AC 10225 - The Four States of a Person's Life

  AC 10225 [1, 3-6]

. . . from earliest infancy to extreme old age
a person passes through
a number of states in respect to his interiors
that belong to intelligence and wisdom.
The first state is from
birth to his fifth year;
this is a state of ignorance
and of innocence in ignorance,
and is called infancy.
The second state is from
the fifth year to the twentieth;
this is a state of instruction
and of memory-knowledge,
and is called childhood and youth.
The third state is from
the twentieth year to the sixtieth,
which is a state of intelligence,
and is called adolescence,
young manhood, and manhood.
The fourth or last state is from
the sixtieth year upward,
which is a state of wisdom,
and of innocence in wisdom.

That the first state is a state of ignorance
and also of innocence in ignorance is plain.
During the continuance of this state,
the interiors are being formed for use,
consequently are not manifest,
but only those most external,
that belong to the sensuous person;
and when these alone are manifest,
there is ignorance;
for whatever a person understands and perceives
is from the interiors;
from which it can also be seen
that the innocence which exists at that time
and is called the innocence of infancy,
is innocence most external.

That the second state is a state of
instruction and of memory-knowledge is also plain;
this state is not as yet a state of intelligence,
because at that time
the child or youth does not form
any conclusions from himself,
neither does he from himself discriminate
between truths and truths,
nor even between truths and falsities,
but from others;
he merely thinks and speaks things of memory,
thus from mere memory-knowledge;
nor does he see and perceive whether a thing is so,
except on the authority of his teacher,
consequently because another has said so.

But the third is called a state of intelligence,
because the person then thinks from himself,
and discriminates and forms conclusions;
and that which he then concludes is his own,
and not another's.
At this time faith begins,
for faith is not the faith of the person himself
until he has confirmed what he believes
by the ideas of his own thought.
Previous to this, faith was not his,
but another's in him,
for his belief was in the person,
not in the thing.
From this it can be seen
that the state of intelligence commences with a person
when he no longer thinks from a teacher,
but from himself;
which is not the case
until the interiors are opened toward heaven.
Be it known that the exteriors with a person
are in the world,
and the interiors in heaven;
and that in proportion as light flows in from heaven
into what is from the world,
the person is intelligent and wise;
and this according to the degree and quality
of the opening of his interiors,
which are so far opened
as the person lives for heaven
and not for the world.

But the last state is a state of wisdom
and of innocence in wisdom;
which is when the person is no longer concerned about
understanding truths and goods,
but about willing and living them;
for this is to be wise.
And a person is able to will truths and goods,
and to live them,
just insofar as he is in innocence,
that is, insofar as he believes
that he has nothing of wisdom from himself,
but that whatever he has of wisdom is from the Lord;
also insofar as he loves to have it so;
so it is that this state is also
a state of innocence in wisdom.