AC 3020 - The Natural Mind Is to Serve the Rational Mind

AC 3020

All things that are in a person 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 person,
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 a person 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 a person,
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 a person is distinguished
from the brute animals.
From these things
this mind flows 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 bears rule over the rational mind;
or what is the same, person;
and that it does not bear rule
but serves with those only
who are in the good of charity, that is,
who suffer themselves to be led by the Lord.