134. The northerners then began to express their opinion. They asserted that man is born without any knowledge so that he can then receive knowledge of all kinds. But if he were born with some knowledge, then he could only acquire the kinds of knowledge he was born with, and then he could not either make any his own. They illustrated this by a simile. Man on first being born is like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but which can receive every kind of seed, grow them and bring them to fruiting. But an animal is like soil which has already been sown and is full of grasses and plants, which cannot take any other seeds that those which have been planted. If others were sown, they would be choked. That is the reason why it takes man many years to grow up, a period long enough to allow him to be cultivated like the soil, and to bring forth, so to speak, all kinds of crops, flowers and trees. An animal, however, takes only a few years, because it does not need time to be cultivated to produce anything but what it possesses from birth.
[2] The westerners spoke next. They said that man has by birth, not knowledge like an animal, but ability and inclination, the ability to know and the inclination to love. He has by birth not only the ability to know, but also to understand and to be wise. Also he is born with the most perfect inclination to love, not only what is his own and worldly, but also what is God's and heavenly. Consequently, a person is by inheritance from his parents an organ, which lives merely by its outward senses, and at first by no inward sense, in order that he may become successively first a natural, then a rational and finally a spiritual man. This could not happen, if he acquired all kinds of knowledge and love by birth, like an animal. For innate knowledge and affections restrict that advancement, but if ability and inclination are innate, they do not restrict it at all. A person therefore can go on becoming more perfect in knowledge, intelligence and wisdom for ever.
[3] The southerners followed on with their statement. 'It is impossible,' they said, 'for anyone to acquire any knowledge from himself, but he must acquire it from others, since he has no innate knowledge. Being unable to acquire any knowledge from himself, neither can he acquire any love, since where knowledge is absent, so is love. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions, no more capable of being divided than will and intellect, or affection and thought, or even essence and form. Therefore as a person acquires knowledge from others, so does love attach itself to it as a companion. The universal love which attaches itself is the love of knowing, understanding and being wise. This is a love man does not share with any animal, and it flows in from God.
[4] 'We agree with our colleagues from the west that man does not have by birth any love, and thus not any knowledge either; but he has by birth only an inclination to love, and thus an ability to receive knowledge, not from himself, but from others, that is, by way of others. We have to say "by way of others" because neither have they received any knowledge from themselves, but from God. We also agree with our colleagues on the north that man is, when first born, like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but in which fine as well as worthless seeds can be planted. We would add to this that animals have by birth natural loves, and thus the kinds of knowledge which correspond to these; but still their knowledge does not enable them to know, think, understand or be wise about anything, being merely guided by their loves through their knowledge, almost like blind people being guided through the streets by dogs, since they are intellectually blind. Or rather they are like sleep-walkers, who do what they do by blind knowledge, while the intellect is asleep.'
[5] The last to speak were the easterners, who said: 'We accept the view expressed by our brothers, that man has no knowledge from himself, but from and through others, in order that he may recognise and acknowledge that God is the source of all he knows and understands and of all his wisdom. Also that there is no other way that a person could be conceived, born and created by the Lord, and become His image and likeness. For he becomes an image of the Lord by acknowledging and believing that he has received and continues to receive all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith from the Lord, and nothing at all from himself. He becomes a likeness of the Lord by feeling these things in himself as if they came from himself. This feeling is due not to being born with knowledge, but to acquiring knowledge, and when he acquires it, it seems to him as if it came from himself. The Lord also grants man this awareness to make him a man and not an animal, since by the fact of willing, thinking, loving, knowing, understanding and being wise as if from himself, he receives different kinds of knowledge, raises them so as to become intelligence, and by applying them to purposes so as to become wisdom. Thus the Lord links a person to Himself, and the person links himself to the Lord. None of these things could happen, if the Lord had not ensured that man was born in a state of complete ignorance.'
[6] After this statement there was a general wish for a conclusion to be drawn from the debate, and this resolution was adopted: 'Man is born without any knowledge, in order to be able to acquire knowledge of all kinds, and to advance to intelligence and by this means to wisdom. He is born without any loves, in order to be able to acquire all kinds of love by the intelligent application of what he knows, and to acquire love to the Lord by love towards the neighbour, thus being linked with the Lord, by this becoming fully man and living for ever.'
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