ffer but little from graven forms; but still they are
receptible of life from the Lord through the heavens. Yet, unless the
parents also received that influx in their souls, and in the inmost
principles of their minds, they would in vain be affected by the
innocence of the infants. There must be something adequate and similar
in another, whereby communication may be effected, and which may cause
reception, affection, and thence conjunction; otherwise it would be like
soft seed falling upon a stone, or a lamb exposed to a wolf. From this
ground then it is, that innocence flowing into the souls of the parents,
unites with the innocence of the infants. Experience may shew that, with
the parents, this conjunction is effected by the mediation of the bodily
senses, but especially by the touch: as that the sight is intimately
delighted by seeing them, the hearing by their speech, the smelling by
their odor. That the communication and therefore the conjunction of
innocence is principally effected by the touch, is evident from the
satisfaction of carrying them in the arms, from fondling and kissing
them, especially in the case of mothers, who are delighted in laying
their mouth and face upon their bosoms, and at the same time in touching
the same with the palms of their hands, in general, in giving them milk
by suckling them at the breasts, moreover, in stroking their naked body,
and the unwearied pains they take in washing and dressing them on their
laps. That the communications of love and its delights between married
partners are effected by the sense of the touch has been occasionally
proved above. The reason why communications of the mind are also
effected by the same sense is, because the hands are a man's ultimates,
and his first principles are together in the ultimates, whereby also all
things of the body and of the mind are kept together in an inseparable
connection. Hence it is, that Jesus touched infants, Matt, xviii. 2-6;
Mark x. 13-16; and that he healed the sick by the touch: and that those
who touched him were healed: hence also it is, that inaugurations into
the priesthood are at this day effected by the laying on of hands. From
these considerations it is evident, that the innocence of parents and
the innocence of infants meet each other by the touch, especially of the
hands, and thereby join themselves together as by kisses.

397. That innocence produces similar effects with beasts and birds as
with men, and that