The same. — 'And thou wilt consume me for the sins of my youth.' 62. As of the body, so the ages of the mind are various. — Behold, the righteous man, because he does not find that he sinned in his young manhood, dreads the deeds of his adolescence. But it must be known that, as in the body, so also there are increments of age in the mind. For the first age of man is infancy, when, though he lives innocently, he yet knows not how to utter the innocence he has. And then boyhood follows, in which he is now able to say what he wishes; upon this succeeds adolescence, which, plainly, is the first age for action; upon this follows young manhood, fitted for strength; and afterward old age, now suited by time itself to maturity.
Because therefore we have called adolescence the first age fitted for good acts, and righteous men, when they advance in great maturity of mind, sometimes bring back to memory the beginning of their actions, and reproach themselves as much for their first beginnings as they have advanced the higher out of gravity of mind — because they find they were the more undiscerning, the more fully they afterward attain the citadel of discernment — rightly now, through the voice of the holy man, the sins of adolescence are dreaded. But if this is to be held according to the letter itself, hence it is to be considered how grievous are the sins of young men and of old men, if even that which the righteous committed in a feeble age they so fear. There follows: