VII] THE MONASTIC CHARACTER 191 greatly in him; for his is the woman-nature turned toward God, poured out at His feet, bathing them with its flood ; the repentant woman-nature, grateful, devoted, surrendered, and abased, utterly filled with love of Him ; and the woman-nature which is not nar- rowed by love's devotion, but is broadened through it to include tender consideration of whatever needs love's sympathy. In matters of sheer intellect Augustine rises creative above his contemporaries. He anticipates Descartes' cogito ergo sumj^ and almost Kant's thought of the subjectivity of time.^ He has also a grand conception of spiritual progress, — of the people of God, advanc- ing from age to age.^ And he discountenances the worship of martyrs, who yet may be honored.^ Still, he had some of the limitations of his time. His Pla- tonism was mainly Neo-platonism ; and this means much ; it led him to speak of Porphyry as nohilissimus philosophus paganonim.^ He believed in miracles, and gives a list of many known to him or occurring in his time.* But he argues excellently, showing them to be less wonderful than creation and man and the world and God.' He thinks that demons have bodies superior to those of men.* He could not have doubted the existence of demons without lifting himself out of the fifth century, when their existence was assumed, 1 Civ. Dei, XI, 26. « Civ. Dei, XI, 6 ; Coff., XI, 36. Cf . Flottes, Etudes aur St. Au- gustin, pp. 188-197. » Civ. Dei, X, 14. * Civ. Dei, VIII, 27. » Civ. Dei, XXII, 3. • Civ. Dei, XXII, 8. r /j., X, 12. • Civ. Dei, VIII, 15. He does not doubt ancient heathen prodi- gies, which he regards as the work of devils {Civ. Dei, X, 16 and 21).
