Thou, then, O Lord my God, who gavest life to this my infancy,
furnishing thus with senses (as we see) the frame Thou gavest, compacting
its limbs, ornamenting its proportions, and, for its general good
and safety, implanting in it all vital functions, Thou commandest
me to praise Thee in these things, to confess unto Thee, and sing
unto Thy name, Thou most Highest. For Thou art God, Almighty and Good,
even hadst Thou done nought but only this, which none could do but
Thou: whose Unity is the mould of all things; who out of Thy own fairness
makest all things fair; and orderest all things by Thy law. This age
then, Lord, whereof I have no remembrance, which I take on others'
word, and guess from other infants that I have passed, true though
the guess be, I am yet loth to count in this life of mine which I
live in this world. For no less than that which I spent in my mother's
womb, is it hid from me in the shadows of forgetfulness. But if I
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, where,
I beseech Thee, O my God, where, Lord, or when, was I Thy servant
guiltless? But, lo! that period I pass by; and what have I now to
do with that, of which I can recall no vestige?