[3]
Because innocence attributes nothing of good to itself, but ascribes
all good to the Lord, and because it thus loves to be led by the
Lord, and is the source of the reception of all good and truth, from
which wisdom comes,--because of this man is so created as to be
during his childhood in external innocence, and when he becomes old
in internal innocence, to the end that he may come by means of the
former into the latter, and from the latter return into the former.
For the same reason when a man becomes old he dwindles in body and
becomes again like a child, but like a wise child, that is, an angel,
for a wise child is in an eminent sense an angel. This is why in the
Word, "a little child" signifies one who is innocent, and "an old
man" signifies one who is wise in whom is innocence.{1}
{Footnote 1} In the Word "little children" signify innocence
(n. 5608); likewise "sucklings" (n. 3183). An "old man"
signifies one who is wise, and in an abstract sense wisdom (n.
3183, 6524). Man is so created that in proportion as he verges
towards old age he may become like a little child, and that
innocence may then be in his wisdom, and in that state he may
pass into heaven and become an angel (n.
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