The previous reading of Augustine’s Confessions ended with the dissolution of plans for a philosophical community. Today’s reading (schedule here) begins with Augustine dismissing the woman he had lived with for about fourteen years, who had given birth to his son. He appears to have greatly loved her (“So deeply was she engrafted into my heart that it was left torn and wounded and trailing blood”) yet takes another lover until the delay of two years could pass and he could enter a respectable marriage. During this time he ponders the meaning of happiness and continues his ruminations on the nature of beauty. But he is tormented, and anyone who has suffered from insomnia will recognize a companion in that torture: “Toss and turn…