1. The brother who brings this, Barbarus by name, is a servant of God who has been settled for a long time now at Hippo and is an eager and diligent hearer of the word of God. He besought this letter from me to your Holiness, in which I commend him to you in the Lord and through him offer you my due greetings. To reply to your Holiness's letter, into which you have woven big questions, is a very considerable undertaking even for men of leisure, possessing much more skill in argument and greater acuteness of understanding than I do. Of the two letters from you, containing many extensive queries, one, indeed, has somehow or other gone astray and after a long search has eluded discovery, but the other, which was found, contains a very charming commendation of a servant of God, a good and chaste young man, telling how he departed this life and by what testimony from the visions of brethren you were able to have assurance of his worth. Then you take the opportunity to set forth and discuss a very obscure question about the soul, whether, when it leaves the body, it is united with any other material body, so that it may be conveyed to material places or be enclosed in material places. The treatment of this problem, if indeed it can be clearly investigated by one such as myself, demands attention and the most laborious application, and therefore a mind quite free from such occupations as mine. But if you want to hear my opinion in a word or two, I certainly do not hold that the soul departs from the body with a material body.
1. Frater iste nomine Barbarus servus dei est iam diu apud Hipponem constitutus et verbi dei fervidus ac studiosus auditor. Desideravit ad tuam sanctitatem litteras nostras, in quibus tibi eum in domino commendamus tibique per eum salutem debitam dicimus. Litteris autem sanctitatis tuae quibus ingentes texuisti quaestiones, respondere operosissimum est etiam otiosis et multo maiore, quam nos sumus, praeditis facultate disserendi et acrimonia intellegendi. Duarum sane epistularum tuarum, quibus multa et magna conquiris, una nescio quo modo aberravit et diu quaesita non potuit reperiri; altera vero, quae inventa est, habet commendationem suavissimam servi dei boni et casti adulescentis, quo modo ex hac vita migraverit et quibus visionum fraternarum adtestationibus meritum eius vobis insinuari potuerit. Deinde ex hac occasione proponis et versas de anima obscurissimam quaestionem, utrum cum aliquo corpore egreditur e corpore, quo possit ad corporalia loca ferri vel locis corporalibus contineri. Huius igitur rei tractatus, si tamen ad liquidum a talibus, quales nos sumus, examinari potest, curam atque operam negotiosissimam postulat ac per hoc mentem ab his occupationibus otiosissimam. Si autem breviter vis audire quid mihi videatur, nullo modo arbitror animam e corpore exire cum corpore.
2. How those visions and predictions of future events come about is for him first to try to explain who knows what agency produces all those images that are in anyone's mind when he is thinking. For we see and clearly perceive that in it are found countless images of many objects that are discernible by the eye or by the other bodily senses; it is of no importance for the moment whether they are produced in regular sequence or at random, but only that, since they do take place, as is obvious, anyone who can explain by what agency and in what way these phenomena are produced, all of which are of daily and repeated occurrence, may warrant ably venture a conjecture or a definition about those very rare visions too. But for my part, the more I realize my incom- petence to account for the occurrence of the experience we have throughout life, asleep and awake, the more I shrink from attempting to explain these others. For while I am dictating this letter to you, I have a picture of you yourself in my mind, though naturally you are far away and unaware of my thoughts, and, in the light of my inward knowledge of you, I try to see how my words can affect you; and I fail to comprehend and discover how that process takes place in my mind, though I am sure that it is not caused by material particles or material qualities, although the actual picture is very like something material. For the present, accept this as a statement dictated in haste and under the pressure of work. However, in the twelfth book of my treatise on Genesis, a this problem is examined with thoroughness, and the discussion there is luxuriant with numerous examples drawn from personal experience and trustworthy report. When you read it, you will be able to judge of my competence or success in it, if the Lord is but pleased to grant me the opportunity of publishing those books suitably corrected and by concluding the discussion to end the suspense of anticipation in many of m v brethren.
