as a worm and remain that way unless we learn from others how to know,
understand, and grow wise.
[ 9 ] Next the participants verified that animals, whether noble or not,
are born with all the knowledge related to the various drives or loves that
affect their lives. This is true of land animals, birds that fly in the sky,
reptiles, fish, and even the little creatures known as insects. They all
know everything that is good for them to eat, everything about how to
make a home for themselves, and everything about how to mate and how
to produce and raise their offspring. The participants verified these facts
by recalling the astounding things they had seen, heard, and read in the
physical world where they used to live, in which animals are real rather
than symbolic.
Once the truth of the premise was proven in this way, the partici-
pants turned their minds to hunting for and finding a means of unfold-
ing and uncovering this mystery. They all said that these phenomena
must come about as a result of divine wisdom intentionally making
humans human and animals animal, and creating the circumstance that
our imperfection at birth becomes our perfection, while an animal’s per-
fection at birth becomes its imperfection.
[ 10 ] Then the people on the north side went first in giving their
opinion. They said, “We are born without knowledge so that we can be
open to all knowledge. If we had been born with knowledge, we would
not have been open to any concepts except those we were born with; nor
would we have been capable of acquiring any further knowledge.”
They illustrated this with an analogy: “When first born we are like
ground in which no seeds have been planted, but which has the capacity
to take in any and all seeds and help them grow and bear fruit. An animal
is like ground that is already sown and is full of grasses and small plants.
The seeds already sown in that ground fill it to capacity. If more seeds are
planted, they are choked out. This is why we take so many years to grow
up. In our growing years we are like ground that can be cultivated to
yield crops, flowers, and trees of all kinds. Animals grow up in just a few
years, and in their growing years they cannot be cultivated beyond their
innate potential.”
[ 11 ] The people on the west side spoke next. They said, “It is true that
unlike animals we are born without knowledge. We are, however, born
with a capacity and a tendency—a capacity for knowing and a tendency
to love. We have an inborn ability to love not only things that have to do
with ourselves and the world but also things that have to do with God
singke
(singke)
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