Letter 124 — On the True Good as Attained by Reason (§8)

“If anyone should say that the child, hidden in its mother’s womb, of unknown sex too, delicate, unformed, and shapeless—if one should say that this child is already in a state of goodness, he would clearly seem to be astray in his ideas. And yet how little difference is there between one who has just lately received the gift of life, and one who is still a hidden burden in the bowels of the mother!”