AC 3020- One Household: The Rational Mind and the Natural Mind

AC 3020

All things that are in man are as one household
(that is, as one family)
in this respect,
that there is one who fills
the office of master of the house,
and others who fill that of servants.
The rational mind itself is that which disposes all things
as master of the house,
and arranges them in order by influx
into the natural mind;
but it is the natural mind
that ministers and is the administrator.

As the natural mind is distinct from the rational mind
and is in a degree below it,
and as it also acts as if from what is its own,
it is called relatively a "servant the elder of the house,"
and it is said to administer all the things in itself 
that belong to it.
That the natural mind is distinct from the rational,
and is in a lower degree,
and is as if in what is its own,
may be seen from the things within it,
and from its offices.
The things which are therein
are all memory-knowledges,
thus also all knowledges of every kind whatever;
in a word, they are all things
in both general and particular
that belong to the outer or corporeal memory.
To this mind also belongs all the imaginative faculty,
which is the interior sensuous with man,
and which is in the greatest vigor with children;
and in the first age of adolescence;
to the same mind belong also
all natural affections that man has
in common with brute animals;
all of which shows what its offices are.

But the rational mind is more internal.
The knowledges in it are not open before man,
but while he lives in the body are imperceptible;
for they are all things in both general and particular
that belong to the interior memory.
To this mind also belongs all the thinking faculty
that is perceptive of what is equitable and just,
and of what is true and good;
also all spiritual affections, which are properly human,
and by which man is distinguished from the brute animals.
These things from this mind flow
into the natural mind,
and excites the things that are therein,
and views them with a kind of sight,
and in this manner judges and forms conclusions.
That these two minds are distinct
is clearly evident from the fact
that with many persons
the natural mind has dominion over the rational mind,
or what amounts to the same,
the external man has dominion over the internal;
yet it does not have dominion
and is subservient only with those in whom
the good of charity is present,
that is, who allow themselves to be led by the Lord.