The states of a person's life are generally termed infancy, childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age. It is well known that every person, if he remains living in the world, passes by stages from one to the next, so from the first to the last. Passage from one age to the next is not noticeable, except by the passing of time; but it is plain to reason that development advances from moment to moment, so that it is a continuous process. What happens with a person is like what happens with a tree, which from the time the seed is planted in the ground grows and gets taller every minute, even in the shortest period of time. These momentary developments are also changes of state, for each adds something to the one before, which perfects its state.

[2] The changes taking place at a person's inner levels are more perfectly continuous than those which take place at the outer levels. This is because his inner levels, I mean what belongs to his mind or spirit, are at a higher degree than the outer levels; and thousands of events take place at a higher degree in the same time as one event takes place at the outer levels. The changes taking place at the inner levels are changes of the state of the will, as regards affections, and of the intellect as regards thoughts. It is especially the progressive changes of state in affections and thoughts which are meant in this section.

[3] The changes of state undergone by a person's two faculties or types of life are continuous from infancy to the end of his life, and afterwards for ever. This is because no limit exists to knowledge, much less to intelligence, still less to wisdom. Their infinite and eternal extension is due to the Infinite and Eternal, who is their source. This is the origin of the philosophical maxim of the old scholars, that everything can be infinitely divided; and we can add to this, that everything can likewise be infinitely multiplied. The angels assert that the Lord goes on perfecting them in wisdom for ever, which is the same as infinitely, since eternity is an infinity of time.