AUGUSTINE S DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE. 15 



pursuing him as he walks and lives. Although 

 no longer tempted to go to the Amphitheatre 

 to see the race of hound and hare, he com- 

 plains that the same sight, if seen accidentally 

 in the fields, will divert his attention from 

 some profound meditation. Even from the 

 windows of his home his eye is caught by 

 some little lizard catching flies upon the 

 wall, or by some spider spreading for the 

 capture her wondrous web. The smallness 

 of these creatures, he confesses, does not 

 diminish his instinctive curiosity. True it 

 is that he might pass from these creatures 

 to magnify the Creator of them all. But 

 he is conscious that this was not present to 

 his thoughts when they were arrested and 

 fixed upon the things he saw. 



