Key Arguments

• He describes entering ‘the fields and vast palaces of memory, where are the treasuries of innumerable images of all kinds of objects brought in by sense‑perception’.
• He explains recall as an active search: when he is ‘in this storehouse’ he asks for what he wants to remember; some things appear immediately, others require a ‘longer search’ from ‘more recondite receptacles’.
• He notes how irrelevant memories can ‘pour out to crowd the mind’ and must be chased away ‘with the hand of my heart’ until the desired memory ‘emerges from its hiding places’, indicating a selective and volitional element in recall.
• He details how each sense has its own ‘gate’ into memory—eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and general bodily touch—and that ‘the objects themselves do not enter, but the images of the perceived objects are available to the thought recalling them’.
• Even in darkness and silence he can summon images of colours, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile qualities ‘at will’, showing that memory’s operations are internal and not dependent on current sense stimulation.
• From the same store he can recall himself (‘what I am, what I have done’) and also combine images to reason about the future: within memory’s ‘vast recess’ he says to himself ‘I shall do this and that’, ‘O that this or that were so’, which presupposes the presence of corresponding images.
• He concludes that these inner operations are extensive and structured enough to underwrite recounting narratives, re‑experiencing scenes like ‘sky, land, and sea’, and forming hopes and fears about future actions.

Source Quotes

They also perceive through the body. viii (12) I will therefore rise above that natural capacity in a step by step ascent to him who made me. I come to the fields and vast palaces of memory,12 where are the treasuries of innumerable images of all kinds of objects brought in by sense-perception. Hidden there is whatever we think about, a process which may increase or diminish or in some way alter the deliverance of the senses and whatever else has been deposited and placed on reserve and has not been swallowed up and buried in oblivion.

Hidden there is whatever we think about, a process which may increase or diminish or in some way alter the deliverance of the senses and whatever else has been deposited and placed on reserve and has not been swallowed up and buried in oblivion. When I am in this storehouse, I ask that it produce what I want to recall, and immediately certain things come out; some things require a longer search, and have to be drawn out as it were from more recondite receptacles. Some memories pour out to crowd the mind and, when one is searching and asking for something quite different, leap forward into the centre as if saying ‘Surely we are what you want?’

When I am in this storehouse, I ask that it produce what I want to recall, and immediately certain things come out; some things require a longer search, and have to be drawn out as it were from more recondite receptacles. Some memories pour out to crowd the mind and, when one is searching and asking for something quite different, leap forward into the centre as if saying ‘Surely we are what you want?’ With the hand of my heart I chase them away from the face of my memory until what I want is freed of mist and emerges from its hiding places.

The power of sensation in the entire body distinguishes what is hard or soft, hot or cold, smooth or rough, heavy or light, whether external or internal to the body. Memory’s huge cavern, with its mysterious, secret, and indescribable nooks and crannies, receives all these perceptions, to be recalled when needed and reconsidered. Every one of them enters into memory, each by its own gate, and is put on deposit there.

Every one of them enters into memory, each by its own gate, and is put on deposit there. The objects themselves do not enter, but the images of the perceived objects are available to the thought recalling them. But who can say how images are created, even though it may be clear by which senses they are grasped and stored within.

Key Concepts

• I come to the fields and vast palaces of memory,12 where are the treasuries of innumerable images of all kinds of objects brought in by sense-perception.
• When I am in this storehouse, I ask that it produce what I want to recall, and immediately certain things come out; some things require a longer search, and have to be drawn out as it were from more recondite receptacles.
• Some memories pour out to crowd the mind and, when one is searching and asking for something quite different, leap forward into the centre as if saying ‘Surely we are what you want?’
• Memory’s huge cavern, with its mysterious, secret, and indescribable nooks and crannies, receives all these perceptions, to be recalled when needed and reconsidered.
• The objects themselves do not enter, but the images of the perceived objects are available to the thought recalling them.

Context

Book X, viii (12–14): Beginning his famous analysis of memory, Augustine presents memory as an immense internal space receiving images from all senses and serving as the basis for recollection, self‑reflection, narrative, and planning.