Œuvres Augustin d'Hippone (354-430) Confessiones

Edition Masquer
Confessiones

Caput 4

Numquid, domine deus veritatis, quisquis novit ista, iam placet tibi? infelix enim homo, qui scit illa omnia, te autem nescit; beatus autem, qui te scit, etiamsi illa nesciat. qui vero et te et illa novit, non propter illa beatior, sed propter te solum beatus est, se cognoscens te, sicut te glorificet, et gratias agat et non evanescat in cogitationibus suis. sicut enim melior, qui novit possidere arborem et de usu eius tibi gratias agit, quamvis nesciat vel quot cubitis alta sit vel quanta latitudine diffusa, quam ille, qui eam metitur et omnes ramos eius numerat et neque possidet eam, neque creatorem eius novit aut diligit; sic fidelis homo, cuius totus mundus divitiarum est, et quasi nihil habens omnia possidet inhaerendo tibi, cui serviunt omnia, quamvis nec saltem septentrionum gyros noverit, dubitare stultum est, quin utique melior sit quam mensor caeli et numerator siderum et pensor elementorum, et neglegens tui, qui omnia in mensura et numero et pondere disposuisti.

Traduction Masquer
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter IV.--That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.

7. Doth, then, O Lord God of truth, whosoever knoweth those things therefore please Thee? For unhappy is the man who knoweth all those things, but knoweth Thee not; but happy is he who knoweth Thee, though these he may not know. 1 But he who knoweth both Thee and them is not the happier on account of them, but is happy on account of Thee only, if knowing Thee he glorify Thee as God, and gives thanks, and becomes not vain in his thoughts. 2 But as he is happier who knows how to possess a tree, and for the use thereof renders thanks to Thee, although he may not know how many cubits high it is, or how wide it spreads, than he that measures it and counts all its branches, and neither owns it nor knows or loves its Creator; so a just man, whose is the entire world of wealth, 3 and who, as having nothing, yet possesseth all things 4 by cleaving unto Thee, to whom all things are subservient, though he know not even the circles of the Great Bear, yet it is foolish to doubt but that he may verily be better than he who can measure the heavens, and number the stars, and weigh the elements, but is forgetful of Thee, "who hast set in order all things in number, weight, and measure." 5

  1. What a contrast does his attitude here present to his supreme regard for secular learning before his conversion! We have constantly in his writings expressions of the same kind. On Psalm ciii. he dilates lovingly on the fount of happiness the word of God is, as compared with the writings of Cicero, Tully, and Plato; and again on Psalm xxxviii. he shows that the word is the source of all true joy. So likewise in De Trin. iv. 1: "That mind is more praiseworthy which knows even its own weakness, than that which, without regard to this, searches out and even comes to know the ways of the stars, or which holds fast such knowledge already acquired, while ignorant of the way by which itself to enter into its own proper health and strength....Such a one has preferred to know his own weakness, rather than to know the walls of the world, the foundations of the earth, and the pinnacles of heaven." See iii. sec. 9, note, above. ↩

  2. Rom. i. 21. ↩

  3. Prov. xvii. 6, in the LXX. ↩

  4. 2 Cor. vi. 10. ↩

  5. Wisd. xi. 20. ↩

  Imprimer   Rapporter une erreur