Key Arguments

• He confesses that in analysing memory he ‘find[s] my own self hard to grasp’ and that he has become for himself ‘a soil which is a cause of difficulty and much sweat’, emphasizing the opacity of the self.
• He marvels that the power of memory, which he cannot understand, is precisely what enables him to speak about himself: ‘Indeed the power of my memory is something I do not understand when without it I cannot speak about myself.’
• He describes memory as ‘an awe-inspiring mystery’ characterized by profound and infinite multiplicity: ‘Great is the power of memory, an awe-inspiring mystery, my God, a power of profound and infinite multiplicity. And this is mind, this is I myself.’
• He enumerates the different kinds of contents—images of physical objects, immediately present intellectual skills, and ‘indefinable notions or recorded impressions’ of emotions—and notes that he can run through them but ‘never reach the end’, underscoring its immeasurability.
• From this, he asks what he ought to do and answers that God is his ‘true life’ and that he must ‘transcend even this my power which is called memory’ and ‘rise beyond it to move towards you, sweet light.’
• He further argues that since beasts and birds also have memory (evidenced by their habits and ability to find their dens and nests), he must ascend beyond memory itself to the One who ‘set me apart from quadrupeds and made me wiser than the birds of heaven’, locating the human vocation above mere mnemonic capacity.

Source Quotes

Who can grasp what is going on? (25) I at least, Lord, have difficulty at this point, and I find my own self hard to grasp. I have become for myself a soil which is a cause of difficulty and much sweat (Gen. 3: 17 f). For our present inquiry is not to ‘examine the zones of heaven’,19 nor are we measuring the distances between stars or the balancing of the earth.

But what is nearer to me than myself? Indeed the power of my memory is something I do not understand when without it I cannot speak about myself. What shall I say when it is certain to me that I remember forgetfulness?

But when it was present, how did it inscribe its image upon the memory, when, by its very presence, forgetfulness deletes whatever it finds already there? Yet in some way, though incomprehensible and inexplicable, I am certain that I remember forgetfulness itself, and yet forgetfulness destroys what we remember. xvii (26) Great is the power of memory, an awe-inspiring mystery, my God, a power of profound and infinite multiplicity. And this is mind, this is I myself. What then am I, my God?

It is characterized by diversity, by life of many forms, utterly immeasurable. See the broad plains and caves and caverns of my memory. The varieties there cannot be counted, and are, beyond any reckoning, full of innumerable things. Some are there through images, as in the case of all physical objects, some by immediate presence like intellectual skills, some by indefinable notions or recorded impressions, as in the case of the mind’s emotions, which the memory retains even when the mind is not experiencing them, although whatever is in the memory is in the mind.

So great is the power of memory, so great is the force of life in a human being whose life is mortal. What then ought I to do, my God? You are my true life. I will transcend even this my power which is called memory. I will rise beyond it to move towards you, sweet light. What are you saying to me?

I will pass beyond even that power of mind which is called memory, desiring to reach you by the way through which you can be reached, and to be bonded to you by the way in which it is possible to be bonded. Beasts and birds also have a memory. Otherwise they could not rediscover their dens and nests, and much else that they are habitually accustomed to. Habit could have no influence on them in any respect except by memory.

Key Concepts

• I at least, Lord, have difficulty at this point, and I find my own self hard to grasp. I have become for myself a soil which is a cause of difficulty and much sweat (Gen. 3: 17 f).
• Indeed the power of my memory is something I do not understand when without it I cannot speak about myself.
• Great is the power of memory, an awe-inspiring mystery, my God, a power of profound and infinite multiplicity. And this is mind, this is I myself.
• See the broad plains and caves and caverns of my memory. The varieties there cannot be counted, and are, beyond any reckoning, full of innumerable things.
• What then ought I to do, my God? You are my true life. I will transcend even this my power which is called memory. I will rise beyond it to move towards you, sweet light.
• Beasts and birds also have a memory. Otherwise they could not rediscover their dens and nests, and much else that they are habitually accustomed to.

Context

Book X, xvi–xvii (25–26 beginning): Concluding his phenomenology of memory, Augustine confronts his inability to comprehend his own mind, exalts the greatness of memory, and then uses this as a springboard for a metaphysical and spiritual ascent beyond memory towards God.