Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>These arts they exercised with the more skill the less they\r\ngave themselves up to pleasures, and to enervation of body\r\nand mind in coveting and amassing riches, and through these\r\ncorrupting morals, by extorting them from the miserable\r\ncitizens and lavishing them on base stage-players. Hence\r\nthese men of base character, who abounded when Sallust\r\nwrote and Virgil sang these things, did not seek after honours<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_201\">[Pg 201]</a></span>\r\nand glory by these arts, but by treachery and deceit. Wherefore\r\nthe same says, \"But at first it was rather ambition than\r\navarice that stirred the minds of men, which vice, however, is\r\nnearer to virtue. For glory, honour, and power are desired\r\nalike by the good man and by the ignoble; but the former,\"\r\nhe says, \"strives onward to them by the true way, whilst\r\nthe other, knowing nothing of the good arts, seeks them\r\nby fraud and deceit.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_198_198\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_198_198\">[198]</a> And what is meant by seeking the\r\nattainment of glory, honour, and power by good arts, is to seek\r\nthem by virtue, and not by deceitful intrigue; for the good\r\nand the ignoble man alike desire these things, but the good\r\nman strives to overtake them by the true way. The way is\r\nvirtue, along which he presses as to the goal of possession—namely,\r\nto glory, honour, and power. Now that this was a\r\nsentiment engrained in the Roman mind, is indicated even\r\nby the temples of their gods; for they built in very close\r\nproximity the temples of Virtue and Honour, worshipping\r\nas gods the gifts of God. Hence we can understand what\r\nthey who were good thought to be the end of virtue, and to\r\nwhat they ultimately referred it, namely, to honour; for, as\r\nto the bad, they had no virtue though they desired honour,\r\nand strove to possess it by fraud and deceit. Praise of a\r\nhigher kind is bestowed upon Cato, for he says of him,\r\n\"The less he sought glory, the more it followed him.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_199_199\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_199_199\">[199]</a> We\r\nsay praise of a higher kind; for the glory with the desire\r\nof which the Romans burned is the judgment of men thinking\r\nwell of men. And therefore virtue is better, which is\r\ncontent with no human judgment save that of one's own conscience.\r\nWhence the apostle says, \"For this is our glory,\r\nthe testimony of our conscience.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_200_200\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_200_200\">[200]</a> And in another place he\r\nsays, \"But let every one prove his own work, and then he\r\nshall have glory in himself, and not in another.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_201_201\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_201_201\">[201]</a> That glory,\r\nhonour, and power, therefore, which they desired for themselves,\r\nand to which the good sought to attain by good arts,\r\nshould not be sought after by virtue, but virtue by them.\r\nFor there is no true virtue except that which is directed\r\ntowards that end in which is the highest and ultimate good<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_202\">[Pg 202]</a></span>\r\nof man. Wherefore even the honours which Cato sought he\r\nought not to have sought, but the state ought to have conferred\r\nthem on him unsolicited, on account of his virtues.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-378"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b4bcf19f7ddc624dd63e84c90b2f95e4981ad79ecbd29f9244546db27ef4236b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_198_198","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_198_198","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_198_198\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_198_198\"><span class=\"label\">[198]</span></a> Sallust, <i>in Cat.</i> c. xi.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_198_198","text_sha256":"707758a700f9ff7cd80c3e5a5a2521a43085e6b17cf7a43615d4d6418c94fd9b","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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