Key Arguments

• He admits ignorance of his origin and earliest life, relying on human testimony: "What, Lord, do I wish to say except that I do not know whence I came to be in this mortal life ... I do not know where I came from."
• He attributes his preservation in infancy to "the consolations of your mercies" and to God’s work through his parents: "But the consolations of your mercies upheld me, as I have heard from the parents of my flesh, him from whom and her in whom you formed me in time."
• He insists that even the milk of his mother and nurses is ultimately God's provision: "it was not my mother or my nurses who made any decision to fill their breasts, but you who through them gave me infant food," and "For by an impulse which you control their instinctive wish was to give me the milk which they had in abundance from you."
• He generalizes this into a doctrine that all created goods come from God: "For the good which came to me from them was a good for them; yet it was not from them but through them. Indeed all good things come from you, 0 God, and ‘from my God is all my salvation’."
• He notes that he only later understood this, when God "cried aloud" to him through inner and outer gifts: "I became aware of this only later when you cried aloud to me through the gifts which you bestow both inwardly in mind and outwardly in body."

Source Quotes

12: 15). What, Lord, do I wish to say except that I do not know whence I came to be in this mortal life or, as I may call it, this living death?6 I do not know where I came from.7 But the consolations of your mercies (cf. Ps. 50: 3; 93: 19) upheld me, as I have heard from the parents of my flesh, him from whom and her in whom you formed me in time.

12: 15). What, Lord, do I wish to say except that I do not know whence I came to be in this mortal life or, as I may call it, this living death?6 I do not know where I came from.7 But the consolations of your mercies (cf. Ps. 50: 3; 93: 19) upheld me, as I have heard from the parents of my flesh, him from whom and her in whom you formed me in time. For I do not remember.

For I do not remember. So I was welcomed by the consolations of human milk; but it was not my mother or my nurses who made any decision to fill their breasts, but you who through them gave me infant food, in accordance with your ordinance and the riches which are distributed deep in the natural order. You also granted me not to wish for more than you were giving, and to my nurses the desire to give me what you gave them.

You also granted me not to wish for more than you were giving, and to my nurses the desire to give me what you gave them. For by an impulse which you control their instinctive wish was to give me the milk which they had in abundance from you. For the good which came to me from them was a good for them; yet it was not from them but through them.

For by an impulse which you control their instinctive wish was to give me the milk which they had in abundance from you. For the good which came to me from them was a good for them; yet it was not from them but through them. Indeed all good things come from you, 0 God, and ‘from my God is all my salvation’ (2 Sam. 23: 5). I became aware of this only later when you cried aloud to me through the gifts which you bestow both inwardly in mind and outwardly in body.

23: 5). I became aware of this only later when you cried aloud to me through the gifts which you bestow both inwardly in mind and outwardly in body. For at that time I knew nothing more than how to suck and to be quietened by bodily delights, and to weep when I was physically uncomfortable.

Key Concepts

• What, Lord, do I wish to say except that I do not know whence I came to be in this mortal life or, as I may call it, this living death?
• But the consolations of your mercies (cf. Ps. 50: 3; 93: 19) upheld me, as I have heard from the parents of my flesh, him from whom and her in whom you formed me in time.
• So I was welcomed by the consolations of human milk; but it was not my mother or my nurses who made any decision to fill their breasts, but you who through them gave me infant food, in accordance with your ordinance and the riches which are distributed deep in the natural order.
• For by an impulse which you control their instinctive wish was to give me the milk which they had in abundance from you.
• For the good which came to me from them was a good for them; yet it was not from them but through them. Indeed all good things come from you, 0 God, and ‘from my God is all my salvation’ (2 Sam. 23: 5).
• I became aware of this only later when you cried aloud to me through the gifts which you bestow both inwardly in mind and outwardly in body.

Context

In section vi Augustine begins his autobiographical narration from infancy, emphasizing divine providence and the mediated character of created goods as he reflects on his earliest, non-remembered life.