Philosophical Impediments

Et quid mihi proderat quod annos natus ferme viginti, cum in manus meas venissent aristotelica quaedam, quas appellant decem categorias, quarum nomine, cum eas rhetor Carthaginiensis, magister meus, buccis typho crepantibus commemoraret et alii qui docti habebantur, tamquam in nescio quid magnum et divinum suspensus inhiabam, legi eas solus et intellexi? quas cum contulissem cum eis qui se dicebant vix eas magistris eruditissimis, non loquentibus tantum sed multa in pulvere depingentibus, intellexisse, nihil inde aliud mihi dicere potuerunt quam ego solus apud me ipsum legens cognoveram. Et satis aperte mihi videbantur loquentes de substantiis, sicuti est homo, et quae in illis essent, sicuti est figura hominis, qualis sit, et statura, quot pedum sit, et cognatio, cuius frater sit, aut ubi sit constitutus aut quando natus, aut stet an sedeat, aut calciatus vel armatus sit, aut aliquid faciat aut patiatur aliquid, et quaecumque in his novem generibus, quorum exempli gratia quaedam posui, vel in ipso substantiae genere innumerabilia reperiuntur. Quid hoc mihi proderat, quando et oberat, cum etiam te, deus meus, mirabiliter simplicem atque incommutabilem, illis decem praedicamentis putans quidquid esset omnino comprehensum, sic intellegere conarer, quasi et tu subiectus esses magnitudini tuae aut pulchritudini, ut illa essent in te quasi in subiecto sicut in corpore, cum tua magnitudo et tua pulchritudo tu ipse sis, corpus autem non eo sit magnum et pulchrum quo corpus est, quia etsi minus magnum et minus pulchrum esset, nihilominus corpus esset? Falsitas enim erat quam de te cogitabam, non veritas, et figmenta miseriae meae, non firmamenta beatitudinis tuae. iusseras enim, et ita fiebat in me, ut terra spinas et tribulos pareret mihi et cum labore pervenirem ad panem meum. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Confessiones, Liber V, Cap XVI Source: Migne PL 32 704-705

And what did it profit me that, when at just twenty years old, there came into my hands a certain work of Aristotle's which is called the Ten Categories, on whose name I hung, when my master of oratory at Carthage, and other learned men, referred to it with cheeks puffed out with pride, as on something great and divine, and I read it alone and understood it? And when on conferring with others, who said that they scarcely understood it even with the assistance of most capable teachers, who not only spoke, but drew much in the dust, and could tell me no more about it than I had grasped in reading it alone? It seemed to me to speak plainly enough about substances, such as man is, and of the qualities that inhere in them, such as the figure of a man, and of what kind it is; and his stature, how many feet high he is; and his relationship, whose brother he is; or where he is placed, or when born; or whether he stands or sits, or is wearing shoes or armed, or does or suffers something; and whatever innumerable thing might be classed under these nine categories, of which I have given certain examples, or under that chief category of substance. What did this profit me, seeing it even hindered me, when, even you, my God, wondrously simple and unchangeable, I thought something to be comprehended in these ten categories, and so tried to understand you as subject of your greatness and your beauty, so that they should be in you as their subject, as in a body, when you yourself are your greatness and your beauty, and a body in itself is not great or fair because it is a body because even if it were less great and less fair it would nevertheless be a body. A falsehood then it was that I thought of you, not truth, fictions of my wretchedness, not the supports of your blessedness. For you commanded that it should be with me that the earth put forth thorns and thistles, and that with labour I should come to my bread. 1   Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Book 4, Chapter 16 1 Gen 3.18