LEAVES FROM ST. AUGUSTINE. BY MARY H. ALLIES. EDITED BY T. W. ALLIES, K.C.S.G. "Et ecce audio vocem de vicina domo cum cantu dicentis et crebro BURNS AND OATES. LONDON: GRANVILLE MANSIONS, 28 ORCHARD STREET. W. NEW YORK: CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO. 9 BARCLAY STREET. PREFACE. 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. Works of St. Augustine, translated at Edinburgh, |