Letter 8: 1. As I am in haste to come to the subject of my letter, I dispense with any preface or introduction. When at any time it pleases higher (by which I mean heavenly) powers to reveal anything to us by dreams in our sleep, how is this done, my dear Augustine, or what is the method which they use?
Nebridius→Augustine of Hippo|c. 387 AD|Augustine of Hippo|Human translated
barbarian invasion
Barbarian peoples/invasions; Miracles & relics
1. As I hasten to reach the matter at hand, no preamble, no introduction pleases me. How does it happen, my dear Augustine, and what is that method which the higher powers — by which I mean the heavenly ones — employ when it pleases them to present certain dreams to us as we sleep? What method, I say — that is, how do they do it, by what art, by what contrivances, by what instruments or remedies?
Do they drive our mind through their own thoughts, so that we too, by thinking, form the same images? Or do they fashion these things in their own body, or in their own imagination, and then offer and display them to us? But if they do these things in their own body, it follows that we too must have other, interior bodily eyes when we sleep, by which we might see what they have formed in their body. If, however, they are not aided by their body for these purposes, but arrange these things in their own imaginative faculty and so make contact with ours, and what results is the vision that constitutes a dream — then why, I ask you, can I not compel your imaginative faculty through my own to produce those dreams which I have first formed in it myself? Certainly I too possess imagination, and it is capable of fashioning whatever I wish, yet I produce no dream in you whatsoever.
And yet I observe that our own body generates dreams within us. For once it has seized upon the bond of feeling by which it is joined to the soul, it compels us in wondrous ways to reproduce that very thing through imagination. Often when we are thirsty in sleep, we dream of drinking, and when hungry we seem to be eating; and many such things are transferred, as if by a kind of commerce, from body to soul through the imaginative faculty.
Do not be surprised if these matters, given their own obscurity and our inexperience, have been set forth with less elegance and less precision: you will labor to accomplish that task as far as you are able.
Letter 8 (A.D. 389)
To Augustine Nebridius Sends Greeting.
1. As I am in haste to come to the subject of my letter, I dispense with any preface or introduction. When at any time it pleases higher (by which I mean heavenly) powers to reveal anything to us by dreams in our sleep, how is this done, my dear Augustine, or what is the method which they use? What, I say, is their method, i.e. by what art or magic, by what agency or enchantments, do they accomplish this? Do they by their thoughts influence our minds, so that we also have the same images presented in our thoughts? Do they bring before us, and exhibit as actually done in their own body or in their own imagination, the things which we dream? But if they actually do these things in their own body, it follows that, in order to our seeing what they thus do, we must be endowed with other bodily eyes beholding what passes within while we sleep. If, however, they are not assisted by their bodies in producing the effects in question, but frame such things in their own imaginative faculty, and thus impress our imaginations, thereby giving visible form to what we dream; why is it, I ask, that I cannot compel your imagination to reproduce those dreams which I have myself first formed by my imagination? I have undoubtedly the faculty of imagination, and it is capable of presenting to my own mind the picture of whatever I please; and yet I do not thereby cause any dream in you, although I see that even our bodies have the power of originating dreams in us. For by means of the bond of sympathy uniting it to the soul, the body compels us in strange ways to repeat or reproduce by imagination anything which it has once experienced. Thus often in sleep, if we are thirsty, we dream that we drink; and if we are hungry, we seem to ourselves to be eating; and many other instances there are in which, by some mode of exchange, so to speak, things are transferred through the imagination from the body to the soul.
Be not surprised at the want of elegance and subtlety with which these questions are here stated to you; consider the obscurity in which the subject is involved, and the inexperience of the writer; be it yours to do your utmost to supply his deficiencies.
EPISTOLA 8
Scripta fere eodem tempore (388-91).
Quanam caelestium potestatum in animam actione fiat ut imagines ac somnia dormienti subrepant.
