Augustine makes his way to Rome in order to find students serious in their studies, not prone to "subversive behavior" in the classroom; he finds the students there serious as reported but prone to an equally maddening flaw: evading the fees of their scholarship. When the opportunity arises to make way for Milan and

I flung myself down on the ground somehow under a fig tree and gave free reign to my tears; they streamed and flooded from my eyes, an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And I kept saying to you, not perhaps in these words, but with this sense: "And Thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord; wilt Thou be angry forever? Remember not our former iniquities...Why not now? Why not finish this very hour with my uncleanness? (p. 182).

This experience is followed by a mystical direction from the mouth of a child, directing Augustine to "Take it and read it". He comes upon a passage in the book of Apostle urging him to "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ". The catharsis is complete and the difficult, painful portion of our hero's journey is behind him: "For you converted me to you in such a way that I no longer sought a wife nor any other worldly hope" (p. 183).

fill a position for professor of rhetoric, Augustine snatches the chance and begins yet another journey. Here he meets Bishop Ambrose, who he finds can defend the illogical nature of Scripture and make it sensible and logical. The beginning of monumental change in the Saint's life begins:

Therefore, all things that are, are good, and as to that evil, the origin of which I was seeking for, it is not a substance, since, if it were a substance, it would be good. For it would either have to be an incorruptible substance (which is the highest form of goodness) or else a corruptible substance (which, unless it had good in it, could not be corruptible) (p. 151).

What is left for our noble, tenacious and thorough hero to accomplish? Only the hardest and most tiring part of the entire journey: the complete surrender of his will, the entire submission of it to God. Perhaps aesthetically inclined to make this painful conversion in a place of beauty, the scene occurs in a lovely garden with Augustine's close friend Alypius. Here he ultimately confronts his divided nature, the different attractions of the secular and religious callings, and lets free the "...huge storm...within me bringing with it a huge downpour of tears" (p. 182-3). He knows, in the surging of his accumulated wretchedness and misery, the time for choice is at hand.

With Manichaeanism discarded, our humble narrator and hero finds himself "...despairing of ever discovering the truth" (p. 111). Though certainly intrigued by the call of Christian faith, Augustine finds "it was the same with me as with a man who, having once had a bad doctor, is afraid of trusting himself even to a good one" (p. 117). The pleasures of the flesh and his worldly ambition, those sirens upon the sea of the world, occupy much of Augustine's time and energy and restrict him to the knowledge that "...first you [God] exist...and secondly, that the government of human affairs was in your hands" (p. 118). Perhaps; yet at this point it is Augustine's will, towards secular pursuits and an ultimate knowledge of t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1969
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)