 I will then speak what is true in thy sight, O Lord, that when carnal men and infidels, for the gaining and initiating whom the initiatory sacraments and the mighty workings of miracles are necessary, which we suppose to be signified by the name of fishes and whales. Undertake the bodily refreshment, or otherwise succour thy servant with something useful for his present life, whereas they be ignorant why this is to be done and to what end. Neither do they feed these, nor are these fed by them, because neither do the one do it out of a holy and right intent, nor do the other rejoice at their gifts, whose fruit they as yet behold not. But upon that is the mind-fed, of which it is glad, and therefore do not the fishes and whales feed upon such meats as the earth brings not forth until after it was separated and divided from the bitterness of the waves of the sea. CHAPTER XXVIII. And thou, O God, sauced everything that thou hast made, and, behold, it was very good. Yea, we also see the same, and behold, all things are very good. And the several kinds of thy works thou hast said, let them be, and they were. Thou sauced each that it was good. Seven times have I counted it to be written, that thou sauced that which thou madeest was good. And this is the eighth, that thou sauced everything that thou hast made, and behold, it was not only good, but also very good, as being now altogether. For severally they were only good, but altogether both good and very good. All beautiful bodies express the same, by reason that a body consisting of members, all beautiful, is far more beautiful than the same members by themselves are, by whose well-ordered blending the whole is perfected, notwithstanding that the members severally be also beautiful. CHAPTER XXIX. And I looked narrowly to find whether seven or eight times thou sauced that thy works were good when they pleased thee, but in thy seeing I found no times whereby I might understand that thou sauced so often what thou madeest. And I said, Lord, is not this thy scripture true, since thou art true, and being truth hast said it forth, why then dost thou say unto me that in thy seeing there be no times whereas this thy scripture tells me that what thou madeest each day thou sauced that it was good, and when I counted them I found how often. Unto this thou answerst me, for thou art my God, and with a strong voice tellest thy servant in his inner ear breaking through my deafness and crying, O man, that which my scripture sayeth, I say, and yet doth that speak in time, but time has no relation to my word, because my word exists in equal eternity with myself, so the things which ye see through my spirit I see, like as what ye speak by my spirit I speak, and so when ye see those things in time I see them not in time, and when ye speak in time I speak them not in time. CHAPTER XXX. And I heard, O Lord my God, and drank up a drop of sweetness out of thy truth, and understood that certain men there be who mislike thy works, and say that many of them, thou madeest, compel by necessity, such as the fabric of the heaven and harmony of the stars, and that thou madeest them not of what was thine, but that they were otherwise and from other sources created, for thee to bring together and compact and combine, when out of thy conquered enemies thou racist up the walls of the universe, that they, bound down by this structure, might not again be able to rebel against thee. For other things they say thou neither madeest them, nor either compactest them, such as all flesh, and all very minute creatures, and whatsoever hath its root in the earth, but that a mind at enmity with thee, and another nature not created by thee, and contrary to thee, did, in these lower stages of the world, beget and frame these things. Friendsied are they who say thus, because they see not thy works by thy spirit, nor recognize thee in them. CHAPTER 31 But they who by thy spirit see these things, thou seeest in them, therefore, when they see that these things are good, thou seeest that they are good, and what through thy spirit please us, they please thee in us. For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit of a man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no one but the spirit of God. Now we, sayeth he, have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, and I am admonished, truly the things of God knoweth no one but the spirit of God. How then do we also know what things are given us of God? Answer is made me, because these things which we know by his spirit, even these know when knoweth but the spirit of God. For as it is rightly said unto those that were to speak by the spirit of God, it is not he that speak. So it is rightly said to them that no through the spirit of God it is not ye that know. And no less than is it rightly said to those that see through the spirit of God it is not ye that see. So whatsoever through the spirit of God they see be good, it is not they but God that sees that it is good. It is one thing then for a man to think that to be ill which is good as the fore name to do, and another that that which is good a man should see that it is good, as thy creatures be pleasing unto many because they be good whom yet thou pleases not in them when they prefer to enjoy them to thee. And another that when a man sees a thing that is good God should in him see that it is good. So namely that he should be loved in that which he made, who cannot be loved, but by the Holy Ghost which he hath given. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, by whom we see that whatsoever in any degree is, is good. For from him it is, who himself is not in degree, but what he is, is. Thanks be to thee, O Lord. We behold the heaven and earth, whether the corporal part, superior and inferior, or the spiritual and corporal creature, and in the adorning of these parts, where the universal pile of the world, or rather the universal creation, doth consist, we see light made and divided from the darkness. We see the firmament of heaven, whether that primary body of the world between the spiritual upper waters and the inferior corporal waters, or, since this also is called heaven, the space of air through which wander the fowls of heaven, betwixt those waters which are in vapours born above them, and in clear nights distilled down in dew, and those heavier waters which flow along the earth. We behold a face of waters gathered together in the fields of the sea, and the dry land both void and formless, so as to be visible and