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Confessiones

Caput 4

Quid ergo vocaretur, quo etiam sensu tardioribus utcumque insinuaretur, nisi usitato aliquo vocabulo? quid autem in omnibus mundi partibus reperiri potest propinquius informitati omnimodae quam terra et abyssus? minus enim speciosa sunt pro suo gradu infimo, quam cetera superiora perlucida et luculenta omnia. cur ergo non accipiam informitatem materiae, quam sine specie feceras, unde speciosum mundum faceres, ita commode hominibus intimatam, ut appellaretur terra invisibilis et incomposita.

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter IV.--From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen.

4. What, then, should it be called, that even in some ways it might be conveyed to those of duller mind, save by some conventional word? But what, in all parts of the world, can be found nearer to a total formlessness than the earth and the deep? For, from their being of the lowest position, they are less beautiful than are the other higher parts, all transparent and shining. Why, therefore, may I not consider the formlessness of matter--which Thou hadst created without shape, whereof to make this shapely world--to be fittingly intimated unto men by the name of earth invisible and formless?