The very essence
of human life consists of the two faculties called liberty and rationality, and
both of these depend for their operation entirely upon our ability to reflect.
It is obvious, of course, that human freedom is by no means absolute. It is
limited by many circumstances over which we have no control. No one, for
instance, can choose his parents or his ancestors, although he derives from
them hereditary tendencies that profoundly affect his life. He has no choice
over the time or the place of his birth, and yet racial, national, and family
customs play an enormous part in determining what every one thinks and feels.
The times under which one grows up—times of peace or war, of economic
prosperity or depression, may place many restrictions on one's opportunity to
achieve the goals one might desire. Human freedom, therefore, does not imply an
unlimited choice, but merely a choice between possible alternatives. This
freedom may be enjoyed at times by all people regardless of external
circumstances. Yet even this choice is real only so far as it is the result of
rational judgment based upon reflection. If, when one is confronted by several
alternatives, he merely yields unthinkingly to the one that seems to be the
most desirable at the moment, he cannot be said to make a free choice. His
action then is preconditioned for it by some natural impulse, by previous
experience, or by instruction and education. This is the case with the great
majority of human choices. They can be traced to some prior cause and for this
reason many scientific psychologists are led to believe that we have no choice
that is really free. This is certainly true of children, whose behaviour is determined
either by their native disposition, by whatever emotion happens to be strongest
at any given time, or by habits that have been acquired under the influence of
parents and teachers. It cannot be otherwise before they have learned how to
think; that is, how to reflect and judge for themselves. It is well recognized
that no choice can be free unless it is based upon rational judgment. For this
reason no one is held responsible under the law before he becomes adult. Even
in adult age, no one can be blamed for what he does under the stress of extreme
pain, or fear, or any overpowering passion.
It should be
noted that the ability to reflect is progressive. It begins in earliest infancy
by reflection upon very general sensations—the contrast between light and
shade, smooth and rough, light and heavy, round and square. Gradually one
becomes aware of boundaries with spaces in between, of strongly contrasting
colors, and by degrees one learns to notice more particular distinctions. Only
after innumerable sensations have been stored in the memory can one begin to
realize how they are related to one another. One must see objects, feel them,
and note their qualities from many different angles before one can even begin
to understand “what” they are. Thousands of isolated sensations must be ordered
by the mind to form the idea of a “thing.” Only then can it be pictured in the
imagination, remembered, and recalled even when the object is not present. Only
then can one ask for it by name. All this results from noticing how all
sensations are intimately related to one another. By this kind of reflection,
an ever-increasing number of mental pictures called “things” are built up,
producing a whole world of marvels to be explored. But even then, one will not
understand what these things really mean until he begins to reflect upon what
they do; only then can he realize what they are for, and how they can be used,
and this requires a higher kind of reflection which opens up a new and
unlimited field of exploration. Such are the successive stages by which the
mind of every infant grows.
There can be no
rational judgment without knowledge, and all knowledge must be derived, in the
last analysis, from bodily sensation. Furthermore, sound judgment requires a
sufficiency of accurate knowledge. No choice that is truly free can be based on
ignorance or on incorrect data. Nor can a choice be free that is not based upon
a genuine sense of values, that is, a sense of what is really most desirable
because it will promote the greatest good. Without this even the most accurate
knowledge may be used for an unworthy purpose. To do this is an abuse of free
choice that can result only in human bondage because it causes us to act
contrary to the laws of nature, and contrary to the laws of God. What the laws
of nature are no one can learn without subordinating his own opinions to the
test of experience; and what the law of God is, no one can realize without submitting
his mind to the teaching of Divine revelation. That is why the Lord said to “those
Jews who believed on Him, If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples
indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John
8:31, 32).
All children
begin with the idea that freedom consists in the ability to do whatever one
pleases. They look forward eagerly to growing up in order that they may be
liberated from the bond of obedience to parents and teachers, and may come into
this kind of absolute freedom. Only by slow degrees can they learn that there
are laws which no one may successfully defy. The laws of nature are inscribed
by the Divine Creator on all things of the material world; and the laws of
spiritual life, as revealed in the Word, determine irrevocably the relation of
human beings to one another and to the Lord. All freedom arises from willing
obedience to these laws; nor can any one obey them willingly unless he knows
them, and freely chooses, from rational judgment, to follow them. In doing so we
achieve a true sense of freedom in which there is fullness of joy and blessing.
This is the secret of human happiness. Wherefore it is written:
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether . . . in
keeping them is great reward” (Psalm 19:9, 11).
The Writings,
therefore, make a clear distinction between apparent freedom and real freedom,
showing that this latter can be attained only through the knowledge, the
acknowledgment, and the rational understanding of truth, and this depends
entirely upon reflection.