harmonized, yay, and the matter of herbs and trees. We behold the lights shining from above, the sun to suffice for the day, the moon and the stars to cheer the night, and that by all these time should be marked and signified. We behold on all sides a moist element replenished with fishes, beasts and birds, because the grossness of the air which bears up the flights of birds thickeneth itself by the exhalation of the waters. We behold the face of the earth decked out with earthly creatures, and man created after thy image and likeness, even through that thy very image and likeness, that his the power of reason and understanding set over all irrational creatures. And as in his soul there is one power which has dominium by directing, another made subject, that it might obey, so was there for the man, corporally also, made a woman who in the mind of her reasonable understanding should have a parity of nature, but in the sex of her body should be in like manner subject to the sex of her husband, as the appetite of doing is feigned to conceive the skill of right doing from the reason of the mind. These things we behold, and they are severally good and altogether very good. CHAPTER 33 Let thy works praise thee, that we may love thee, and let us love thee, that thy works may praise thee, from which time have beginning and endings, rising and setting, growth and decay, form and privation. They have then their succession of morning and evening, part secretly, part apparently, for they were made of nothing, by thee, not of thee, not of any matter thine, or that was before, but of matter concreated, that is, at the same time created by thee, because to its state without form, thou without any interval of time didst give form. For seeing the matter of heaven and earth is one thing, and the form another, thou madeest the matter of merely nothing, but the form of the world out of the matter without form. Yet both together, so that the form should follow the matter without any interval of delay. CHAPTER 34 We have also examined what thou wilst to be shadowed forth, whether by the creation or the relation of things in such an order, and we have seen that things singly are good, and together very good, in thy word, in thy only begotten, both heaven and earth, the head and the body of the church, in thy predestination before all times, without mourning and evening. But when thou beganst to execute in time the things predestined, to the end thou mightest reveal hidden things and rectify our disorders. For our sins hung over us, and we had sunk into the dark deep, and thy good spirit was born over us to help us in due season, and thou didst justify the ungodly, and divide us them from the wicked, and thou madeest the firmament of the authority of thy book between those placed above who were to be docile unto thee, and those under who were to be subject unto them. And thou gatherest together the society of unbelievers into one conspiracy, that the zeal of the faithful might appear, and they might bring forth works of mercy, even distributing to the poor their earthly riches to obtain heavenly. And after this didst thou kindle certain lights in the firmament, thy holy ones, having the word of life, and shining with an eminent authority set on high through spiritual gifts. After that again, for the initiation of the unbelieving gentiles, didst thou out of corporal matter produce the sacraments and visible miracles, and forms of words according to the firmament of thy book, by which the faithful should be blessed and multiplied. Next didst thou form the living soul of the faithful, through affections well ordered by the vigor of continency. And after that, the mind subjected to thee alone and needing to imitate no human authority, hast thou renewed after thy image and likeness, and didst subject its rational actions to the excellency of the understanding as the woman to the man. And to all offices of thy ministry, necessary for the perfecting of the faithful in this life, thou wilst, that for their temporal uses, good things, fruitful to themselves in time to come, be given by the same faithful. All these we see, and they are very good, because thou seeest them in us, who hast given us unto thy spirit, by which we might see them, and in them love thee. Chapter 35 O Lord our God, give peace unto us, for thou hast given us all things, the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath which hath no evening, for all this most goodly array of things very good, having finished their courses, is to pass away, for in them there was morning and evening. Chapter 36 But the seventh day hath no evening, nor hath it setting, because thou hast sanctified it to an everlasting continuance, and that which thou didst after thy works, which were very good, resting the seventh day, although thou madest them in unbroken rest, that made the voice of thy book announce beforehand to us, that we also, after our works, therefore very good, because thou hast given them us, shall rest in thee also in the Sabbath of eternal life. Chapter 37 For then shalt thou so rest in us, as now thou workest in us, and so shalt that be thy rest through us, as these are thy works through us, but thou, Lord, ever workest, and art ever at rest, nor dost thou see in time, nor art moved in time, nor restest in time, and yet thou makest things seen in time, gay the times themselves, and the rest which results from time. Chapter 38 We therefore see these things, which thou madest, because they are, but they are, because thou seeest them, and we see without, but they are, and within, that they are good, but thou sawest them there, when made, where thou sawest them, yet to be made, and we were at later time moved to do well, after our hearts had conceived of thy spirit, but in the former time we were moved to do evil, forsaking thee, but thou, the one, the good God, didst never cease doing good, and we also have some good works of thy gift, but not eternal, after them we trust to rest in thy great hallowing, but thou, being the good which needeth no good, art ever at rest, because thy rest is thou thyself, and what man can teach man to understand this, or what angel an angel, or what angel a man, let it be asked of thee, sought in thee, knocked for at thee. So, so shall it be received, so shall it be found, so shall it be opened, amen. Gracias, TB Domini. End of book 13. And end of The Confessions by Saint Augustine, translated by E. B. Pusey. Read by Marianne Spiegel in Chicago, Illinois, October 2015.