edge relates to information; intelligence, to reason; and wisdom to
life. Wisdom considered in its fulness relates at the same time to
information, to reason, and to life: information precedes, reason is
formed by it, and wisdom by both; as is the case when a man lives
rationally according to the truths which he knows. Wisdom therefore
relates to both reason and life at once; and it becomes (or is making)
wisdom while it is a principle of reason and thence of life; but it is
wisdom when it is made a principle of life and thence of reason. The
most ancient people in this world acknowledged no other wisdom than the
wisdom of life; which was the wisdom of those who were formerly called
SOPHI: but the ancient people, who succeeded the most ancient,
acknowledged the wisdom of reason as wisdom; and these were called
PHILOSOPHERS. At this day, however, many call even knowledge, wisdom;
for the learned, the erudite, and the mere sciolists, are called wise;
thus wisdom has declined from its mountain-top to its valley. But it may
be expedient briefly to shew what wisdom is in its rise, in its
progress, and thence in its full state. The things relating to the
church, which are called spiritual, reside in the inmost principles with
man; those relating to the public weal, which are called things of a
civil nature, hold a place below these; and those relating to science,
to experience, and to art, which are called natural things, constitute
their seat or basis. The reason why the things relating to the church,
which are called spiritual, reside in the inmost principles with man,
is, because they conjoin themselves with heaven, and by heaven with the
Lord; for no other things enter from the Lord through heaven with man.
The reason why the things relating to the public weal, which are called
things of a civil nature, hold a place beneath spiritual things, is,
because they have relation to the world, and conjoin themselves with it;
for statutes, laws, and rules, are what bind men, so that a civil
society and state may be composed of them in a well-connected order. The
reason why the things relating to science, to experience, and to art,
which are called natural, constitute their seat or basis, is, because
they conjoin themselves closely with the five bodily senses; and these
senses are the ultimates on which the interior principles of the mind
and the inmost principles of the soul, as it were sit or rest. Now as
the things relating to the