 Individualism, a reader, edited by George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore, narrated by James Foster. 6. From the City of God, St. Augustine of Hippo Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, translated by Curtis Tate, 2014. St. Augustine, 354-428, was one of the most influential philosophers in the history of the Western world. His passage from his most famous book, The City of God, is an early expression of the belief that individuals are the ultimate units of societies and states. I want to first inquire a little into that reason and sensibility which exists in wishing for the glory of empire on account of its girth and continuance, when you cannot demonstrate felicity of the men who withered in the ruins of war wrapped in horror and bloody desire, always in blood, foreign and domestic, yet still human. The result is a flickering joy akin to glass and its fragility, to which is attributed the terrible anxiety that it could suddenly shatter. That this might more easily be adjudicated let us not vanish beneath the fluid void of boasting and not blunt the sharp edge of our purpose when we hear lofty talk of peoples, kingdoms and provinces. Instead let us imagine two men. For a single man is like one word in a sermon, thus he is an element of a city or kingdom, whatever its scope in the occupation of spacious lands. Of the two men, one is impoverished, even middle class rather, and the other we shall think is extravagantly rich. The rich man is laden with terrors, melting under sorrow, emblazoned with aspirations, never is he secure, always he is restless and out of breath in the perpetual contentions of his enemies. Truly he makes a lot with the miseries of his inheritance and yet with those profits he amasses caustic worries in his immense form. The poorer man is at ease with his family and what little he has, he is most dear to his own. He is delighted with the sweet peace of his friends, religious in his faith, mild-mannered of a healthy body, frugal in life, adherent to his traditions and secure in his conscience. I do not think anyone so irrational that he would dare to doubt which man is preferable. Therefore as it is with these two men, thus it is in two families, two peoples and in two kingdoms, what with the basic principle of justice having been summoned correctly if our purpose is set right, we will easily see where emptiness and happiness reside. This has been Individualism, a Reader, edited by George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore, narrated by James Foster. Copyright 2015 by the Cato Institute. Production copyright 2015 by the Cato Institute.