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viii] CHRISTIAN PROSE 219 in the CivUas Dei. It was a work of mighty plan ; * but its author gave his genius free course in this his final message, and allowed himself to introduce what- ever served his general purpose, though it might in- fringe upon the continuity of some leading theme. The work was too universal to be commonly understood in its entirety, though it was to be a many -chambered store, from which future men were to draw according to their power. Imitation of it as a whole was never attempted. The Civitas Dei attempted to harmonize the validity of Christianity with the verdict of universal history, and to direct the argument adversum paganos. The third book took up the story of Rome, to show that her greatness was not due to the aid of her gods, but that it came to her under the providence of the one true God. Augustine's disciple, Orosius, at the master's suggestion, undertook to expand similar historical themes in a history of the world, adversum paganos. " Thou hast commanded me that as against the vain rhetoric of those who, aliens to God's Com- monwealth, coming from country cross-roads and vil- lages are called pagans, because they know earthly things, who seek not unto the future and ignore the past, yet cry down the present time as filled with evil, just because Christ is believed and God is worshipped; — thou hast commanded that I should gather from histories and annals whatever mighty ills and miseries and terrors there have been from wars and pestilence, from famine, earthquake, and floods, from volcanic eruptions, from lightning or from hail, and also from 1 Augustine tells its scheme in lUtractatiotis, II, 43.