slowly. The reason is that all things which he has thought, purposed
and done since infancy, have added themselves to his life and have
come to constitute it. They have also formed such a connection among
themselves that no one thing can be removed unless all are at the same
time. Regeneration, or the implantation of the life of heaven in man,
begins in his infancy, and continues to the last of his life in the
world, and is perfected to eternity.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 9334

A NEW MAN

When a man is regenerated, he becomes altogether another, and a new,
man. While his appearance and his speech are the same, yet his mind is
not; for his mind is then open toward heaven, and there dwell in it
love for the Lord, and charity toward the neighbor, together with
faith. It is the mind which makes another and a new man. The change of
state cannot be perceived in man's body, but in his spirit. When it
[the body] is put off then his spirit appears, and in altogether
another form, too, when he has been regenerated; for it has then a
form of love and charity with inexpressible beauty, in the place of
the earlier form, which was one of hatred and cruelty with a deformity
also inexpressible.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 3212

CHILDHOOD

"It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one
of these little ones should perish."

--_Matthew_, XVIII, 14

Never could a man live,--certainly not as a human being,--unless he
had in himself something vital, that is, some innocence, neighborly
love, and mercy. This a man receives from the Lord in infancy and
childhood. What he receives then is treasured up in him, and is called
in the Word the _remnant_ or _remains_, which are of the Lord alone
with him, and they make it possible for him truly to be a man on
reaching adult age. These states are the elements of his regeneration,
and he is led into them; for the Lord works by means of them. These
_remains_ are also called "the living soul" in all flesh.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 1050

All states of innocence from infancy on, of love toward parents,
brothers, teachers and friends; of charity to the neighbor, and also
of mercy to the poor and needy; all states of goodness and truth, with
their goods and truths, impressed on; the memory, are preserved in man
by the Lord, and are stored up unconsciously to himself in his
internal man, and are carefully kept from evils and falsit