134. The people on the north side were then the first to begin to present their opinion. And they said that man is by birth without knowledge of any kind in order that he may be capable of acquiring all types of knowledge. If he were to come into various kinds of knowledge by birth, however, he would not be capable of acquiring any beyond those into which he came by birth, and in that case, neither would he be capable of making any personally his own.
They illustrated this by the following comparison. "When a person is first born," they said, "he is like ground in which no seeds have been planted, but which is yet capable of accepting all kinds of seeds and germinating them and bringing them to fruit. An animal, on the other hand, is like ground already sown and filled with grasses and plants, which does not accept any other seeds than the ones it has. If others should be sown, it would suffocate them.
"That is why it takes a number of years for a human being to grow to maturity, years in which he can be like ground undergoing cultivation, and sprouting, so to speak, all kinds of grain, flowers and trees. An animal develops in only a few years, however, during which time it can be cultivated only into producing what it was born with."
[2] The people on the west side spoke next, and they said that man is not born with knowledge, as animals are, but is born with a capacity and inclination - a capacity for learning and an inclination to love. Moreover, they said, he is born with a capacity not only for learning, but also for understanding and becoming wise. So, too, he is born with a most perfect inclination, not only to love things having to do with self and the world, but also things having to do with God and heaven.
Consequently, they said, a person by birth and heredity is an organism which lives only on the level of the external senses, and not at first on the level of any higher sense, in order that he may develop by stages into a human being, becoming first natural, then rational, and finally spiritual. This would not happen if he came by birth into various kinds of knowledge and loves as animals do. "For inborn patterns of knowledge and affection limit that progression," they said, "whereas an inborn capacity and inclination do not. A person can therefore be perfected in knowledge, understanding and wisdom to eternity."
[3] The people on the south side took up the discussion and added their voice, saying that it is impossible for a person to acquire any knowledge on his own, but he must get it from others, since no knowledge is inborn in him.
"Moreover, because he cannot acquire any knowledge on his own," they said, "neither can he acquire any love, since there is no love where there is no knowledge. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions, and they cannot be divided any more than will and understanding or affection and thought - indeed, any more than essence and form. As a person acquires knowledge from others, therefore, so love attaches itself as its companion. The universal love that attaches itself is a love of learning, understanding, and becoming wise. Only man has this love and no animal, and it flows in from God.
[4] "We agree with our companions on the west that man does not come by birth into any love and so neither into any knowledge, but that he comes by birth solely into an inclination to love and so into a capacity for acquiring knowledge, not on his own but from others, or rather, through others. We say, through others, because they, too, did not acquire any knowledge on their own but from God.
"We agree also with our companions to the north that when a person is first born, he is like ground in which no seeds have been planted, but in which all kinds of seeds can be planted, both good and bad. To this we add that animals come by birth into natural loves and therefore into forms of knowledge corresponding to those loves, and yet they do not learn anything from their kinds of knowledge or develop thought, intelligence and wisdom on the basis of them. Instead they are carried along in them by their loves, almost like blind men being led through the streets by dogs. For in terms of their understanding, they are blind. Or better still, they are like sleepwalkers, who do what they do out of blind knowledge while the understanding sleeps."
[5] Lastly the people on the east side spoke, saying, "We concur with what our brothers have said. A person of himself knows nothing but must learn from others and through others, in order that he may know and acknowledge that all his knowledge, understanding and wisdom are from God.
"Only in this way," they said, "can a person be conceived, born and brought forth by the Lord so as to become an image and likeness of Him. For a person becomes an image of the Lord by his acknowledging and believing that he has acquired and continues to acquire every good of love and charity and every truth of wisdom and faith from the Lord, and not the least bit from himself. And he becomes a likeness of the Lord by his feeling these things in himself as though they originated with him. He has this feeling because he does not come by birth into various kinds of knowledge, but acquires them, and what he acquires appears to him as though it originated with him.
"A person is also given to feel this way by the Lord, in order that he may be a human being and not an animal, because his willing, thinking, loving, learning, understanding and becoming wise seemingly on his own is what leads him to acquire various kinds of knowledge, to develop them into intelligence, and by applying them turn them into wisdom. In this way the Lord joins the person to Himself, and the person joins himself to the Lord. This would not have been possible if the Lord had not provided that man be born in a state of total ignorance."
[6] After these remarks, the people were all ready to reach a conclusion from the matters discussed, and they formed the following statement:
"Man does not come by birth into any knowledge," they said, "in order that he may come into every kind of knowledge and so progress into a state of intelligence and through this into wisdom. So, too, he does not come by birth into any love, in order that by applying various kinds of knowledge with intelligence he may come into every kind of love, and through love for the neighbor come into love towards the Lord; and this to the end that he may be thus conjoined with the Lord and by that conjunction become human and live to eternity."
