Key Arguments

• He begins by thanking God as “the most excellent and supremely good Creator and Governor of the universe” for his very existence and faculties as a child: “For at that time I existed, I lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation (a mark of your profound latent unity whence I derived my being).”
• He lists specific natural goods in himself: “An inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth. I hated to be deceived, I developed a good memory, I acquired the armoury of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, I avoided pain, despondency, ignorance.”
• He insists that none of these qualities were self-generated but all came from God: “But every one of these qualities are gifts of my God: I did not give them to myself.”
• He notes that these qualities are genuinely good and that together they constitute his self: “They are good qualities, and their totality is my self.”
• From this he infers a theological conclusion about God’s goodness and his relation to God: “Therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and I exult to him, (Ps. 2: 11) for all the good things that I was even as a boy.”
• He defines his sin not as the possession of these created goods but as misdirected love: “My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings.”
• He states the consequence of this misdirected search: “So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors,” indicating that detaching these goods from their source leads to existential disorder.
• He responds by thanking God as his “source of sweet delight, and my glory and my confidence” and by asking God to keep these gifts, identifying their preservation with his own preservation: “Keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me.”
• He expresses confidence that under God’s keeping, his talents will grow and be perfected and that this perfection is identical with being with God: “The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist.”

Source Quotes

So you, our king, have taken the small physical size of a child as a symbol of humility; that was what you approved when you said ‘Of such is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 19: 14). xx (31) Yet, Lord, I must give thanks to you, the most excellent and supremely good Creator and Governor of the universe, my God, even though by your will I was merely a child. For at that time I existed, I lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation (a mark of your profound latent unity whence I derived my being).39 An inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth.

19: 14). xx (31) Yet, Lord, I must give thanks to you, the most excellent and supremely good Creator and Governor of the universe, my God, even though by your will I was merely a child. For at that time I existed, I lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation (a mark of your profound latent unity whence I derived my being).39 An inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth. I hated to be deceived, I developed a good memory, I acquired the armoury of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, I avoided pain, despondency, ignorance.

19: 14). xx (31) Yet, Lord, I must give thanks to you, the most excellent and supremely good Creator and Governor of the universe, my God, even though by your will I was merely a child. For at that time I existed, I lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation (a mark of your profound latent unity whence I derived my being).39 An inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth. I hated to be deceived, I developed a good memory, I acquired the armoury of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, I avoided pain, despondency, ignorance. In such a person what was not worthy of admiration and praise?

In such a person what was not worthy of admiration and praise? But every one of these qualities are gifts of my God: I did not give them to myself. They are good qualities, and their totality is my self. Therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and I exult to him, (Ps. 2: 11) for all the good things that I was even as a boy. My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings.40 So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors.

2: 11) for all the good things that I was even as a boy. My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings.40 So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors. My God, I give thanks to you, my source of sweet delight, and my glory and my confidence.

I thank you for your gifts. Keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me. The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist. 1 For Plotinus (6.

Key Concepts

• Yet, Lord, I must give thanks to you, the most excellent and supremely good Creator and Governor of the universe, my God, even though by your will I was merely a child.
• For at that time I existed, I lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation (a mark of your profound latent unity whence I derived my being).
• even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth. I hated to be deceived, I developed a good memory, I acquired the armoury of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, I avoided pain, despondency, ignorance.
• But every one of these qualities are gifts of my God: I did not give them to myself. They are good qualities, and their totality is my self. Therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and I exult to him, (Ps. 2: 11) for all the good things that I was even as a boy.
• My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings.
• So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors.
• Keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me. The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist.

Context

Book I, section xx (31): After exposing the sins of his childhood, Augustine offers a theological anthropology of his own early life, distinguishing between the goodness of created faculties as divine gifts and the sin of misdirected love, and he turns this analysis into a prayer that God preserve and perfect these gifts so that he himself may remain with God.