It is well known that children are examples of innocence, but not that their innocence flows into them from the Lord. It comes from Him because He is innocence itself, as was stated just above. Nor can anything flow from it, because it cannot exist except from its beginning, which is the thing itself. However, it needs to be said briefly what is the nature of the innocence of childhood, which affects parents. This shines out from their faces, from some of their gestures, from the first words they utter, and this affects the parents. They possess innocence because their thinking does not come from within, since they do not yet know what good and evil are, or truth and falsity, as a means to guide their thinking. So they do not have any prudence derived from the self, nor any intention as the result of deliberate choice, so they cannot have evil as an aim. They have no self acquired from self-love and love of the world. They attribute nothing to themselves; everything they receive they ascribe to their parents. They are content with the tiny presents they are given. They have no worries about food and clothing, or about the future. They do not look to the world or want a lot from it. They love their parents, their nurses, their child companions, with whom they engage in innocent play. They allow themselves to be guided, they listen and obey. Such is the innocence of childhood, which is the cause of the kind of love called parental affection.