So why did I hate Greek literature, which also sings of such feats? Homer too is skilled at weaving such tales, delusive in the sweetest way, and yet when I was a boy he was bitter to my taste, as I suppose Virgil might be to Greek boys forced to study him as I was forced to study Homer. Clearly it was the difficulty of learning a foreign tongue that sprinkled as if with gall the sweetness of the Greek heroic tales, I did not know a word of Greek, and to make me learn, my tutors goaded me with fierce threats and punishments. As an infant I had not known a word of Latin either, but I learned it from cooing nurses and their jesting and laughing and happy games; I learned it by paying attention, without torment or dread. I learned Latin without the threat of punishment, for my heart goaded me to bring its concepts to life, something I could not have done had I not already learned a few words—not from tutors, but from those who talked to me, and in whose ears I also strove to bring forth what I thought and felt. This clearly proves that free curiosity has a greater power to make one learn than severe enforcement. And yet enforcement curbs the unbridled wandering of that curiosity by way of Your laws, O God, Your laws from the tutor’s cane to the martyr’s trial, Your laws that mix for us a wholesome but bitter potion, calling us back to You from the pestilent delight that has drawn us away from You.

Lord, hear my prayer: that my soul not falter under Your discipline, nor that I falter in avowing before You the mercies through which You have rescued me from my most evil ways; I pray that You become sweet to me beyond all the seductions I pursued, that I may love You most fervently and clasp Your hand with all my heart, and that You will rescue me from all temptation, even to the end. O Lord, my King and God, may whatever I learned that was useful in my childhood serve You: my speaking, writing, reading, and counting. For when I was learning all that was worthless You gave me Your discipline and forgave my sin of delighting in those vain things. These things did give me many useful words, though they can also be learned in things that are not worthless, the safe path along which children should walk.