LETTERS OF ST. AUGUSTINE. LETTEB I. (A.D. 3 8 6 .) TO HEKMOGENIANUS^ AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING. 1. T W OULD not presume, even in playful discussion, to X attack the philosophers of the Academ y; for when could ,the authority of such em inent m en fail to move me, did I not believe their view s to be w idely different from those commonly ascribed to them ? Instead of confuting them, w hich is beyond my power, I have rather im itated them to the best of m y ability. For it seems to me to have been suitable enough to the tim es in w hich they flourished, that whatever issued pure from the fountainhead of Platonic philo­ sophy should be rather conducted^ into dark and thorny thickets for the refreshment o f a very few m m , than le ft to flow in open meadow-land, where it would be im possible to keep it clear and pure from the inroads of the vulgar herd. I use the word herd advisedly.; for what is more brutish than the opinion that the soul is m aterial? For defence against the m en who held this, it appears to me that such an art and method of concealing, the truth ® was w isely contrived b y the N ew Academy. But in this age of ours, when w e see none who are philosophers,— for I do not consider those who m erely wear the cloak of a philosopher to be worthy of that j . * Hermogenianus was one of the earliest and most intimate friends o f Augus­ tine, and his associate in literary and philosophical studies.' ? We follow the reading "tegendi v e i i ” VOii. I. A