2. Visiones autem illae futurorumque praedictiones quo modo fiant, ille iam explicare conetur qui novit qua vi efficiantur in unoquoque animo tanta, cum cogitat. Videmus enim planeque cernimus in eo fieri multarum rerum visibilium et ad ceteros sensus corporis pertinentium innumerabiles imagines, quae nunc non interest quam ordinate vel turbide fiant; sed tantum, quia fiunt, quod manifestum est, qua vi et quo modo fiant, quisquis potuerit explicare—quae omnia certe cotidiana sunt atque continua,—audeat praesumere aliquid ac definire etiam de illis rarissimis visis. Ego autem tanto minus hoc audeo, quanto minus id quoque in nobis quod vita continua vigilantes dormientesque experimur, quo pacto fiat, explicare sufficio. Nam cum ad te dictarem hanc epistulam, te ipsum animo contuebar, te utique absente atque nesciente, et quo modo possis his verbis moveri, secundum notitiam quae mihi de te inest, imaginabar; atque id quonam modo in animo meo fieret, capere ac investigare non poteram certus tamen non fieri corporeis molibus nec corporeis qualitatibus, cum corpori simillimum fieret. Hoc interim habeas ut ab occupato et festinante dictatum. In duodecimo autem libro eorum quos de genesi scripsi, versatur haec quaestio vehementer et multis exemplis rerum expertarum atque credibiliter auditarum disputatio illa silvescit. Quid in ea potuerimus vel effecerimus, cum legeris, iudicabis, si tamen dominus donare dignatur ut eos mihi libros, quantum possum, congruenter emendatos iam liceat edere et multorum fratrum expectationem non iam longa disputatione suspendere.
3. I shall give you a brief account, however, of one such example, which I commend to your consideration. Our brother Gennadius, b the physician, very well known to almost everybody and very dear to us, who now lives at Carthage and was a leading figure in the practice of his art at Rome, is, as you know, a man of devout mind, unwearied compassion, most gracious geniality, and great kindness to the afflicted poor. But at one time, as he told me recently, while he was still in the prime of life and most zealous in those works of charity, he was assailed by doubt of the existence of any life after death. As God would in no wise abandon a man so compassionate in temper and deeds, there appeared to him, accordingly, while he was asleep, a young man of striking appearance and imposing mien, and said to him, “Follow me.” He followed him and came to a certain city, in which he began to hear on the right hand the strains of a song so very sweet that it surpassed the sweetness of known and ordinary music; listening eagerly, he asked what it was and was told that it was the hymns of the blessed and the holy. What he reported he had seen on the left hand, I do not clearly remember. He awoke and his dream fled, and he thought only of it as one does of a dream.
3. Narrabo autem unum aliquid breviter, unde cogites. Frater noster Gennadius, notissimus fere omnibus nobisque carissimus medicus, qui nunc apud Carthaginem degit et Romae suae artis exercitatione praepolluit, ut hominem religiosum nosti atque erga pauperum curam inpigra misericordia facillimoque animo benignissimum, dubitabat tamen aliquando, ut modo nobis rettulit, cum adhuc esset adulescens et in his elemosynis ferventissimus, utrum esset ulla vita post mortem. Huius igitur mentem et opera misericordiae quoniam deus nullo modo desereret, apparuit illi in somnis conspicuus iuvenis et dignus intendi eique dixit: “Sequere me.” Quem dum sequeretur, venit ad quandam civitatem, ubi audire coepit a dextra parte sonos suavissimae cantilenae ultra solitam notamque suavitatem; tunc ille intento quidnam esset, ait hymnos esse beatorum atque sanctorum; sinistra autem parte quid se vidisse rettulit, non satis memini. Evigilavit et somnium aufugit tantumque de illo quantum de somnio cogitavit.
4. Yet another night, lo, the same young man in person appeared to him again and asked if he recognized him. Gennadius replied that he recognized him perfectly well. Then the young man asked where he had got to know him; he had quite a clear recollection of the answer to that too, and he told all about that vision and the hymns of the saints which, under the other's guidance, he had gone to hear, with that readiness which marked the recollection of very recent experiences. At this point the other asked him whether he was asleep or awake when he saw what he had been telling of; the answer was that he was asleep. The other replied, “Your memory is good; you are right, you were asleep when you saw that, but you must know that even now you can see, though you are asleep.” When Gennadius heard that, he accepted it as true and expressed his belief. Then his teacher went on to say, “Where is your body now?” to which he made answer, “In my bed-chamber.” “Do you know,” said the other, “that in that puny body your eyes are at this moment bound down and shut and idle and that with those eyes you see nothing?” He said, “I know.” To which the other answered, “What eyes then are those with which you see me?” Finding no reply to that question, Gennadius was silent, and when he hesitated, the young man revealed the lesson he was trying to teach by these questions and immediately replied, “Just as those eyes of your body that lies sleeping in bed are now inactive and do nothing and yet you have eyes with which you behold me and employ another power of sight, so when you are dead and the eyes of your flesh have ceased to do anything, you still will have a life by which you will live and perceptions by which you will perceive. Henceforth remember not to doubt the continuance of life after death.” In this way that trustworthy man declares that his doubts concerning immortality were taken away. What taught him but the providence and mercy of God?
