and heaven. At birth our physical senses are scarcely alive except in a dim
way and our inner senses are not alive at all—a situation that allows us
progressively to come to life and become human. First we become
earthly, and then rational, and finally spiritual. This would not happen if
we were born like animals with various types of knowledge and love
already in place. Knowledge and feelings of love that are inborn limit the
progression; but capacities and tendencies that are inborn do not limit it
at all. Human beings are therefore capable of being perfected in knowl-
edge, intelligence, and wisdom to eternity.”
[ 12 ] The people on the south side then took their turn in giving their
opinion. They said, “It is impossible for human beings to learn anything
from themselves. Since they have no innate knowledge, they have to learn
it all from others. Because they cannot acquire any knowledge from them-
selves, they cannot acquire any love from themselves either, since where
there is no knowledge there is no love. Knowledge and love are partners
that are no more separable than the will and the intellect or feelings and
thoughts, or essence and form for that matter. Therefore as we pick up
knowledge from others, love accompanies it. The universal love that
attaches to knowledge is love for knowing, and later it becomes love for
understanding and growing wise. These types of love are found only in
human beings, never in animals; they flow in from God.
[ 13 ] “We stand in agreement with our colleagues on the west side on
the point that we are all born without love and therefore without knowl-
edge; we are born only with a tendency to love and a resulting capacity
for acquiring knowledge. We acquire knowledge from others, not from
ourselves. Actually this happens throughothers, in the sense that they did
not receive the knowledge from themselves either—it all comes originally
from God.
“We also agree with our colleagues on the north side on the point
that when first born we are all like ground in which no seeds have yet
been planted, but in which all seeds, whether noble or not, can be
planted. This is why ‘human’ is related to ‘humus,’ and ‘Adam’ to adama,
or ‘soil.’ We would like to add to these points that animals are born with
earthly loves and with the knowledge that goes with these loves. Never-
theless the knowledge animals possess does not lead them to know, think,
understand, or be wise about anything. Their loves lead them to knowl-
edge much the way guide dogs lead the blind through streets. Animals
are blind in intellect. Or better yet, they are like sleepwalkers who do
what they do from blind knowledge while their intellect sleeps.”
§48 god the creator & creation 71