7.
"I thought on these things, and poured out my soul above myself" 1 (ver. 4). When would my soul attain to that object of its search, which is "above my soul," if my soul were not to "pour itself out above itself"? For were it to rest in itself, it would not see anything else beyond itself; and in seeing itself, would not, for all that, see God. Let then my insulting enemies now say, "Where is thy God?" aye, let them say it! I, so long as I do not "see," so long as my happiness is postponed, make my tears my "bread day and night." Let them still say, "Where is thy God?" I seek my God in every corporeal nature, terrestrial or celestial, and find Him not: I seek His Substance in my own soul, and I find it not, yet still I have thought on these things, and wishing to "see the invisible things of my God, being understood by the things made," 2 I have poured forth my soul above myself, and there remains no longer any being for me to attain to, save my God. For it is "there" is the "house of my God." His dwelling-place is above my soul; from thence He beholds me; from thence He created me; from thence He directs me and provides for me; from thence he appeals to 3 me, and calls me, and directs me; leads me in the way, and to the end of my way. 4 ...
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Super me; Vulgate, in me. Compare Aristotle, Eth. ix. 9: nooumen hoti nooumen; to d' aisth?nesthai e noein, hoti aisthanometha e nooumen, [esti to aisth?nesthai e noein] hoti esmen; to gar einai en to aisth?nesthai e noein, k. t. l. "By the exercise of the powers of sensation and of thought, we become conscious of the exercise of those powers of sensation and of thought, and thereby conscious of our own being, for being is implied in the exercise of the powers of thought and sensation." ↩
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Rom. i. 20. ↩
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Excitat. ↩
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Ducit...perducit. ↩
