213. As for love and wisdom, love is the purpose, wisdom the means, and service the result. Further, service is the composite, vessel, and foundation of wisdom and love, such a composite and such a vessel that every bit of love and every bit of wisdom is actively present in it. It is their total presence. We need to be absolutely clear, though, that in keeping with what was presented in 189-194 above, what are present in service are all the elements of love and wisdom that are of the same kind, harmonious.

278. There is a reason that our physical acts look so simple and plain to the eye, like the outer forms of seeds, fruits, and eggs and like almond nuts in their kernels, when in fact they contain within themselves all the prior elements that have given rise to them. The reason is that every final form is a covering that serves to mark it off from its antecedents. Then too, every level is enveloped with a membrane that serves to mark it off from another. As a result, elements of the first level are unrecognizable to the second level, and elements of this are unrecognizable to the third level. For example, the love of our volition, which is the first level of our mind, is discernible in the wisdom of our discernment, which is the second level of our mind, only by a kind of delight in thinking about something. That first level (the love of our volition, as already noted [277]) is discernible in the knowledge of our memory, which is the third level, only as a kind of pleasure found in being knowledgeable and in talking.

The obvious conclusion from this is that a deed that is a physical act encloses all these elements, even though it seems as simple as can be in its outward form.