Thursday, March 22, 2012

AC 2280 - goods and "twenty"

AC 2280 [2-3,5]
Goods of three kinds are signified by remains,
namely, the goods of infancy,
the goods of ignorance,
and the goods of intelligence.
The goods of infancy
are those which are insinuated into a person
from his very birth up to the age
in which he is beginning to be instructed and to know something.
The goods of ignorance
are what are insinuated when he is being instructed
and is beginning to know something.
The goods of intelligence
are what are insinuated
when he is able to reflect upon what is good and what is true.
The good of infancy exists from the person's infancy
up to the tenth year of his age;
the good of ignorance, from this age up to his twentieth year.
From this year the person begins to become rational,
and to have the faculty of reflecting upon good and truth,
and to procure for himself the good of intelligence.

The good of ignorance is that which is signified by "twenty,"
because those who are in the good of ignorance
do not come into any temptation
for no one is tempted before he is able to reflect,
and in his own way to perceive the nature of good and truth.
Those who have received goods by means of temptations
have been treated of in the two immediately preceding verses;
those who have not been in temptations, and yet have good,
are now treated of in this verse.

. . . it is the knowledges of good and truth
that cause a person to be wise as a man.

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