14. The treatment of this topic demands more
arguments, by which to demonstrate the authority of the Father, the
special property of the Son, and the Unity of the whole Trinity; but
to-day I have undertaken the office of consolation, not of discussion,
although it is customary in consoling to draw away the mind from its
grief by application to discussion. But I would rather moderate
the grief than alter the affection, that the longing may rather be
assuaged than lulled to sleep. For I have no wish to turn away
too far from my brother, and to be led off by other thoughts, seeing
that this discourse has been undertaken, as it were, for the sake of
accompanying him, that I might follow in affection him departing, and
embrace in mind him whom I see with my eyes. For it gives me
pleasure to fix the whole gaze of my eyes on him, to encompass him with
kindly endearments; whilst my mind is stupefied, and I feel as though
he were not lost whom I am able still to see present; and I think him
not dead, my services to whom I do not as yet perceive to be wanting,
services to which I had devoted the whole of my life and the drawing of
every breath.