26. In order that I should know that all people who have been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are in heaven or in hell, I have been permitted to speak with some who lived before the flood, with some who lived after the flood; with some of the Jews who are known from the Word of the Old Testament; with some who lived in the Lord's time, with many who lived in the following centuries up to the present; and in addition with all whom I had known in bodily life and had since died. I have also talked with children, and with many from non-Christian peoples. This experience has fully convinced me that there is not a single person who was ever born a human being from the earliest time of this planet's creation who is not in heaven or in hell.
Arcana Coelestia #6112
6112. 'And Joseph gathered up all the silver' means all factual knowledge that held truth in it and was appropriate. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering up' as bringing together into a single whole; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, often dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in '551, 2954, 5658, but in this case factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate, for this silver existed, as stated in the words that immediately follow, in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan. All this shows that 'Joseph gathered up all the silver' means that the internal celestial brought together into a single whole all factual knowledge that held truth in it and that was appropriate. Factual knowledge is said to hold truth in it and to be appropriate when there are no illusions to darken it, for as long as these cannot be dispelled, factual knowledge is rendered inappropriate. The same is true of factual knowledge which has not become perverted through applications of it to falsities and to evils by others or by oneself, for once imprinted on factual knowledge such falsities and evils remain. Factual knowledge therefore which does not languish under these defects is factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate.
