THE SECOND PART

THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE


Amare et amari.
"To love and to be loved."

_Confessions_, III, i.




I

CARTHAGO VENERIS


"I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled round me like boiling
oil."

This cry of repentance, uttered by the converted Augustin twenty-five
years later, does not altogether stifle his words of admiration for the
old capital of his country. One can see this patriotic admiration stirring
between the lines. Carthage made a very strong impression on him. He gave
it his heart and remained faithful to the end. His enemies, the Donatists,
called him "the Carthaginian arguer." After he became Bishop of Hippo, he