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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XVIII.--A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained in the Memory.

27. For the woman who lost her drachma, and searched for it with a lamp, ¹ unless she had remembered it, would never have found it. For when it was found, whence could she know whether it were the same, had she not remembered it? I remember to have lost and found many things; and this I know thereby, that when I was searching for any of them, and was asked, "Is this it?" "Is that it?" I answered "No," until such time as that which I sought were offered to me. Which had I not remembered,--whatever it were,--though it were offered me, yet would I not find it, because I could not recognise it. And thus it is always, when we search for and find anything that is lost. Notwithstanding, if anything be by accident lost from the sight, not from the memory,--as any visible body,--the image of it is retained within, and is searched for until it be restored to sight; and when it is found, it is recognised by the image which is within. Nor do we say that we have found what we had lost unless we recognise it; nor can we recognise it unless we remember it. But this, though lost to the sight, was retained in the memory.

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Confessiones (PL)

CAPUT XVIII. Non inveniretur ea res quae excidit, nisi memoria teneretur.

27. Perdiderat enim mulier drachmam, et quaesivit eam cum lucerna ¹, et nisi memor ejus esset, non inveniret eam. Cum enim esset inventa, unde sciret utrum ipsa esset, si memor ejus non esset? Multa memini me perdita quaesisse atque invenisse. Inde istud scio, quia cum quaererem aliquid eorum, et diceretur mihi, Num forte hoc est, num forte illud? tamdiu dicebam: Non est, donec id offerretur quod quaerebam. Cujus nisi memor essem, quidquid illud esset, etiam si mihi offerretur, non invenirem, quia non agnoscerem. Et semper ita fit, cum aliquid perditum quaerimus et invenimus. Verumtamen si forte aliquid ab oculis perit, non a memoria, veluti corpus quodlibet visibile, tenetur intus imago ejus, et quaeritur donec reddatur aspectui. Quod cum inventum fuerit, ex imagine quae intus est recognoscitur. Nec invenisse nos dicimus quod perierat, si non agnoscimus; nec agnoscere possumus, si non meminimus: sed hoc perierat quidem oculis, memoria tenebatur.