not seek his couch till he had prayed to God; and then he devoted either the former or the latter portion of the night to long and profound meditations. Augustine’s literary habits led him at once to make use of the notes of these discussions, to revise and edit them, and put them into a form of permanent usefulness. In imitation of the Dialogues of Plato he sketches, with exquisite literary skill, the accidental origin of these books, retains the form of dialogue in which they actually grew, and