Edition Masquer
Confessiones

Caput 7

Quid ergo amo, cum deum amo? quis est ille super caput animae meae? per ipsam animam meam ascendam ad illum. transibo vim meam, qua haereo corpori et vitaliter compagem eius repleo. non ea vi reperio deum meum: nam reperiret et equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus, et est eadem vis, qua vivunt etiam eorum corpora. est alia vis, non solum qua vivifico sed etiam qua sensifico carnem meam, quam mihi fabricavit dominus, iubens oculo, ut non audiat, et auri, ut non videat, sed illi, per quem videam, huic, per quam audiam, et propria singillatim ceteris sensibus sedibus et officiis suis: quae diversa per eos ago unus ego animus. transibo et istam vim meam; nam et hanc habet equus et mulus: sentiunt etiam ipsi per corpus.

Traduction Masquer
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter VII.--That God is to Be Found Neither from the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul.

11. What then is it that I love when I love my God? Who is He that is above the head of my soul? By my soul itself will I mount up unto Him. I will soar beyond that power of mine whereby I cling to the body, and fill the whole structure of it with life. Not by that power do I find my God; for then the horse and the mule, "which have no understanding," ¹ might find Him, since it is the same power by which their bodies also live. But there is another power, not that only by which I quicken, but that also by which I endow with sense my flesh, which the Lord hath made for me; bidding the eye not to hear, and the ear not to see; but that, for me to see by, and this, for me to hear by; and to each of the other senses its own proper seat and office, which being different, I, the single mind, do through them govern. I will soar also beyond this power of mine; for this the horse and mule possess, for they too discern through the body.