For, although we allow for such things in an infant,
the same things could not be tolerated patiently in an adult.
12. Therefore, O Lord my God, thou who gavest life to the
infant, and a body which, as we see, thou hast furnished with
senses, shaped with limbs, beautified with form, and endowed with
all vital energies for its well-being and health -- thou dost
command me to praise thee for these things, to give thanks unto
the Lord, and to sing praise unto his name, O Most High.[22] For
thou art God, omnipotent and good, even if thou hadst done no more
than these things, which no other but thou canst do -- thou alone
who madest all things fair and didst order everything according to
thy law.
I am loath to dwell on this part of my life of which, O Lord,
I have no remembrance, about which I must trust the word of others
and what I can surmise from observing other infants, even if such
guesses are trustworthy. For it lies in the deep murk of my
forgetfulness and thus is like the period which I passed in my
mother's womb. But if "I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin my
mother nourished me in her womb,"[23] where, I pray thee, O my
God, where, O Lord, or when was I, thy servant, ever innocent?
But see now, I pass over that period, for what have I to do with a
time from which I can recall no memories?
CHAPTER VIII
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