On the Soul and its Origin — Book IV

St. Augustine of Hippo

  1. 0. Greeting
  2. 1. [I.]— The Personal Character of This Book.
  3. 2. [II.]— The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustine.
  4. 3. — How Much Do We Know of the Nature of the Body?
  5. 4. [III.]— Is the Question of Breath One that Concerns the Soul, or Body, or What?
  6. 5. [IV.]— God Alone Can Teach Whence Souls Come.
  7. 6. [V.]— Questions About the Nature of the Body are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not Higher Than Those of the Soul.
  8. 7. [VI.]— We Often Need More Teaching as to What is Most Intimately Ours Than as to What is Further from Us.
  9. 8. — We Have No Memory of Our Creation.
  10. 9. [VII.]— Our Ignorance of Ourselves Illustrated by the Remarkable Memory of One Simplicius.
  11. 10. — The Fidelity of Memory; The Unsearchable Treasure of Memory; The Powers of a Man's Understanding Sufficiently Understood by None.
  12. 11. — The Apostle Peter Told No Lie, When He Said He Was Ready to Lay Down His Life for the Lord, But Only Was Ignorant of His Will.
  13. 12. [VIII.]— The Apostle Paul Could Know the Third Heaven and Paradise, But Not Whether He Was in the Body or Not.
  14. 13. [IX.]— In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us.
  15. 14. [X.]— It is More Excellent to Know That the Flesh Will Rise Again and Live for Evermore, Than to Learn Whatever Scientific Men Have Been Able to Teach Us Concerning Its Nature.
  16. 15. [XI.]— We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written.
  17. 16. — Ignorance is Better Than Error. Predestination to Eternal Life, and Predestination to Eternal Death.
  18. 17. [XII.]— A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul; Is It Body ? And is It Spirit ? What Body is.
  19. 18. — The First Question, Whether the Soul is Corporeal; Breath and Wind, Nothing Else Than Air in Motion.
  20. 19. [XIII.]— Whether the Soul is a Spirit.
  21. 20. [XIV.]— The Body Does Not Receive God's Image.
  22. 21. [XV.]— Recognition and Form Belong to Souls as Well as Bodies.
  23. 22. — Names Do Not Imply Corporeity.
  24. 23. [XVI.]— Figurative Speech Must Not Be Taken Literally.
  25. 24. — Abraham'sBosom — What It Means.
  26. 25. [XVII.]— The Disembodied Soul May Think of Itself Under a Bodily Form.
  27. 26. [XVIII.]— St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned into a Man, and Then Have Wrestled with a Certain Egyptian.
  28. 27. — Is the Soul Wounded When the Body is Wounded?
  29. 28. — Is the Soul Deformed by the Body's Imperfections?
  30. 29. [XIX.]— Does the Soul Take the Body's Clothes Also Away with It?
  31. 30. — Is Corporeity Necessary for Recognition?
  32. 31. [XX.]— Modes of Knowledge in the Soul Distinguished.
  33. 32. — Inconsistency of Giving the Soul All the Parts of Sex and Yet No Sex.
  34. 33. — The Phenix After Death Coming to Life Again.
  35. 34. [XXI.]— Prophetic Visions.
  36. 35. — Do Angels Appear to Men in Real Bodies?
  37. 36. [XXII.]— He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit.
  38. 37. [XXIII.]— Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word Spirit.
  39. 38. [XXIV.]— Victor's Chief Errors Again Pointed Out.
  40. 39. — Concluding Admonition.

Addressed to Vincentius Victor.

He first shows, that his hesitation on the subject of the origin of souls was undeservedly blamed, and that he was wrongly compared with cattle, because he had refrained from any rash conclusions on the subject. Then, again, with regard to his own unhesitating statement, that the soul was spirit, not body, he points out how rashly Victor disapproved of this assertion, especially when he was vainly expending his efforts to prove that the soul was corporeal in its own nature, and that the spirit in man was distinct from the soul itself.