Excerpt from Leaves From St. Augustine Some years ago it was reported that an American sailor had fitted up for himself a small boat with a covered deck, in which he attempted to cross the Atlantic alone; and it was also said that he accomplished his task, and brought his boat safely to our shores. Something like this sailor's heart of oak, cased in triple brass, seems to me her courage who set her frail bark to traverse the ocean of St Augustine, and to give in the compass of a small volume a notion of the beauty, the vastness, the proportion, and the grandeur of mind in one who is said to have acted upon a larger number of men than any one since the time of St Paul. I would fain hope that she also has brought her bark safe to shore, and that such as think it worth their while to read the words herein selected of that great Saint, and Genius no less great, will be able to form some notion of the personal character, the doctrine, the faith, the hope, and the charity of the man who ranks among the Fathers of the Church as St Paul among the Apostles. The Works of St Augustine, translated at Edinburgh, make fifteen octavo volumes; the Oxford translation of the Fathers makes several more. Both together are far from containing all that has been preserved to us. It is requisite to say that neither of these series has been used or even referred to by the Translator. Both the choice of passages and the translation itself are her own. My task has been only to review the whole when completed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.