408. XVII. THAT WITH THE SPIRITUAL, THIS LOVE IS FROM WITHIN OR a priori, BUT WITH THE NATURAL, FROM WITHOUT OR a posteriori. To think and conclude from within or a priori is to think from ends and causes to effects, but to think and conclude from without or a posteriori is to think from effects to causes and ends. The latter progression is against order, but the former is according to order; for to think and conclude from ends and causes is to think and conclude from goods and truths clearly seen in the higher region of the mind, to effects in the lower region. Such from creation is the nature of human rationality itself. But to think and conclude from effects is to conjecture causes and ends from the lower region of the mind where are the sensual things of the body with their appearances and fallacies. In itself, this is nothing else than to confirm falsities and concupiscences and, after confirmation, to see and believe them to be the verities of wisdom and the goodness of the love thereof. It is the same with the love of infants and children in spiritual men and in natural. The spiritual love them ex priori, thus according to order, while the natural love them ex posteriori, thus contrary to order. This is adduced simply to confirm the preceding article.