11 (10). Six Books On Music
(De Musica Libri Sex)[170]

1. Then, as I mentioned previously,[171] I wrote six books on music. The sixth of these has become especially well known because the matter that it contains is worthy of reflection—how from bodily and spiritual but mutable numbers one may arrive at the immutable numbers that already exist in immutable truth itself, and thus the invisible things of God may be seen and understood through things that have been made (Rom 1:20).[172] Those who are incapable of this and nonetheless live by faith in Christ[173] come to the things that are to be seen in a more certain and happy way after this life. Those who are capable of it, however, if they lack faith in Christ, who is the one mediator of God and men (1 Tm 2:5), perish with all their wisdom.

2. In this book I said, “Bodies are better to the extent that they are more capable of being numbered by such numbers, but the soul becomes better by lacking those things that it receives through the body, when it turns itself away from the fleshly senses and is refashioned by the divine numbers of wisdom.”[174] This must not be understood as though there were not going to be bodily numbers in incorruptible and spiritual bodies, when they are going to be much more beautiful and shapely, or as though the soul were not going to know them when it will be in its most excellent condition, as is the case when here [i.e., on earth] it becomes better by lacking them. For here it must turn away from the fleshly senses in order to seize upon intelligible realities, because it is weak and less capable of focusing upon both at the same time, and in these bodily things their allure must be guarded against now, as long as the soul can be seduced into base pleasure. But then it will be so firm and perfect that it will not be turned away by bodily numbers from the contemplation of wisdom, and it will know them in such a way as not to be seduced by them, and it will not become better by lacking them; but it will be so good and upright that they will be unable to be concealed from it or to take possession of it.

3. Again, I said, “This health will be most firm and assured when this body has been restored to its pristine stability at its proper time and in its proper order.”[175] It ought not to be thought that this was said as though the bodies that will be in existence after the resurrection will not be better than those of the first human beings in paradise, because they [i.e., the post-resurrection bodies] will no longer need to be fed with the bodily foods with which they used to be fed; rather, this pristine stability should be taken to mean that those bodies will suffer no illness, just as they could not suffer it before the sin.

4. In another passage I said, “The love of this world is quite burdensome. For what the soul is seeking in it—namely, constancy and eternity—it does not find, because the lowest beauty achieves its end in the passing away of things, and that which imitates constancy in it is passed from the most high God through the soul, because beauty that is changeable in terms of time is superior to that which is changeable in terms of both time and place.”[176] Clear reasoning defends these words if they can be taken in such a way that the lowest beauty is not understood except in regard to the bodies of men and of all ensouled beings that live with the senses of the body. What imitates constancy in that beauty is the fact that these same bodies maintain their structure (to the degree that they maintain it), and this is what is passed from the most high God through the soul. The soul possesses this very structure so that it may not be dissolved and disintegrate, which is what we see happens in the bodies of ensouled beings when the soul departs. But if this lowest beauty is understood in terms of all bodies, that opinion demands believing that the world itself is also ensouled, so that what imitates constancy in it is passed from the most high God through its soul. But I have been unable to determine by any certain argument that this world is ensouled, as Plato thought, along with many other philosophers,[177] and I have not seen how I could be persuaded by the authority of the divine scriptures. Hence, I have noted as rashly stated something similar which could be taken in this way that was also said by me in the book on the immortality of the soul,[178] not because I declare that it is false but because I do not understand that it is true that the world is ensouled. Of course I do not doubt that this must be firmly adhered to—that this world is not God for us, whether it has a soul or not, because if it has one, he who made it is our God, whereas if it has none, it can be no one’s god, much less ours. Yet, even if the world is not ensouled, it is most correctly believed, even by those who do not understand it, that there is a spiritual and vital power, and that this power serves God in the holy angels for the purpose of adorning and administering the world. At this point I wanted to call by the term “holy angels” every holy spiritual creature placed in God’s secret and hidden service, but holy scripture is not accustomed to signify angelic spirits by the word “souls.”[179]

Similarly, toward the end of this book I said, “The rational and intellectual numbers of the blessed and holy souls transmit the very law of God, apart from which a leaf does not fall from a tree and according to which our hairs have been numbered,[180] without the intervention of any nature, even to the courts of earth and hell.”[181] I do not see how the word “souls” could be shown to have been in keeping with the holy scriptures, since I wished only that the holy angels be understood here, and I do not recall having read anywhere in the divine writings that they have souls.

This book begins in this way: “For too long a time.”[182]

[170] Begun in 387 and completed in its present state in 389. This was the only part of Augustine’s project on the disciplines, orliberal arts, that he completed. See Revisions I,6.
[171] See Revisions I,6.
[172] The numbers (numeri) that are referred to here and elsewhere in this chapter can probably also be understood as rhythms or harmonies.
[173] See Rom 1:17; 3:26; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38.
[174] VI,4,7.
[175] VI,5,13.
[176] VI,14,44.
[177] See Plato, Timaeus 30b; Cicero, De natura deorum I,30.52; II,22.30.32.
[178] See The Immortality of the Soul 15,24; Revisions I,5,3.
[179] See also Revisions I,16,2.
[180] See Mt 10:30 par.
[181] VI,17,58.
[182] Since Augustine has chosen not to discuss all six books of this work but only the sixth, by way of exception he cites the first words of the sixth book rather than those at the beginning of the entire treatise.