen by those who can live without seeing their fellowcreatures, though not without loving them? It must be something transcending human things in contemplating which man can live without seeing his fellow-man. Hear now, ye Manichsans, the customs and notable continence of perfect Christians, who have thought it right not only to praise but also to practise the height of chastity, that you may be restrained, if there is any shame in you, from vaunting your abstinence before uninstructed minds as if it were the hardest of all things. I will speak of tilings of which you are not ignorant, though you hide them from us. For who does not know that there is a daily increasing multitude of Christian men of absolute continence spread all over the world, especially in the East and in Egypt, as you cannot help knowing?
66. I will sny nothing of those to whom I just now alluded, who, in complete seclusion from the view of men, inhabit regions utterly barren, content with simple bread, which is brought to them periodically, and with water, enjoying communion with God, to whom in purity of mind they cleave, and most blessed in contemplating His beauty, which can be 2 I Cor. XV. 56 seen only by the understanding of saints. I will say nothing of tliem, because some people think them to have abandoned human things more than they ought, not considering how much those may benefit us in their minds by prayer, and in their lives by example, whose bodies we are not permitted to see. But to discuss this point would take long, and would be fruitless; for if a man does not of his own accord regard this high pitch of sanctity as admirable and honorable, how can our speaking lead him to do so? Only the Manichsans, who make a boast of nothing, should be reminded that the abstinence and continence of the great saints of the Catholic Church has gone so far, that some think it should be checked and recalled within the limits of humanity, — so far above men, even in the judgment of those who disapprove, have their minds soared.
67. But if this is beyond our tolerance, who can but admire and commend those who, slighting and discarding the pleasures of this world, living together in a most chaste and holy society, unite in passing their time in prayers, in readings,, in discussions, without any swelling of pride, or noise of contention, or sullenness of envy; hut quiet, modest, peaceful, their life is one of perfect harmony and devotion to God, an offering rnost acceptable to Him from whom the power to do those things is obtained? No one possesses anything of his own; no one is a burden to another. They work with their hands in such occupations as may feed their bodies without distracting their minds from God. The product of their toil they give to the decans or tithesmen, — so called from being set over the tithes, — so that no one is occupied with the care of his body, either in food or clothes, or in anything else required for daily use or for tlie common ailments. These decans, again, arranging everything with great care, and meeting promptly the demands made by that life on account of bodily infirmities, have one called " father,'' to whom they give in their accounts. These fathers are not only more saintly in their conduct, but also distinguished for divine learning, and of high character in every way; and without priile they supermtend those whom they call their children, having themselves great authority in giving orders, and meeting with willing obedience from those under their charge. At the close of the day they assemble from their separate dwellings before their meal to hear their father, assembling to the number