The New Lifetime Reading Plan

Autobiography would seem to be the easiest of ali literary forms, for what could be simpler than to talk of one's own life? Yet though this Plan abounds in great poems and novйis, great autobiographies are fewer. Of ali the autobiographies ever written, perhaps the most powerful and influential in the Western tradition is the Confessions of Saint Augustine.

Compared with Marcus Aurelius [21], Augustine reveals a deeper, if less attractive, mind. The profundity of Augustine's intellect can be felt only by those willing to spend some time in the vast and obscure forest of his works, particularly his master- piece, The City of God. But its intensity, its obsession with God, and its tortured concern with sin and salvation can be felt by any- one who reads at least the first nine books of the Confessions.

This Roman citizen, born in North Бfrica, who became the bishop of Hippo, is probably the most effective defender the Church has had in its long history. Yet, as he tells us, he came to Catholicism only in his thirty-second year, after he had tasted the delights of the flesh (including thirteen years with a mistress who bore him a son). His plea to God is familiar: "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet." The great change occurred after he had also dabbled in the heresy of Manichaeism and had sampled the classical doctrines of Platonism [12] and Skepticism and Neoplatonism. Readers of the Confessions will note the many influences, especially that of his revered mother Monica, that led him at last to his true vocation. His conversion in the garden, as described in the twelfth chapter of Book VIII, marks one of the pivotal moments in the history of Christianity as well as a crucial instance of the mystical experience.

There is a great deal of theology and Christian apologetics and biblical exegesis in the Confessions, notably in the last four books, dealing with memory, time, the nature of temptation, and the proper expounding of the Scriptures. But the power of the book is exerted even on the nonbeliever. The Confessions was originally written to bring men to the truth. For us it is rather a masterpiece of self-revelation, the first unsparing account of how a real man was led, step by step, from the City of Man to the City of God. To the psychologist, to the student of what William James [95] called the varieties of religious experience, it is endlessly interesting. But beyond this, it grips us because we cannot shut our ears to the terrible humanness of Augustine's voice. He is trying desperately to tell us the truth, about the events not only of his externai life, but of his soul. The Confessions is the classic spiritual autobiography. In ali our literature there is nothing quite like it.

C.F.

23

KАLIDАSA

ca. 400

The Cloud Messenger and Sakuntala

Kгlidгsa is sometimes described as "the Shakespeare of нndia"; certainly he is universally regarded as the most accomplished stylist in the Sanskrit language in ali of Indian literature. It may seem odd, then, that almost nothing is known about him. One must remember, however, that a fundamental precept of the Brahmanic religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, is that the world and everything in it is purely illusory; under those circumstances, in traditional нndia, it apparently did not strike people as important to devise a system of numbering years consecutively to keep track of things like people's life- times. Kгlidгsa perhaps lived around our year 400, perhaps a century later.

Tradition holds that he was of humble origins, and achieved fame and an appointment at a minor royal court entirely through his brilliance as a writer. He is said to have been a pro- lific writer as well, but only a few of his works survive—three or four long poems, and three plays. This Plan recommends that you read his two most celebrated works.