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23. When, therefore, they of Milan had sent to Rome to the
prefect of the city, to provide them with a teacher of rhetoric for
their city, and to despatch him at the public expense, I made
interest through those identical persons, drunk with Manichaean
vanities, to be freed from whom I was going away, neither of us,
however, being aware of it, that Symmachus, the then prefect,
having proved me by proposing a subject, would send me. And to Milan
I came, unto Ambrose the bishop, known to the whole world as among
the best of men, Thy devout servant; whose eloquent discourse did at
that time strenuously dispense unto Thy people the flour of Thy
wheat, the "gladness" of Thy "oil," and the sober intoxication of
Thy "wine.'' x To him was I unknowingly led by Thee, that by
him I might knowingly be led to Thee. That man of God received me
like a father, and looked with a benevolent and episcopal kindliness on
my change of abode. And I began to love him, not at first, indeed,
as a teacher of the truth, which I entirely despaired of in Thy
Church, but as a man friendly to myself. And I studiously
hearkened to him preaching to the people, not with the motive I
should, but, as it were, trying to discover whether his eloquence
came up to the fame thereof, or flowed fuller or lower than was
asserted; and I hung on his words intently, but of the matter I was
but as a careless and contemptuous spectator; and I was delighted with
the pleasantness of his speech, more erudite, yet less cheerful and
soothing in manner, than that of Faustus. Of the matter, however,
there could be no comparison; for the latter was straying amid
Manichaean deceptions, whilst the former was teaching salvation most
soundly. But "salvation is far from the wicked," such as I then
stood before him; and yet I was drawing nearer gradually and
unconsciously.
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