LETTEES OF ST. AUGUSTINE, [ l e t, n i. able, I earnestly covet. This ihy infirmity (for such it must be) is one which, if I know you aright, you are w ell pleased to find in m e ; and though you w ish every good thing for your b est and m ost loved friends, you rather fear than desire that th ey should be cured o f th is infirmity. If, however, your soud has attained to* such strength that ^ou are able both to discern this snare, and to sm ile, at those who are caught therein, truly you are great, and different from what I am. Tor m y part, as long as I regi’ et the absence of any one from me, so long do I w ish him to regret m y absence. A t the same tim e, I watch and strive to set m y love- ^ little as possible on anything w hich can be separaled from m e against m y wilL Hegarding th is as m y duty, I remind yop, in the m eantim e, whatever be your frame of mind, th a t the discus­ sion w hich I have begun w ith you m ust be finished, if we care*for each other. For I can by no means consent to, its being finished w ith A lypius, even if he m shed It. B ut he does not w ish th isj for he is not the man to jo in 'w ith me now in endeavouring, by as many letters as w e could send, to detain you w ith us, when you decline th is, ^under the pressure of some necessity to us unknown. LETTEE III. (A.D. 3 8 7 .) TO NEBEIDIUS^ AUGUSnNE SENDS GREETING. 1. W hethek I am to regard it as the effect of w hat I may call your flattering language, or whether the thing be really so, is a point w hich I am unable to decide. For the impres­ sion w as sudden, and I am not y e t resolved hoW' far it deserves to be believed. You wonder w h a t. this can* be. W hat do you th in k ? You have alm ost made me believe, not indeed that I am happy— for that is the hejitage o f the w ise alone— ^but that I am at least in a sense h ap py: as we apply the designation m an to beings who deserve the name o n ly in a sense if Compared w ith Plato’s ideal man, or speak of things,, 1 The character of Nehridius, and'the intimacy of friendship between him and Augustine, may he seen in the Conjessions, b. ix. c. 3. ♦