(Augustine’s twenty-ninth year: due to his knowledge of scientific
subjects, he has begun to question many Manichean doctrines, and he is
told that one Faustus, an eloquent defender of this sect, will remove
all his doubts. This Faustus, however, in spite of his eloquence, fails
to convince Augustine; on the contrary, he serves to expose even more
the falsity of Manichean tenets. Augustine leaves Carthage for Rome, the
better to continue his work in rhetoric, but in Rome he finds the
distractions greater than he expected, so accepts a position as teacher
of rhetoric in Milan. Here he meets Ambrose, the bishop who first shows
him the way to divine truth—he is interested first, not by what Ambrose
says, but by how he says it; yet, in the nature of things, he cannot
entirely escape paying some attention to the thought as well as to the
vehicle carrying it. Augustine therefore becomes a catechumen, or
“beginner,” in the Catholic Church.)
(vi) 10. ... I now learned that neither ought anything to seem to be
spoken truly, because eloquently; nor therefore falsely, because the
utterance of the lips is inharmonious; nor, again, therefore true,
because rudely delivered; nor therefore false, because the language is
rich; but that wisdom and folly are as wholesome and unwholesome food;
and adorned or unadorned phrases, as courtly or country vessels; either
kind of meats may be served up in either kind of dishes.