4. Alia vero nocte ecce idem ipse iuvenis eidem rursus apparuit, atque ab illo utrum cognosceretur interrogavit; respondit iste quod eum bene pleneque cognosceret. Tum ille quaesivit ubi se nosset. Nec memoriae defuit quid iste identidem responderet, totumque visum illum hymnosque sanctorum, ad quos audiendos eo duce venerat, qua recentissimos recordabatur facilitate, narravit. Hic ille percontatus est utrumnam id quod narraverat, in somnis vidisset an vigilans; respondit: “In somnis.” At ille: “Bene,” inquit, “recolis; verum est, in somnis illa vidisti; sed etiam nunc in somnis te videre scies.” Hoc cum audisset iste, ita esse credidit atque id responsione firmavit. Tunc qui hominem docebat, adiecit et ait: “Ubi est modo corpus tuum?” Ille respondit: “In cubiculo meo.” “Scisne,” inquit ille, “in eodem corpusculo nunc esse inligatos et clausos et otiosos oculos tuos nihilque illis oculis te videre?” Respondit: “Scio.” Tunc ille: “Qui sunt ergo,” inquit, “isti oculi, quibus me vides?” Ad hoc iste non inveniens quid responderet, obticuit. Cui haesitanti ille quod his interrogationibus docere moliebatur, aperuit, et continuo: “Sicut,” inquit, “illi oculi carnis tuae utique in dormiente atque in lectulo iacente nunc vacant nec aliquid operantur et tamen sunt isti, quibus me intuens et ista uteris visione, ita cum defunctus fueris, nihil agentibus oculis carnis tuae, vita tibi inerit qua vivas, sensusque, quo sentias. Cave iam deinceps, ne dubites vitam manere post mortem.” Ita sibi homo fidelis ablatam dicit huius rei dubitationem, quo docente nisi providentia et misericordia dei?
5. Someone may say that by this story I have not solved but complicated this great problem. But yet, since each man is free to believe what I have said or to disbelieve it, each one has a very deep problem in himself, and with that he may delight himself. Man wakes and sleeps each day and thinks. Let any man tell whence proceed those occurrences; they are not material bodies, yet bear a likeness in shape, in properties and in motion, to material bodies; let him tell, if he can, but if he cannot, why is he so hasty to pronounce a kind of final judgement about experiences he has very seldom or not at all, when he cannot explain matters that occur each day and every day? Though, for my part, words fail me to explain how those semblances of material bodies without a real body come to be, yet, just as I know that they are not produced by the body, so I should wish to know how we can separate those things that are seen at times by the spirit and are thought to be seen by the body, or how we can distinguish the things seen by those who are often deluded by error or by impiety, when the majority of the visions they tell of bear a likeness to those seen by the good and the holy. If I had wanted to give examples of these, I should have been short of time rather than material. Remember me, my saintly lord and revered and longed for brother, and may the mercy of the Lord be your refreshment!
5. Ista narratione dixerit aliquis tantae rei nos non solvisse sed auxisse quaestionem. Verum tamen cum his verbis credere vel non credere liberum cuique sit, se ipsum quisque habet, quo se avocet, profundissimam quaestionem. Et vigilat homo et dormit homo cotidie et cogitat homo. Dicat unde fiant ista similia formis, similia qualitatibus, similia motibus corporum nec tamen materie corporali. Dicat, si potest; si autem non potest, quid se praecipitat de rarissimis aut inexpertis quasi definitam ferre sententiam, cum continua et cotidiana non solvat? Ego autem, quamvis quo modo fiant ista veluti corporea sine corpore, verbis prorsus explicare non possim, tamen sicut scio non ea corpore fieri, utinam sic scirem quo modo discernerentur, quae videntur aliquando per spiritum et per corpus videri putantur, quove modo distinguantur visa eorum, quos error vel impietas plerumque deludit, quando visis piorum atque sanctorum similia pleraque narrantur! Quorum exempla si commemorare voluissem, tempus mihi potius quam copia defuisset. Memor nostri in domini misericordia vegeteris, domine beatissime et venerabilis et desiderabilis frater.