7. The first state is the state which precedes, both the state existing from earliest childhood onwards and that existing immediately before regeneration; and it is called a void, emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement, which is the Lord's mercy, is 'the Spirit of God hovering over the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

3114. 'There is both straw' means factual truths, 'and also much fodder with us' means the goods that go with these. This is clear from the meaning of 'straw' and 'fodder'. The reason 'straw' means factual truths is that it has reference to camels, whose food is such; for when 'camels' means the natural man as regards the general facts there, the food of the natural man - 'straw' - cannot have any other meaning, since no other food exists to sustain his life. The nourishment of the natural man is received from this, for if deprived of that food, that is to say, of knowledge, the natural man would cease to exist. The truth of this is evident from the life after death, for in that life spirits receive such things in place of food, see 56-58, 680, 681, 1480, 1695, 1973, 1974.

[2] Within the natural man, as within the rational man, there exist in general two kinds of things which constitute its essence - those that make up the understanding and those that make up the will. Truths belong to the things constituting the understanding, goods belong to those constituting the will. The truths present in the natural man are factual truths - that is to say, all the things housed in his external memory - and it is these that are meant by 'straw' when camels, and also horses, mules and asses are the subject. But the goods present in the natural man are chiefly the delights that go with an affection for those truths, and it is these goods that are meant by 'fodder'.