SAINT AUGUSTINE’S celebrated work, “The City of God,” or “De Civitate Dei,” is a collection of essays loosely joined by a thread of argument connecting one “book” with another. Although he was essentially a Latinist, his style as an essayist is much more closely related to the English of Addison than to the more oratorical style of Cicero. As a theologian he is conceded to have been the greatest of the Latin Fathers, and his “Confessions” have achieved a more extensive popularity than any other work of the period which produced them. He was born in Numidia, November 13th, 354 A.D., and died in the same province August 28th, 430 A.D. He lived successively at Carthage, Rome, Milan, and Hippo in Numidia where he served the church as bishop from 395 A.D. to his death. During his earlier years he was a teacher of rhetoric. After his conversion (387 A.D.) he became one of the most ardent champions of Christianity and the object of the “De Civitate Dei” was to demonstrate the necessity for a higher religion to supplant the heathen culture.