書信與論戰集（CSEL） 第 32 章 第 2/2 段

But human infirmity so stands, that when anyone sees a dead person in dreams, he judges that he sees the very soul of him; but when he has likewise dreamed of a living person, he doubts not that neither his soul nor his body, but the likeness of the man, appeared to him — as though the likenesses, and not the souls, of dead men likewise not knowing could not appear to sleepers. Certainly, when we were at Milan, we heard that when a debt was demanded of a certain man, a bond of his deceased father being produced, which had already been paid by the father without the son's knowledge, the man began to be most grievously grieved and to marvel that his father, when dying, had not told him what he owed, since he had even made a will.

Then, as he was exceedingly anxious, that same father of his appeared to him in dreams, and indicated where the counter-receipt was, whereby that bond had been voided. When the young man had found it and shown it, he not only repelled the calumny of the false debt, but even recovered the paternal note of hand, which the father had not received back when the money was paid. Here surely it is thought that the soul of the man had taken care for his son, and had come to him sleeping, that by teaching what he knew not, it might free him from a great trouble.

But at almost the very same time at which we heard this — that is, while we were established at Milan — the Carthaginian rhetor Eulogius, who had been my pupil in the same art, as he himself related to me after we had returned to Africa, when he was delivering to his pupils the rhetorical books of Cicero, and going over the lesson which he was to deliver the next day, met with a certain obscure passage; and, not understanding it, he could scarcely sleep for anxiety. That night, as he dreamed, I expounded to him what he did not understand — nay, not I, but my image, without my knowledge, and so far away across the sea, either doing or dreaming something else, and caring nothing at all about his cares. How these things come to pass I know not; but howsoever they come to pass,

why do we not believe that it comes to pass in the same way, that anyone should see a dead person in dreams, in the manner in which it comes to pass that he sees a living person also? Both being alike ignorant and unconcerned who, or where, or when he dreams their images. Now certain waking visions of those who have their senses disturbed — such as the frenzied, or those raving in whatever mode — are also like dreams. For they too speak with themselves, as though they spoke to persons truly present; they speak also with the absent rather than the present, whose images they discern, whether of the living or of the dead.

But just as these, who are alive, know not that they are seen by them and are conversed with by them — for indeed they themselves are not really present, nor do they themselves converse, but men with disturbed senses suffer such imaginary visions — in the same way also those who have migrated from this life are seen by men so affected as though present, when they are absent, and utterly not knowing whether anyone sees them imaginatively. Like to this matter is that also, when men are withdrawn from the bodily senses more deeply than if they slept, and are occupied with such visions. For to these too appear the images of the living and of the dead;

but when they have been restored to their senses, whatever dead persons they say they saw, they are believed to have truly been with them; nor do those who hear these things attend that likenesses of certain absent and unknowing living persons were seen by them in like manner. A certain man named Curma, of the municipality of Tullium, which is near Hippo, a poor town councillor, scarcely of duumviral rank in that place, and a plain countryman, when he was sick, being taken from his senses, lay almost dead for some days: a very faint breath in the nostrils, which was somehow felt by a hand laid on, and was a slight sign of one living, did not allow him to be buried as lifeless. He moved no limbs, took no food;

he felt nothing with his eyes, nothing with any other bodily sense, whatever trouble was inflicted. Yet he saw many things as if in dreams, which at length, after very many days, as if waking, he narrated as things seen. And first, as soon as he opened his eyes, 'Let someone go,' he said, 'to the house of Curma the blacksmith, and see what is being done there.' When they had gone thither, he was found dead at the very moment at which this man had been restored to his senses and had, as it were, revived from death. Then, to those attending intently, he told that it had been ordered that the other be brought forward when he himself was dismissed. He indicated, and said that he had heard there, in the place whence he had returned, that it was not Curma the councillor, but Curma the blacksmith, who had been commanded to be brought to those abodes of the dead.

