of their young. This they continued by many wonderful
things which they recollected to have seen, heard, and read, in the
natural world, (so they called our world, in which they had formerly
lived), in which not representative but real beasts exist. When the
truth of the proposition was thus fully proved they applied all the
powers of their minds to search out and discover the ends and causes
which might serve to unfold and explain this arcanum; and they all said,
that the divine wisdom must needs have ordained these things, to the end
that a man, may be a man, and a beast a beast; and thus, that the
imperfection of a man at his birth becomes his perfection, and the
perfection of a beast at his birth is his imperfection.

134. Those on the NORTH then began to declare their sentiments, and
said, "A man is born without knowledges, to the end that he may receive
them all; whereas supposing him to be born into knowledges, he could not
receive any but those into which he was born, and in this case neither
could he appropriate any to himself; which they illustrated by this
comparison: a man at his first birth is like ground in which no seeds
are implanted, but which nevertheless is capable of receiving all seeds,
and of bringing them forth and fructifying them; whereas a beast is like
ground already sown, and tilled with grasses and herbs, which receives
no other seeds than what are sown in it, or if it received any it would
choke them. Hence it is, that a man requires many years to bring him to
maturity of growth; during which time he is capable of being cultivated
like ground, and of bringing forth as it were grain, flowers, and trees
of every kind; whereas a beast arrives at maturity in a few years,
during which no cultivation can produce any thing in him but what is
born with him." Afterwards, those on the WEST delivered their
sentiments, and said, "A man is not born knowledge, as a beast is; but
he is born faculty and inclination; faculty to know, and inclination to
love; and he is born faculty not only to know but also to understand and
be wise; he is likewise born the most perfect inclination to love not
only the things relating to self and the world, but also those relating
to God and heaven; consequently a man, by birth from his parents, is an
organ which lives merely by the external senses, and at first by no
internal senses, to the end that he may successively become a man, first
natural, afterwards rational, and l