a statue, a table, a chair, etc. That animal would be Christian, that
idol, that table would be Christian! It is absurd!"

St. Augustine began to speak. There was a great silence.

"I am going," said the ardent bishop of Hippo, "to show you, by an
example, the power of formulas. It deals, it is true, with a diabolical
operation. But if it be established that formulas taught by the Devil
have effect upon unintelligent animals or even on inanimate objects, how
can we longer doubt that the effect of the sacramental formulas extends
to the minds of beasts and even to inert matter?

"This is the example. There was during my lifetime in the town of
Madaura, the birthplace of the philosopher Apuleius, a witch who was
able to attract men to her chamber by burning a few of their hairs along
with certain herbs upon her tripod, pronouncing at the same time certain
words. Now one day when she wished by this means to gain the love of a
young man, she was deceived by her maid, and instead of the young man's
hairs, she burned some hairs pulled from a leather bottle, made out of
a goatskin that hung in a tavern. During the night the leather bottle,
full of wine, capered through the town up to the witch's door. This fact
is undoubted. And in sacraments as in enchantments it is the form which
operates. The effect of a divine formula cannot be less in power and
extent than the effect of an infernal formula."

Having spoken in this fashion the great St. Augustine sat down amidst
applause.

One of the blessed, of an advanced age and having a melancholy
appearance, asked permission to speak. No one knew him. His name was