In those visions, then, as though they were his own dreams, among the dead whom he saw being dealt with according to the diversity of their merits, he recognized also several whom he had known while they were alive. And these persons themselves I might perhaps truly have believed, had he not seen among those things, which were as it were his own dreams, certain men who up to now are still living, namely some of the clergy of his own region, from whose presbyter he heard there that he was to be baptized by me at Hippo, which he also said had come to pass. He had therefore seen in that vision a presbyter, clergy, and myself, none of us yet dead of course, in the very vision in which he afterward saw the dead as well.

Why should it not be believed that he saw those persons just as he saw us — both parties, that is, being absent and unaware — and that consequently he saw not the men themselves but their likenesses, just as also the likenesses of places? For he saw both the estate where that presbyter was with his clergy, and Hippo, where he was as it were baptized by me; in which places he assuredly was not, at the time when he seemed to himself to be there. For what was being done there at that time he did not know — which he would beyond doubt have known, had he really been there. These things, then, were seen which are not presented in the very objects as they are, but are shadowed forth in certain images of things. Finally, after many things which he saw, he related that he had been brought even into paradise, and that it was said to him, when he was being dismissed thence to return to his own people:

Go, be baptized, if you wish to be in this place of the blessed. Then, being admonished that he should be baptized by me, he answered that it had already been done. But he who was speaking with him said again to him: Go, be truly baptized; for that which you saw was in a vision. After these things he recovered, and set out for Hippo. Easter was now drawing near. He gave in his name among the other candidates, being together with very many unknown to us; and he took no care to make known that vision either to me or to any of ours. He was baptized, and when the holy days were completed he returned to his own home. When two years or more had passed, I came to know all these things: first, through a certain man, both mine and his friend, at a banquet of mine, when we were speaking of some such matters;

then I pressed him and brought it about that he himself, being present, should narrate these things to me, his honourable fellow citizens bearing witness both concerning his marvellous illness — how he lay almost dead for very many days — and concerning that other Curma the blacksmith, whom I mentioned above; and concerning all those things which, when he was telling them to me, they recalled that they too had already at that time heard from him, and confirmed them. Wherefore, just as he saw his baptism and myself and Hippo and the basilica and the baptistery, not in the things themselves but in certain likenesses of things, so also did he see certain other living men, those same living men being unaware. Why then should he not have seen the dead likewise, those same dead being unaware?

Why do we not believe that these angelic operations take place through the dispensation of the providence of God, who makes good use of both the good and the evil according to the inscrutable depth of His judgments? — whether the minds of mortals be thereby instructed, or deceived, or consoled, or terrified, according as to each one either mercy is to be shown or vengeance is to be inflicted by Him to whom the Church sings of mercy and judgment not in vain. Let each one take what I shall say as he will. If the souls of the dead were involved in the affairs of the living, and it were they themselves who addressed us in dreams when we see them — to be silent about others — my own devoted mother, who followed me by land and by sea that she might live with me, would forsake me on no night.

For far be it that she should, by a happier life, have become so cruel that, when anything wrings my heart, she should not console her sorrowing son — the son whom she loved uniquely, whom she never wished to see downcast. But assuredly that which the sacred psalm proclaims is true: For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up. If, then, our parents have forsaken us, how are they involved in our cares and concerns? But if our parents are not involved, who are those other dead who would know what we do or what we suffer? The prophet Isaiah says: For you are our father, for Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not recognized us.

If such great patriarchs were ignorant of what was being done concerning the people begotten from them — the people themselves promised, because they believed God, from their stock — how are the dead mingled in the knowing and helping of the affairs and doings of the living? How do we say that provision was made for those who died before the evils came that followed upon their death, if even after death they perceive whatever befalls in the calamity of human life? Or do we perhaps say these things erroneously, and suppose those to be at rest whom the unquiet life of the living disquiets? What then is it that God promised to the most pious king Josiah as a great benefit — that he should die beforehand, so that he might not see the evils which He threatened would come upon that place and people?

These are the words of God. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: The words which you have heard and have feared before my face, when you heard what I have spoken concerning this place and those who dwell in it, that it should be forsaken and be under a curse, and you rent your garments and wept in my sight — I also have heard, says the Lord of hosts. Not so: behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the evils which I bring upon this place and upon those who dwell in it. This king, terrified by God's threats, had wept and rent his garments; and he is made secure, through a hastened death, from all the evils to come, in that he was so to rest in peace as not to see all those things.

