let . in.] TO NEBfIDroS.
w hich w e see as rmmd or square, although they differ w idely
from the perfect figure w hich is discerned h y the mind of a
few. I read your letter beside my* lamp after supper: imme
d iately after w hich I la y down, hut not at once ]f;o sle e p ; for
on m y bed I meditated long, and talked thus w ith m yself—
■Augustine addressing and answering A ugustine: " Is it not
true, as Nebridius affirms, that I am h ap p y?” "A bsolutely
true it cannot be, for that I am stiU far from w ise he hiinseK
would not deny.” " B ut m ay not a happy life be the lo t even
o f those who are not w ise ? ” “ That is scarcely p ossib le;
because, in that case, lack of wisdom would be a sm all m is
fortune, and not, as it actually is, the one and only source of
unhappiness.” y “ How, then, did Nebridius come to esteem
m e happy ? W as it that, after reading these little books of
m ine, he ventured to pronounce me w ise 1 Surely the vehe
mence of .jo y could not make him so rash, especially seeing
that he is a man to whose judgm ent I w ell know so much
w eight is to be attached. I have it n o w : he wrote what he
thought would be most gratifying to me, because he had been
R atified b y what I had w ritten in those treatises; and he
•wrote in a joyful mood, w ithout accurately w eighing the
sentim ents entrusted to his joyous pen. W hat, then, would
he have said if he had read ifiy Soliloquies? H e would have
rejoiced w ith much more exultation, and y et could find no
loftier name to bestow on me than this which he has already
given in calling me happy. A ll at once, then, he has la v i^ e d
on me the highest possible name, and has not reserved a single
word to add to m y praises, if at any tim e he were made by
me more joyful than he is now. See what joy does.”
2. B ut where is that truly,.bappy life ? where ? ay, where ?
O h ! i f it were attained, one would spurn the atomic theory
of Epicurus. O h ! if it were attained, one would know that
there is nothing here below but the visible world. O h ! if
•it were attained, one would know that in ' the rotation of a
globe on its axis, the motion o f points near the poles is less
rapid than of those which lie half way between them,—and
other such lik e things which w e likewise, know. But now,
'how or in what sense can I be called haj>py, who know not
w hy the world is such in size as it is, when the proportions
k