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5. Let me hear and understand how in the beginning Thou didst make
the heaven and the earth.. Moses wrote this; he wrote and
departed, passed hence from Thee to Thee. Nor now is he before
me; for if he were I would hold him, and ask him, and would adjure
him by Thee that he would open unto me these things, and I would lend
the ears of my body to the sounds bursting forth from his mouth. And
should he speak in the Hebrew tongue, in vain would it beat on my
senses, nor would aught touch my mind; but if in Latin, I should
know what he said. But whence should I know whether he said what was
true? But if I knew this even, should I know it from him? Verily
within me, within in the chamber of my thought,
Truth, neither Hebrew, nor Greek, nor Latin, nor barbarian,
without the organs of voice and tongue, without the sound of
syllables, would say, "He speaks the truth," and I, forthwith
assured of it, confidently would say unto that man of Thine, "Thou
speakest the truth." As, then, I cannot inquire of him, I
beseech Thee, Thee, O Truth, full of whom he spake truth,
Thee, my God, I beseech, forgive my sins; and do Thou, who
didst give to that Thy servant to speak these things, grant to me also
to understand them.
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