There, then, are the spirits of the departed, where they do not see whatever is being done or comes to pass in this life of men. How then do they see their own tombs or their own bodies — whether they lie cast away or buried? How are they involved in the misery of the living, when either they themselves suffer their own ills, if they have contracted such deserts, or they rest in peace, as was promised to this Josiah, where they endure no evils either by suffering or by suffering-with, being delivered from all the evils which, by suffering and by suffering-with, they endured while they lived here? Someone will say:

If the dead have no care about the living, how did that rich man who was being tormented in the underworld beg father Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers who were not yet dead, and to deal with them, lest they too should come into the same place of torments? But surely, because that rich man said this, did he therefore know what his brothers were doing or what they were suffering at that time? He had care about the living in the same way, although he did not at all know what they were doing, just as we have care about the dead, although we by no means know what they are doing. For if we cared nothing about the dead, we would surely not supplicate God for them. Finally, Abraham did not send Lazarus, and answered that they had Moses and the prophets here, whom they ought to hear, so that they might not come to those torments.

Here again it presents itself, how father Abraham himself was ignorant of what was being done here, though he knew that there were Moses and the prophets — that is, their books, by obeying which men might escape the torments of hell — and knew, finally, that the rich man had lived in luxuries, but the poor man Lazarus in toils and sorrows. For this too he said to him: Remember, son, that you received good things in your life, but Lazarus evil things. He knew, then, these things which had assuredly been enacted among the living, not among the dead. Yet it was not while they were being done among the living, but when they were dead that he was able to come to know them, Lazarus making them known — lest that which the prophet says be false: Abraham has not known us.

Accordingly it must be confessed that the dead do not indeed know what is being done here while it is being done, but afterward they hear of it from those who go hence to them by dying — not indeed all things, but those which are permitted to be told by those who are permitted also to remember these things, and which those to whom they tell them ought to hear. The dead can also hear something from the angels who are present to the things that are done here — something which He to whom all things are subject judges that each one of them ought to hear. For unless there were angels who could be present at both the places of the living and of the dead, the Lord Jesus would not have said: And it came to pass that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham.

Now here, now there, then, could they be — those who carried away from hence to yonder him whom God willed. The spirits of the dead can also come to know certain things which are done here — things which it is necessary for them to know, and which it is necessary for those to know to whom they are made known — not only present or past things, but even future things, by the Spirit of God revealing them, just as not all men, but the prophets, while they lived here, came to know them, and not even they all things, but those which the providence of God judged were to be revealed to them. That some also are sent from the dead to the living — just as, conversely, Paul was caught up from among the living into paradise — divine Scripture bears witness. For the prophet Samuel, though dead, foretold even future things to the living king Saul:

although some suppose that it was not Samuel himself who could have been called up by magic arts, but that some spirit fitting for such evil works fashioned his likeness — whereas the book of Ecclesiasticus, which Jesus the son of Sirach is reported to have written and which, on account of a certain resemblance of eloquence, is pronounced to be Solomon's, contains, in the praise of the fathers, that Samuel even when dead prophesied. But if this book too is contradicted, because it is not in the Hebrew canon, what shall we say of Moses, who assuredly is read in Deuteronomy to have died, and yet in the Gospel to have appeared to the living together with Elijah, who did not die?

Hence too is that question resolved: how the martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to those who pray, indicate that they are involved in human affairs, if the dead do not know what the living are doing. For we have heard, not from uncertain rumours but from sure witnesses, that the confessor Felix — whose dwelling-place you piously love — appeared, not by the effects of benefits alone but even to the very sight of men, when Nola was being besieged by the barbarians. But these things are exhibited divinely in a manner far otherwise than the usual order allotted to each several kind of creatures conducts itself.

For because water was suddenly turned into wine when the Lord willed, we ought not therefore to fail to distinguish what water can do in its own proper order of the elements from the rarity, or rather the singularity, of that divine work; nor, because Lazarus rose again, does therefore every dead man rise when he wills, or is the lifeless roused by the living in the same manner as the sleeping is roused by one who is awake. The limits of human affairs are one thing, the signs of divine powers another; there are things which happen naturally, and things which happen miraculously — although God is present to nature that it may exist, and nature is not lacking to miracles.

It is not therefore to be supposed that any of the departed can be involved in the affairs of the living, because the martyrs are present for the healing or helping of certain persons; but rather it is to be understood that it is through divine power that the martyrs are involved in the affairs of the living, since the departed by their own nature cannot be involved in the affairs of the living. Although this question exceeds the powers of my understanding: in what way the martyrs bring aid to those who, it is certain, are helped through them —

whether they themselves are present in their own persons at one time in places so diverse and separated by so great a distance from one another — whether where their memorial shrines are, or apart from their memorials, wherever they are felt to be present — or whether, they themselves remaining in a place suited to their merits and removed from all converse with mortals, and yet in a general way supplicating for the need of those who pray (just as we pray for the dead, to whom we are certainly not present, nor do we know where they are or what they are doing), it is Almighty God — who is everywhere present, neither compounded with us nor removed from us —

hearkening to the prayers of the martyrs, through angelic ministries diffused everywhere, bestows on men those consolations which He judges are to be bestowed amid the misery of this life, and commends the merits of His martyrs where He wills, when He wills, and how He wills — and especially through their memorials, since He knows this to be profitable for us unto the building up of the faith of Christ, for the confession of which they suffered — by a marvellous and ineffable power and goodness. This matter is too lofty for me to be able to reach it, and too abstruse for me to be strong enough to search it out.

And therefore which of these two it is — or whether perhaps it is both, so that these things sometimes come to pass through the very presence of the martyrs, sometimes through the angels taking on the person of the martyrs — I do not dare to define. I would rather inquire into these matters from those who know. For it is not that there is no one who knows these things — no one, that is, who seems to himself to know and does not know. For the gifts of God are various, He bestowing some on these and others on those, according to the Apostle, who says that to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit. For to one, he says, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another the gift of healings in the one Spirit; to another the workings of powers; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits;

to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of speeches: but all these one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each his own as He wills. Of all these spiritual gifts which the Apostle has enumerated, whoever has been given the discerning of spirits, he himself knows these matters as they ought to be known. Such a one is to be believed to have been that John the monk, whom the elder Theodosius the emperor consulted concerning the outcome of the civil war; for he had prophecy also. For I do not doubt that not single gifts are had by single persons, but that even one man can have several of these gifts.

This John, then, said to a certain most religious woman who was impatiently desiring to see him, and who, in order to obtain this, was vehemently pressing her husband — while he was unwilling, since John had never permitted this to women: Go, say to your wife, she shall see me the coming night, but in sleep. And so it came to pass: and he admonished her whatever a faithful married woman ought to be admonished. And when she had awoken, she declared to her husband that she had seen such a man of God as her husband had known him to be, and what she had heard from him. He who learned this from them related it to me — a grave and noble man, most worthy to be believed.

But if I myself had seen that holy monk — since, as is reported, he was most patiently questioned and most wisely answered — I would have asked of him what pertains to this question: whether he himself had come to that woman in her sleep, that is, his spirit in the likeness of his body, just as we dream of our own selves in the likeness of our body; or whether, he himself doing something else, or, if he was asleep, dreaming something else, either through an angel or in some other way such a vision was made in the woman's dream, and he foreknew that this would come to pass, so that he could promise it, by the revealing Spirit of prophecy. For if he himself was present to her as she dreamed, he could assuredly have done this by marvellous grace, not by nature, and by the gift of God, not by his own power;

but if, he himself doing something else, or asleep and occupied with other visions, when the woman saw him in sleep, then assuredly something such was done as that which we read in the Acts of the Apostles, where the Lord Jesus speaks to Ananias about Saul and indicates to him that Saul had seen Ananias coming to him, while Ananias himself did not know this.

