The term “wisdom” comes from _vid_, to see, and _dôm_, a judgment; it therefore refers to that which is seen and understood, but not to opinions or theories derived from inference, or based on the assertion of others. It is not the product of observation and speculation, memory or calculation, but is the result of interior growth, and all growth comes from nourishment. As the intellect is enlarged by intellectual acquirements, so divine wisdom in man grows by absorbing the nutriment which it receives from the light of Divine Wisdom. “Everything is of the nature of that from which it is born. The animal in man is nourished by animal food, the angel in him by the food of the angels. The animal spirit belongs to the animal mind, and in the animal mind of man are contained all the potentialities which are separately possessed by the different classes of animals. You may develop in a man the character of a dog, a monkey, a snake, or of any other animal; for man in his animal nature is nothing more than an animal and the animals are his teachers and surpass him in many ways; the birds in singing, the fish in swimming, etc. He who knows many animal arts is for all that not more than an animal or a menagerie of different animals; his virtues, no less than his vices, belong to his animal nature. Whether he possesses the fidelity of a dog, the matrimonial affection of a dove, the mildness of a sheep, the cleverness of a fox, the skill of a beaver, the brutality of an ox, the voracity of a bear, the greed of a wolf, etc., all this belongs to his animal nature; but there is a higher nature of an angelic character in him, such as the animals do not possess, and this angelic being requires that nutriment which comes from above and corresponds to its nature. From the hidden animal spirit in nature grows the animal intellect; from the mysterious action of the angelic spirit grows the super-terrestrial man; for man has a father who is eternal and for him he shall live. This father has placed him in an animal body, not that he should only dwell and remain therein, but that he should by living in it overcome it.” (“De Fundam. Sap.,” III.) The animal mind, filled with self-conceit and pride in its evanescent possessions, is entirely incapable of conceiving the nature of the angelic mind, or of forming an idea of the extent of its powers; neither can it grasp the true meaning of a language that deals with the things that belong to that higher nature and believes it to be but delusions and dreams. “The vanity of the learned does not come from heaven, but they learn it from each other and upon this basis they build their church.” (“De Fund. Sap.” Fragm.)