servants about me, whom I found ready enough for all evil.
If any one of these had given me good advice, I might perhaps
have profited by it; but they were blinded by interest, as I was
by passion. Still, I was never inclined to much evil,--for I
hated naturally anything dishonourable,--but only to the
amusement of a pleasant conversation. The occasion of sin,
however, being present, danger was at hand, and I exposed to it
my father and brothers. God delivered me out of it all, so that
I should not be lost, in a manner visibly against my will, yet
not so secretly as to allow me to escape without the loss of my
good name and the suspicions of my father.

8. I had not spent, I think, three months in these vanities, when
they took me to a monastery [3] in the city where I lived, in
which children like myself were brought up, though their way of
life was not so wicked as mine. This was done with the utmost
concealment of the true reason, which was known only to myself
and one of my kindred. They waited for an opportunity which
would make the change seem nothing out of the way; for, as my
sister was married, it was not fitting I should remain alone,
without a mother, in the house.

9. So excessive was my father's love for me, and so deep my
dissembling, that he never would believe me to be so wicked as I
was; and hence I was never in disgrace with him. Though some
remarks were made, yet, as the time had been short, nothing could
be positively asserted; and, as I was so much afraid about my
good name, I had taken every care to be secret; and yet I never
considered that I could conceal nothing from Him Who seeth all
things. O my God, what evil is done in the world by disregarding