Whichever of these that man of God might have answered me, I would go on to inquire of him concerning the martyrs: whether they themselves are present in dreams, or in whatever other way, to those who see them in whatever form they have willed — and especially when the demons in men confess that they are tormented by them and beg them to spare them; or whether these things come to pass at God's bidding through angelic powers, unto the honour and commendation of the saints, for the profit of men — while the saints themselves are placed in supreme rest and are at leisure for other, far better visions, apart from us and praying for us.

for at Milan, at the shrine of the holy martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, the demons, naming him expressly as though he were one of the departed whom they commemorated in the same way, confessed the bishop Ambrose, still living, and besought him to spare them — while he was doing something else and, when this was being done, was entirely unaware of it; or whether these things sometimes come to pass through the very presence of the martyrs, sometimes through that of the angels; and whether these two can be, or by what signs they can be, discerned by us, or whether no one is able to perceive and discern them save he who has that gift through the Spirit of God, who divides to each his own as He wills:

that John, I think, would have discoursed to me on all these matters as I should wish, so that either, he teaching, I might learn, and might come to know that the things I heard were true and certain; or I might believe the things I did not know, when he told what he did know. But if perhaps he should answer me from holy Scripture and say: Seek not the things that are too high for you, and search not into things too mighty for you; but the things that the Lord has commanded you, think on these always — that too I would gladly accept. For it is no small fruit if, concerning certain obscure and uncertain matters which we are not strong enough to comprehend, it be at least clear and certain to us that they are not to be sought after, and that whatever anyone wishes to learn, thinking it profitable if he should know it, let him learn that it does not harm him if he should not know it.

Since these things are so, let us not suppose that anything reaches the dead, for whom we bear care, except what we solemnly supplicate on their behalf by the sacrifices either of the altar or of prayers or of alms — although these do not profit all for whom they are done, but only those for whom, while they live, it is procured that they should profit. But since we do not distinguish who these are, we ought to do these things for all the regenerate, so that none of them be passed over to whom these benefits can and ought to reach. For it is better that these things be superfluous for those whom they neither harm nor profit, than that they be lacking to those whom they profit. Yet each one does these things more diligently for his own kindred, that the like may be done for him by his own.

But whatever is expended upon the burying of the human body is not an aid of salvation, but an office of humanity according to that affection whereby no one ever hates his own flesh; whence it behoves that a man bear such care as he can for the flesh of his neighbour, when he who bore it has departed from it. And if those who do not believe in the resurrection of the flesh do these things, how much more ought those to do them who do believe — so that to the dead body, which nevertheless is to rise again and to abide in eternity, an office of this kind expended upon it may in a certain manner be also a testimony of that same faith! But that anyone is buried at the memorials of the martyrs seems to me to profit the departed only thus far, that, commending him also to the patronage of the martyrs, the affection of supplication on his behalf may be increased.

You have such a reply as I have been able to render to those things which you thought were to be inquired of me; and if it is more prolix than is enough, grant pardon; for that came to pass from love of speaking longer with you. How, then, your venerable affection receives this book, may I know by your reply, which the bearer of it will without doubt make more welcome to you — namely our brother and fellow presbyter Candidianus, whom, made known to me through your letters, I received with my whole heart and dismissed unwillingly. For he has greatly consoled us in the charity of Christ by his presence, and — this must be confessed — I have obeyed you at his urging.

For such great things distend my heart that, unless he, assiduously reminding me, had not suffered me to forget, my reply would assuredly have been lacking to your inquiry. (Here end the subscriptions of the several manuscripts: On the care to be had for the dead — Here ends the letter to Paulinus; here begins On the eight questions to Dulcitius. — Here ends the letter to Paulinus. — Here ends the letter of Saint Augustine on the care to be had for the dead. — Here ends the book of Aurelius Augustine to Paulinus, bishop of the city of Nola, on the care to be had for the dead. — Here ends the book of Saint Augustine on the care to be had for the dead. — Here ends the book of Saint Augustine to the most blessed Paulinus; here begins Saint Augustine on the immortality of the soul. — Here ends the book on the care to be had for the dead.)

(Here end the book of Saint Augustine to the most blessed Paulinus. — Codex E lacks a subscription. — Here ends the book.)