AUGUSTINE S DECLARATION. 35 



many of those questions, he does not under- 

 stand the sense in which Moses wrote. All 

 the more does he admire his words, "so 

 sublime in their humility, so rich in their 

 reserve " {alta humiliterf pauca copiose) ; then 

 follows (lib. xii. c. 31) a passage which, — 

 considering the age in which it was written, 

 considering also the vague notions entertained 

 by St. Augustine himself, and by all the 

 world in his time, on the rank and import- 

 ance of the natural sciences, — is surely one of 

 the most remarkable passages ever written by 

 Theologian or Philosopher. "For myself," he 

 says, *'I declare boldly, and from the bottom 

 of my heart, that if I were called to write 

 something which was to be invested with 

 supreme authority, I should desire most so to 

 D 2 



