{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>It is the decided opinion of all who use their brains, that\r\nall men desire to be happy. But who are happy, or\r\nhow they become so, these are questions about which the\r\nweakness of human understanding stirs endless and angry\r\ncontroversies, in which philosophers have wasted their strength\r\nand expended their leisure. To adduce and discuss their\r\nvarious opinions would be tedious, and is unnecessary. The\r\nreader may remember what we said in the eighth book, while\r\nmaking a selection of the philosophers with whom we might\r\ndiscuss the question regarding the future life of happiness,\r\nwhether we can reach it by paying divine honours to the one\r\ntrue God, the Creator of all gods, or by worshipping many\r\ngods, and he will not expect us to repeat here the same\r\nargument, especially as, even if he has forgotten it, he may\r\nrefresh his memory by reperusal. For we made selection of\r\nthe Platonists, justly esteemed the noblest of the philosophers,\r\nbecause they had the wit to perceive that the human soul,\r\nimmortal and rational, or intellectual, as it is, cannot be happy\r\nexcept by partaking of the light of that God by whom both\r\nitself and the world were made; and also that the happy life\r\nwhich all men desire cannot be reached by any who does not\r\ncleave with a pure and holy love to that one supreme good,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_383\">[Pg 383]</a></span>\r\nthe unchangeable God. But as even these philosophers,\r\nwhether accommodating to the folly and ignorance of the\r\npeople, or, as the apostle says, \"becoming vain in their imaginations,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_364_364\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_364_364\">[364]</a>\r\nsupposed or allowed others to suppose that many\r\ngods should be worshipped, so that some of them considered\r\nthat divine honour by worship and sacrifice should be rendered\r\neven to the demons (an error I have already exploded),\r\nwe must now, by God's help, ascertain what is thought about\r\nour religious worship and piety by those immortal and blessed\r\nspirits, who dwell in the heavenly places among dominations,\r\nprincipalities, powers, whom the Platonists call gods, and\r\nsome either good demons, or, like us, angels,—that is to say,\r\nto put it more plainly, whether the angels desire us to offer\r\nsacrifice and worship, and to consecrate our possessions and\r\nourselves, to them, or only to God, theirs and ours.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-679"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"2a807690a4e23c8d74551c0953da942d2a27c70de15c1e60f1e78be3a120e53c","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":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":1,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. i. 21","verse":21,"verse_end":21}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_364_364","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_364_364","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_364_364\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_364_364\"><span class=\"label\">[364]</span></a> Rom. i. 21.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_364_364","text_sha256":"7df923a52a428c3af3ca687deaa011b3c063344076c0d3d14e644c339bea902f","verified":false,"work_id":null}