GENÉRADE, THE FRIEND OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
J. COLLIN DE PLANCY.
ST. AUGUSTINE reckoned among his friends the physician Genérade, highly honored in Carthage, where his learning and skill were much esteemed. But by one of those misfortunes of which there are, unhappily, but too many examples, while studying the admirable mechanism of the human body, he had come to believe matter capable of the works of intelligence which raise man so far above other created beings. He was, therefore, a materialist; and St. Augustine praying for him, earnestly besought God to enlighten that deluded mind.
One night while he slept, this doctor, who believed, as some do still, that "when one is dead, all is dead"—we quote their own language—saw in his dreams a young man, who said to him: "Follow me." He did so, and was conducted to a city, wherein he heard, on the right, unknown melodies, which filled him with admiration. What he heard on the left he never remembered. But on awaking he concluded, from this vision, that there was, somewhere, something else besides this world.
Another night he likewise beheld in sleep the same young man, who said to him:
"Knowest thou me?"
"Very well," answered Genérade.
"And wherefore knowest thou me?"
"Because of the journey we made together when you showed me the city of harmony."
"Was it in a dream, or awake, that you saw and heard what struck you then?"
"It was in a dream."
"Where is your body now?"
"In my bed."
"Knowest thou well that thou now seest nothing with the eyes of the body?"
"I know it."
"With what eyes, then, dost thou see me?"
As the physician hesitated, and could not answer, the young man said to him:
"Even as thou seest and hearest me, now that thine eyes are closed and thy senses benumbed, so, after thy death, thou shalt live, thou shalt see, thou shalt hear—but with the organs of the soul. Doubt, then, no more!"