[7] "Hitherto the Apologies had been framed to meet particular exigencies: they were either brief and pregnant statements of the Christian doctrines; refutations of prevalent calumnies; invectives against the follies and crimes of Paganism; or confutations of anti-Christian works like those of Celsus, Porphyry, or Julian, closely following their course of argument, and rarely expanding into general and comprehensive views of the great conflict."--MILMAN, _History of Christianity_, iii. c. 10. We are not acquainted with any more complete preface to the _City of God_ than is contained in the two or three pages which Milman has devoted to this subject. [8] See the interesting remarks of Lactantius, _Instit._ vii. 25. [9] "Hæret vox et singultus intercipiunt verba dictantis. Capitur urbs quæ totum cepit orbem."--JEROME, iv. 783. [10] See below, iv. 7. [11] This is well brought out by Merivale, _Conversion of the Roman Empire_, p. 145, etc. [12] Ozanam, _History of Civilisation in the Fifth Century_ (Eng. trans.), ii. 160. [13] Abstracts of the work at greater or less length are given by Dupin, Bindemann, Böhringer, Poujoulat, Ozanam, and others. [14] His words are: "Plus on examine la Cité de Dieu, plus on reste convaincu que cet ouvrage dût exercea tres-peu d'influence sur l'esprit des païens" (ii. 122); and this though he thinks one cannot but be struck with the grandeur of the ideas it contains. [15] _History of Ecclesiastical Writers_, i. 406. [16] _Huetiana_, p. 24. [17] Flottes, _Etudes sur S. Augustin_ (Paris, 1861), pp. 154-6, one of the most accurate and interesting even of French monographs on theological writers. [18] These editions will be found detailed in the second volume of Schoenemann's _Bibliotheca Pat._ [19] His words (in Ep. vi.) are quite worth quoting: "Cura rogo te, ut excudantur aliquot centena exemplarium istius operis a reliquo Augustini corpore separata; nam multi erunt studiosi qui Augustinum totum emere vel nollent, vel non poterunt, quia non egebunt, seu quia tantum pecuniæ non habebunt. Scio enim fere a deditis studiis istis elegantioribus præter hoc Augustini opus nullum fere aliud legi ejusdem autoris." [20] The fullest and fairest discussion of the very simple yet never settled question of Augustine's learning will be found in Nourrisson's _Philosophie de S. Augustin_, ii. 92-100. [21] Erasmi _Epistolæ_ xx. 2. [22] A large part of it has been translated in Saisset's _Pantheism_ (Clark, Edin.). [23] By J. H., published in 1610, and again in 1620, with Vives' commentary.