"It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one
of these little ones should perish."
--_Matthew_, XVIII, 14
Never could a man live,--certainly not as a human being,--unless he
had in himself something vital, that is, some innocence, neighborly
love, and mercy. This a man receives from the Lord in infancy and
childhood. What he receives then is treasured up in him, and is called
in the Word the _remnant_ or _remains_, which are of the Lord alone
with him, and they make it possible for him truly to be a man on
reaching adult age. These states are the elements of his regeneration,
and he is led into them; for the Lord works by means of them. These
_remains_ are also called "the living soul" in all flesh.
--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 1050
All states of innocence from infancy on, of love toward parents,
brothers, teachers and friends; of charity to the neighbor, and also
of mercy to the poor and needy; all states of goodness and truth, with
their goods and truths, impressed on; the memory, are preserved in man
by the Lord, and are stored up unconsciously to himself in his
internal man, and are carefully kept from evils and falsities. They
are all so preserved by the Lord that not the smallest of them is
lost. Every state from infancy even to extreme old age not only
_remains_ in another life, but also returns. Returning, these states
are such as they were during a man's abode in the world. Not only the
goods and truths, stored up in the memory, remain and return, but
likewise all the states of innocence and charity; and when states of
evil and the false, or of wickedness and phantasy recur, these latter
states are attempered by the former through the Divine operation of
the Lord.
--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 561