Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 395

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395. VIII. THAT A SPHERE OF INNOCENCE FLOWS INTO INFANTS, AND THROUGH THEM INTO THEIR PARENTS, AND AFFECTS THEM. That infants are innocences is known, but that their innocence inflows from the Lord is not known. It inflows from the Lord because, as said just above, He is Innocence itself, and nothing can inflow, because nothing is possible, save from its beginning which is the Thing Itself. The nature of the innocence of infancy which affects parents shall be told in a few words. It shines forth from their face, from some of their gestures and from their earliest speech, and affects their parents. They have innocence because they do not think from their interior, for they do not yet know what is good and evil and true and false, from which to think. Hence they have no prudence from proprium, nor any purpose from deliberation, and so have no evil end in view. They have no proprium acquired from the love of self and the world. They do not attribute anything to themselves. Everything which they receive they ascribe to their parents. They are content with the little things given them as presents. They have no care as to food and clothing, nor any as to the future. They do not look to the world or desire many things therefrom. They love their parents, their nurses, and their infant companions with whom they play in innocence. They suffer themselves to be led. They listen and obey. Such is the innocence of infancy which is the cause of the love called storge.


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