133. After this they took up the second topic for discussion, why man does not come by birth into the knowledge necessary to any love, whereas both higher and lower animals and birds come by birth into the kinds of knowledge necessary to all their loves.

First they confirmed the truth of the proposed question by various considerations. With respect to man, for example, they observed that the human being does not come by birth into any knowledge, not even into knowledge relating to conjugial love.

They inquired as well and learned from investigators that an infant does not even possess the instinctive knowledge to be able to go to its mother's breast, but it must be placed in contact with it by the mother or nurse. It only knows how to suckle, and it got this from a continual sucking in the womb. The infant afterwards also does not know how to walk, the investigators said, nor how to articulate sound to form a single human word. Indeed, it does not even know how to voice the affection of its love as animals do. Moreover, it does not know any source of food that is good for it, either, as all animals do, but clutches at whatever it comes upon, whether it is clean or unclean, and puts it into its mouth.

Without being taught, the investigators said, the human being does not even know enough to distinguish the opposite sex, and nothing at all about how to make love to one. Even young men and women do not know how to make love without learning about it from others, even if they have been educated in the various arts and sciences.

In a word, the human being is born flesh, like a worm, and remains flesh unless he learns to acquire knowledge, intelligence and wisdom from others.

[2] Next, with respect to animals, such as beasts of the earth, birds of the sky, creeping things, fish, and little creatures called insects, the people confirmed that both higher and lower animals come by birth into all the kinds of knowledge necessary to their life's loves. They come, for example, into knowledge of all things having to do with their proper diet, with their place of habitation, with their mating and reproduction, and with the rearing of their young.

The people confirmed these observations with marvelous illustrations that they recalled to memory from things they had seen, heard or read about in the natural world (as they termed our world in which they had formerly lived), where animals are not representational but real.

After they had thus verified the truth of the proposed question, the people turned their attention to investigating and finding the ends and causes by which to explain and uncover the answer to this mystery. And they all said that this state of affairs must result from Divine wisdom, that a human being may be a human being, and an animal an animal; and that therefore man's imperfection from birth becomes his perfection, while an animal's perfection from birth is its imperfection.

5275. 'Behold, seven years are coming' means a state of providence. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893; and from the meaning of 'coming' as an act of providence. For 'coming' and being done, when used in reference to the Divine, or to that which God does, means what happens providentially and is therefore an act of providence; for providence is meant by that done by God, see above in 5264, 5273. Regarding the seven years of abundance of corn and the seven years of famine that are the subject in what follows, where 'years' means states, 'the years of abundance of corn' are states when truth is multiplied in the natural, and 'the years of famine' are states when there is an absence and deprivation of truth in the natural. In general the seven years of abundance of corn and the seven years of famine in the land of Egypt describe in the internal sense the state when a person is reformed and regenerated, and in the highest sense the state when the Lord's Human was glorified. To represent these things was why such events took place in the land of Egypt. The reason that land was the one where they took place is that in the internal sense 'the land of Egypt' and 'Pharaoh' mean the natural, the glorification of which within the Lord is the subject here.

[2] It should be recognized that the events which took place at that time and have been recorded in the Word were representative in the highest sense of the Lord Himself and of the glorification of His Human, and in the representative sense of His kingdom, and consequently of the Church at a corporate level and also of the Church at an individual level. They were accordingly representative of a person's regeneration, for regeneration is the means by which a person becomes a Church at the individual level. The representation of such things by the events happening at that time was primarily for the sake of the Word - so that this could be written and thus be a Word that would contain the kinds of matters that would represent Divine, celestial, and spiritual realities in a continuous line of thought, and so would be of service not only to the member of the Church but also to the angels in heaven. From those representative descriptions angels perceive Divine realities and are thereby filled with holy feelings which are communicated to the person who reads the Word with affection; for he too receives a feeling of holiness. This is the reason why such events took place in the land of Egypt.