75. It is otherwise with man: he has not only the affection of natural love but also the affection of spiritual love and the affection of celestial love. For the human mind is of three degrees, as was shown in Part Three of the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. Consequently, a man can be raised up from natural knowledge into spiritual understanding and thence into celestial wisdom; and from these two, understanding and wisdom, he can look to the Lord and so be conjoined to Him, and thus live for ever. But this elevation in respect to affection would not be possible unless man had from rationality the power of raising the understanding, and from liberty the power of willing this.
[2] By means of these two faculties man can reflect within himself upon those things that he perceives outside of himself by means of his bodily senses; and he can also reflect on a higher level upon what he thinks on a lower. For everyone can say, "I have thought this, and I think this;" also, "I have willed this, and I will this;" and again, "I understand this because it is so; I love this because it is of such a kind"; and so on. Hence it is clear that man thinks above thought, seeing it as if it were beneath him. This power he derives from rationality and liberty-from rationality that he can reflect on a higher level, and from liberty that from affection he wills so to think, for if he had not the liberty so to think he would not have the will, nor the thought which is thence derived.
[3] For this reason those who do not wish to understand anything except what pertains to the world and its nature, or to understand what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be raised from knowledge into understanding, still less into wisdom. For they have closed up the two faculties, rationality and liberty, thereby making themselves to be men only in this respect that they have the capacity to understand if they will, and also to will, from the rationality and liberty implanted in them. From these two faculties man is able to think, and to speak from thought. For the rest, men are not men but beasts; and some from the abuse of these faculties are worse than beasts.
