disposed that it can produce outmost acts according to order; for life
acts in accordance with outmost determinations, though not from them.
That there can be no rationality with infants and children, may be seen
below (n. 266, at the end).

260. THE NATURAL MIND, SINCE IT IS THE COVERING AND CONTAINANT OF THE
HIGHER DEGREES OF THE HUMAN MIND, IS REACTIVE; AND IF THE HIGHER DEGREES
ARE NOT OPENED IT ACTS AGAINST THEM, BUT IF THEY ARE OPENED IT ACTS WITH
THEM.

It has been shown in the preceding chapter that as the natural mind is
in the outmost degree, it envelops and encloses the spiritual mind and
the celestial mind, which, in respect to degrees, are above it. It is
now to be shown that the natural mind reacts against the higher or
interior minds. It reacts because it covers, includes, and contains them,
and this cannot be done without reaction; for unless it reacted, the
interior or enclosed parts would become loosened and press outward and
thus fall apart, just as the viscera, which are the interiors of the
body, would push forth and fall asunder if the coverings which are about
the body did not react against them; so, too, unless the membrane
investing the motor fibers of a muscle reacted against the force of
these fibers in their activities, not only would action cease, but all
the inner tissues would be let loose. It is the same with every outmost
degree of the degrees of height; consequently with the natural mind with
respect to higher degrees; for, as was said above, there are three
degrees of the human mind, the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial,
and the natural mind is in the outmost degree. Another reason why the
natural mind reacts against the spiritual mind is, that the natural mind
consists not only of substances of the spiritual world but also of
substances of the natural world (as was said above, n. 257), and