Signs and domination

Only God, Augustine argues in his treatise on music, acts on rational souls directly, “per seipsum.” Human beings operate on one another’s souls through intervening bodies, that is, through the words and other signs. God has arranged the world this way, he says, as a check on human ambition and domination. If human beings could act directly on one another’s souls, we would surely abuse the power for our own interests.

The text follows:

Sed operari de animis rationalibus, non per corpus, sed per seipsum solus Deus potest. Peccatorum tamen conditione fit, ut permittantur animae de animis aliquid agere, significando eas moventes per alterutra corpora, vel naturalibus signis, sicut est vultus vel nutus, vel placitis, sicut sunt verba. Nam et jubentes et suadentes signis agunt, et si quid est aliud praeter jussionem et suasionem, quo animae de animis vel cum animis aliquid agunt. Jure autem secutum est, ut quae superbia caeteris excellere cupierunt, nec suis partibus atque corporibus sine difficultate et doloribus imperent, partim stultae in se, partim mortalibus membris aggravatae. Et his igitur numeris et motibus quibus animae ad animas agunt, honores laudesque appetendo avertuntur a perspectione purae illius et sincerae veritatis. Solus enim honorat Deus animam beatam faciens in occulto coram se juste et pie viventem (de musica, 6.41).