Rational
reflection is a distinctly human faculty. By this we are distinguished from the
animal creation, as we have already pointed out. Animals reflect upon
sensations as affecting their bodily life either for good or ill. They react to
them spontaneously, not knowing why. They can have no concept of “things” but
only of sensations that satisfy physical needs, longings and appetites, or that
give pain and warning of danger to their life. After all, the concept of a “thing”
is an abstraction made possible by reflecting upon relations. Of this, animals
are incapable because their whole life is dominated by a corporeal love, the
love of the body and its life. We alone are endowed with a love that makes us
sensitive to things immaterial and spiritual. We have a soul by virtue of which
we are able to live consciously in a spiritual world, sensing the objects of
that world even as animals sense the objects of nature. We have an inner mind
whence to look down upon our physical sensations, perceive their relations to
one another, their true quality, and the use for which they are intended. That
is what is meant in Genesis, where it is written: “The Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden;
and there He put the man whom He had formed. . . to dress it and keep it”
(Genesis 2:8, 15). In this garden there were two trees, the “tree of life” and
the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” By the “tree of life” is meant
the perception of things heavenly and Divine; and by the “tree of the knowledge
of good and evil” is meant the perception of things worldly and corporeal. The “tree
of life” represents a mind formed by love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbour,
while the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” represents a mind formed by
the pleasures of the body and of the world. This latter is called the “animus,”
which is a mind that we have in common with animals; but the former is called
the “mens,” an inner mind that is strictly human and belongs to us alone. It is
called a “rational” mind because by means of it we can reflect upon
relationships, can deduce reasons and can perceive uses. We can sense higher
values whence comes a conscience whereby to govern and control our animal
nature, that it may serve and promote the ends of a spiritual love. Concerning
this ability we read in Divine Providence 75:
Man has not only the affection of natural love but also the affection
of spiritual and. .. [celestial] love. For the human mind is of three degrees.
Wherefore a man can be raised from natural knowledge into spiritual
intelligence, and from this into... [celestial] wisdom; and from these two,
intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, and thus be conjoined with
Him, by which means he lives forever. But as to the affection there would not
be this elevation unless man had from rationality [the] ability to elevate the
understanding, and from liberty, ability to wish to do so. By means of these
two faculties . . . [man] is able to reflect within himself upon the things
which he perceives. . . through the bodily senses; and he can also think above
concerning what he is thinking below. For any one can say, I have thought this,
and I think this. Also, this I have willed, and this I will; or again, I
understand this, that it is so, and I love this because it is such; and so on.
Thus it is manifest that a man can think above the thought, seeing it as
beneath him. This ability a man has from rationality and from liberty, from
rationality that he can think higher, and from liberty, that from affection he
wills to think so; for unless he had liberty so to think, he would not have the
will, and thus not [have] the thought. Wherefore they who do not wish to
understand any thing but what is of the world and its nature-not even what
moral and spiritual good and truth are—cannot be raised from knowledge into
intelligence, still less into wisdom, for they have blocked up these faculties.
They therefore make themselves human only in being able to understand, if they
wish, and in being able to wish, from the rationality and liberty implanted in
them. From these two faculties one is able to think and to speak from the
thought. In all other things they are not human, but beasts; and some, from the
abuse of these faculties, are worse than beasts.
The knowledge of
things both spiritual and natural must enter the mind by way of the bodily
senses. For this reason the Word must be given in forms that can be sensually
perceived, and primarily through sight and hearing. In ancient times it had to
be spoken by the prophets in words that people could hear and understand; or it
had to be written by them in books that people could read. It was spoken by the
Lord Himself when He was in the world, and was perpetuated by the inspired
writings of the Evangelists. Finally, it was imparted in rational language that
lays open the deeper meaning of the Scripture through the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg. By this means there is imparted to us a vision of God and a
perception of His Divine and Infinite qualities, which could not be transmitted
by nature alone. Nature is so vast, so complex, so apparently self-sufficient,
that we cannot penetrate its superficial appearances to perceive the Divine
life within it. In the Word, the objects of nature are selected, arranged, and
ordered into a simplified form through which the Divine may in some measure be
seen. This becomes more and more evident as we reflect upon the teaching of the
Word, from a love that has been insinuated into our mind especially during
infancy and childhood by influx out of heaven. Thence comes the desire to know
and understand what the Word teaches. It causes us to reflect upon it, and thus
to become aware of its deeper meaning. By this mode alone do we come to know
the laws of God, that we may reflect upon them, and learn, in increasing
measure, to understand them and take delight in them. From this comes genuine
freedom—freedom, that is, to choose between the promptings of the animus or
external mind and those of the mens or internal mind. This choice is possible
only so far as the teaching of the Word is known, that it may be compared to
the outward appearances of nature, and so far as we freely, as a result of
rational reflection, adopt the teaching of the Word as the law of his life.
This is the key to a truly religious life. We all must learn the truth of the
Word by our personal reading and reflection, that we may accept it, not on the
testimony of others, but because the Lord Himself has said it, and because we ourselves
understand it, and acknowledge it to be the truth. Then for the first time can
the Lord, from our conscience, direct our judgment and lead us in the way to
true freedom and everlasting happiness.
