6653. And he said unto his people. That this signifies subordinate memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “people,” as being truths, and in the opposite sense falsities (n. 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581), here memory-knowledges separated from truth, because it is the people of Egypt. (That “Egypt” is memory-knowledge, see n. 6638.) That they are subordinate memory-knowledges is because it is said that “the king said unto his people.” That by “people” are signified truths, is because in the Word those are called a “people” who are under a king, and by a “king” is signified truth (n. 6651). By a “people” are signified truths, but those are meant who are in truths. The reason why truths are spoken of abstractedly, is that spirits and angels so think and speak, for in this way they comprehend a subject in a universal manner, and at the same time singly the particulars belonging to it, without reflecting specifically on any people that is in truths, which reflection would withdraw the mind from a universal idea, thus from extension of view, consequently from wisdom. For determination of the thought to any specific people, as also to any person, limits and confines the ideas, and turns them from the perception of a subject as it is from one boundary to the other. As is the case with the idea of a “people,” so is it with other denominations which in the internal sense signify things unbounded—as with a “nation” as being good, with a “king” as being truth, with a “prince” as being primary truth, with a “priest” as being good, and with a “son,” “daughter,” “son-in-law,” “daughter-in-law,” “brother,” “sister,” “father,” “mother,” and many other denominations.