Key Arguments

• He addresses God as orderer and creator of all things and confesses his guilt in disobeying parents and teachers: “Yet I was at fault, Lord God, orderer and creator of all things in nature, but of sinners only the orderer. Lord my God, I sinned by not doing as I was told by my parents and teachers.”
• He acknowledges that later he could use letters well regardless of their guardians’ motives, showing that his disobedience lacked justification: “For later I was able to make good use of letters, whatever might be the intention of my adult guardians in wanting me to learn them.”
• He clarifies that his disobedience did not arise from pursuit of higher things but from love of sport: “I was disobedient not because I had chosen higher things, but from love of sport. In competitive games I loved the pride of winning.”
• He admits a love of false stories and curiosity inflaming his desires: “I liked to tickle my ears with false stories which further titillated my desires (2 Tim. 4: 3–4).”
• This curiosity fed an appetite for public shows, described as adult games: “The same curiosity mountingly increased my appetite for public shows.18 Public shows are the games of adults.”
• He notes social hypocrisy: those who give such shows are highly honoured, yet children are flogged if these shows hinder their studies intended to raise them to that status: “Those who give them are persons held in such high dignity that almost everyone wishes this honour to come to their children. But they happily allow them to be flogged if such shows hinder the study which will bring them, they hope, to the position of giving such shows.”
• He ends with a petition for mercy and deliverance for both himself and those not yet praying: “Look with mercy (Ps. 24: 16–18) on these follies, Lord, and deliver us (Ps. 78: 9) who now call upon you. Deliver also those who do not as yet pray, that they may call upon you and you may set them free.”

Source Quotes

As a boy I played ball-games, and that play slowed down the speed at which I learnt letters with which, as an adult, I might play a less creditable game. The schoolmaster who caned me was behaving no better than I when, after being refuted by a fellow-teacher in some pedantic question, he was more tormented by jealousy and envy than I when my opponent overcame me in a ball-game. x (16) Yet I was at fault, Lord God, orderer and creator of all things in nature, but of sinners only the orderer. Lord my God, I sinned by not doing as I was told by my parents and teachers.

The schoolmaster who caned me was behaving no better than I when, after being refuted by a fellow-teacher in some pedantic question, he was more tormented by jealousy and envy than I when my opponent overcame me in a ball-game. x (16) Yet I was at fault, Lord God, orderer and creator of all things in nature, but of sinners only the orderer. Lord my God, I sinned by not doing as I was told by my parents and teachers. For later I was able to make good use of letters, whatever might be the intention of my adult guardians in wanting me to learn them.

For later I was able to make good use of letters, whatever might be the intention of my adult guardians in wanting me to learn them. I was disobedient not because I had chosen higher things, but from love of sport. In competitive games I loved the pride of winning. I liked to tickle my ears with false stories which further titillated my desires (2 Tim.

In competitive games I loved the pride of winning. I liked to tickle my ears with false stories which further titillated my desires (2 Tim. 4: 3–4). The same curiosity mountingly increased my appetite for public shows.18 Public shows are the games of adults.

4: 3–4). The same curiosity mountingly increased my appetite for public shows.18 Public shows are the games of adults. Those who give them are persons held in such high dignity that almost everyone wishes this honour to come to their children.

The same curiosity mountingly increased my appetite for public shows.18 Public shows are the games of adults. Those who give them are persons held in such high dignity that almost everyone wishes this honour to come to their children. But they happily allow them to be flogged if such shows hinder the study which will bring them, they hope, to the position of giving such shows. Look with mercy (Ps.

But they happily allow them to be flogged if such shows hinder the study which will bring them, they hope, to the position of giving such shows. Look with mercy (Ps. 24: 16–18) on these follies, Lord, and deliver us (Ps. 78: 9) who now call upon you. Deliver also those who do not as yet pray, that they may call upon you and you may set them free. xi (17) When I was still a boy, I had heard about eternal life promised to us through the humility of our Lord God, coming down to our pride, and I was already signed with the sign of the cross and seasoned with salt from the time I came from my mother’s womb.19 She greatly put her trust in you. You saw, Lord, how one day, when I was still a small boy, pressure on the chest suddenly made me hot with fever and almost at death’s door.

Key Concepts

• Yet I was at fault, Lord God, orderer and creator of all things in nature, but of sinners only the orderer.
• Lord my God, I sinned by not doing as I was told by my parents and teachers.
• I was disobedient not because I had chosen higher things, but from love of sport. In competitive games I loved the pride of winning.
• I liked to tickle my ears with false stories which further titillated my desires (2 Tim. 4: 3–4).
• The same curiosity mountingly increased my appetite for public shows.18 Public shows are the games of adults.
• Those who give them are persons held in such high dignity that almost everyone wishes this honour to come to their children. But they happily allow them to be flogged if such shows hinder the study which will bring them, they hope, to the position of giving such shows.
• Look with mercy (Ps. 24: 16–18) on these follies, Lord, and deliver us (Ps. 78: 9) who now call upon you. Deliver also those who do not as yet pray, that they may call upon you and you may set them free.

Context

Book I, section x (16): Augustine moves from critique of the school system to personal confession of his sinful motivations and desires, contrasting them with God’s ordering role and appealing for mercy.