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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books
Chapter XXXII.--Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man.
47. Thanks to Thee, O Lord. We behold the heaven and the earth, whether the corporeal part, superior and inferior, or the spiritual and corporeal creature; and in the embellishment of these parts, whereof the universal mass of the world or the universal creation consisteth, we see light made, and divided from the darkness. We see the firmament of heaven, 1 whether the primary body of the world between the spiritual upper waters and the corporeal lower waters, or--because this also is called heaven--this expanse of air, through which wander the fowls of heaven, between the waters which are in vapours borne above them, and which in clear nights drop down in dew, and those which being heavy flow along the earth. We behold the waters gathered together through the plains of the sea; and the dry land both void and formed, so as to be visible and compact, and the matter of herbs and trees. We behold the lights shining from above,--the sun to serve the day, the moon and the stars to cheer the night; and that by all these, times should be marked and noted. We behold on every side a humid element, fruitful with fishes, beasts, and birds; because the density of the air, which bears up the flights of birds, is increased by the exhalation of the waters. 2 We behold the face of the earth furnished with terrestrial creatures, and man, created after Thy image and likeness, in that very image and likeness of Thee (that is, the power of reason and understanding) on account of which he was set over all irrational creatures. And as in his soul there is one power which rules by directing, another made subject that it might obey, so also for the man was corporeally made a woman, 3 who, in the mind of her rational understanding should also have a like nature, in the sex, however, of her body should be in like manner subject to the sex of her husband, as the appetite of action is subjected by reason of the mind, to conceive the skill of acting rightly. These things we behold, and they are severally good, and all very good.
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In his Retractations, ii. 6, he says: "Non satis considerate dictum est; res enem in abdito est valde." ↩
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Compare De Gen. con. Manich. ii. 15. ↩
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"Concipiendam,' or the reading may be concupiscendam,' according to St. Augustin's interpretation of Gen. iii. 16, in the De Gen. con. Manich. ii. 15. As an instance hereof was woman made, who is in the order of things made subject to the man; that what appears more evidently in two human beings, the man and the woman, may be contemplated in the one, man; viz. that the inward man, as it were manly reason, should have in subjection the appetite of the soul, whereby we act through the bodily members.'"--E. B. P. ↩
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Les confessions de Saint Augustin
CHAPITRE XXXII. VUE DE LA CRÉATION.
47. Seigneur, grâces vous soient rendues! nous voyons le ciel et la terre, c’est-à-dire les régions supérieures et inférieures du monde; ou le monde des esprits et celui des corps; et, pour l’embellissement des parties qui forment l’ensemble ou de l’univers visible, ou de l’universalité des êtres, nous voyons la lumière créée et séparée des ténèbres. Nous voyons le firmament du ciel, soit ce premier corps du monde, élevé entre la sublimité des eaux spirituelles et l’infériorité des eaux corporelles ( Voy. Rétr. Liv. II, Chap. VI, n°2), soit ces espaces de l’air, ce ciel où les oiseaux volent entre les eaux que les vapeurs condensent au-dessus d’eux-mêmes et qui retombent en rosées sereines, et les eaux plus lourdes, qui coulent sur la terre.
Nous voyons, par les plaines de la mer, la beauté de ces masses d’eaux attroupées; et nous voyous la terre, d’abord dans sa nudité, puis, recevant avec la forme, l’ordre, la beauté et la force végétative. Nous voyons les astres (516) briller sur nos têtes; le soleil suffire seul au jour; la lune et les étoiles consoler la nuit; notes radieuses de l’harmonie des temps. Nous voyons ces humides immensités se peupler de poissons, de monstres énormes, d’oiseaux divers: car l’évaporation de l’eau donne au corps de l’air cette consistance qui soutient leur vol.
Nous voyons la face de la terre ornée de ces races variées d’animaux, et l’homme, créé à votre image, investi d’autorité sur eux par cette divine ressemblance, par le privilège de l’intelligence et de la raison. Et comme il est, dans son âme, un conseil dominant et une obéissance soumise, ainsi, dans notre nature corporelle, la femme est créée pour l’homme, quoique également admise au don de la raison, et son sexe l’assujettit à l’homme, comme la puissance active et passionnée, soumise à l’esprit, conçoit de l’esprit le règlement de ses actions: voilà ce que nous voyons; chacune de ces oeuvres est bonne; et leur ensemble est très-bon.