Augustinu Nebridius
1. Festinanti mihi ad rem pervenire, nullum prooemium, nullum placet exordium. Qui fit, mi Augustine, vel qui modus est ille, quo utuntur superiores potestates, quas coelestes intellegi volo, cum eis placet nobis dormientibus aliqua somnia demonstrare? Qui, inquam, modus est; id est, quomodo id faciunt, qua arte, quibus manganis, quibusque instrumentis aut medicamentis? animumne nostrum per cogitationes suas impellunt, ut nos etiam ea cogitando imaginemur? an ipsa in suo corpore, vel in sua phantasia, facta nobis offerunt et ostendunt? Sed si in suo corpore ea faciunt, sequitur ut et nos alios oculos corporeos intrinsecus habeamus cum dormimus, quibus illa videamus quae illi in suo corpore formaverint. Si vero ad istas res non corpore adiuvantur suo, sed in phantastico suo ista disponunt, atque ita phantastica nostra contingunt, et fit visam quod est somnium; cur, quaeso te, non ego phantastico meo tuum phantasticum ea somnia generare compello, quae mihi primo in eo ipse formavi? Certe et mihi est phantasia, et quod volo potens est fingere, cum omnino nullum tibi facio somnium, sed ipsum corpus nostrum video in nobis somnia generare. Nam cum semel habuerit per affectum quo animae copulatur, cogit nos idipsum miris modis per phantasiam simulare. Saepe dormientes cum sitimus, bibere somniamus, et esurientes quasi comedentes videmur; et multa talia, quae quasi commercio quodam a corpore in animam phantastice transferuntur. Haec pro sui obscuritate, pro nostraque imperitia, ne mireris si minus eleganter minusque subtiliter esplicata sunt: tu id facere quantum poteris laborabis.
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1. As I hasten to reach the matter at hand, no preamble, no introduction pleases me. How does it happen, my dear Augustine, and what is that method which the higher powers — by which I mean the heavenly ones — employ when it pleases them to present certain dreams to us as we sleep? What method, I say — that is, how do they do it, by what art, by what contrivances, by what instruments or remedies?
Do they drive our mind through their own thoughts, so that we too, by thinking, form the same images? Or do they fashion these things in their own body, or in their own imagination, and then offer and display them to us? But if they do these things in their own body, it follows that we too must have other, interior bodily eyes when we sleep, by which we might see what they have formed in their body. If, however, they are not aided by their body for these purposes, but arrange these things in their own imaginative faculty and so make contact with ours, and what results is the vision that constitutes a dream — then why, I ask you, can I not compel your imaginative faculty through my own to produce those dreams which I have first formed in it myself? Certainly I too possess imagination, and it is capable of fashioning whatever I wish, yet I produce no dream in you whatsoever.
And yet I observe that our own body generates dreams within us. For once it has seized upon the bond of feeling by which it is joined to the soul, it compels us in wondrous ways to reproduce that very thing through imagination. Often when we are thirsty in sleep, we dream of drinking, and when hungry we seem to be eating; and many such things are transferred, as if by a kind of commerce, from body to soul through the imaginative faculty.
Do not be surprised if these matters, given their own obscurity and our inexperience, have been set forth with less elegance and less precision: you will labor to accomplish that task as far as you are able.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
EPISTOLA 8
Scripta fere eodem tempore (388-91).
Quanam caelestium potestatum in animam actione fiat ut imagines ac somnia dormienti subrepant.
Augustinu Nebridius
1. Festinanti mihi ad rem pervenire, nullum prooemium, nullum placet exordium. Qui fit, mi Augustine, vel qui modus est ille, quo utuntur superiores potestates, quas coelestes intellegi volo, cum eis placet nobis dormientibus aliqua somnia demonstrare? Qui, inquam, modus est; id est, quomodo id faciunt, qua arte, quibus manganis, quibusque instrumentis aut medicamentis? animumne nostrum per cogitationes suas impellunt, ut nos etiam ea cogitando imaginemur? an ipsa in suo corpore, vel in sua phantasia, facta nobis offerunt et ostendunt? Sed si in suo corpore ea faciunt, sequitur ut et nos alios oculos corporeos intrinsecus habeamus cum dormimus, quibus illa videamus quae illi in suo corpore formaverint. Si vero ad istas res non corpore adiuvantur suo, sed in phantastico suo ista disponunt, atque ita phantastica nostra contingunt, et fit visam quod est somnium; cur, quaeso te, non ego phantastico meo tuum phantasticum ea somnia generare compello, quae mihi primo in eo ipse formavi? Certe et mihi est phantasia, et quod volo potens est fingere, cum omnino nullum tibi facio somnium, sed ipsum corpus nostrum video in nobis somnia generare. Nam cum semel habuerit per affectum quo animae copulatur, cogit nos idipsum miris modis per phantasiam simulare. Saepe dormientes cum sitimus, bibere somniamus, et esurientes quasi comedentes videmur; et multa talia, quae quasi commercio quodam a corpore in animam phantastice transferuntur. Haec pro sui obscuritate, pro nostraque imperitia, ne mireris si minus eleganter minusque subtiliter esplicata sunt: tu id facere quantum poteris laborabis.