4360. And the handmaids drew near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. That this signifies sensuous knowledges and their truths, and their submission, is evident from the signification of “handmaids,” as being the affections of memory-knowledges and of the knowledges which are of the external man (see above n. 4344), consequently sensuous memory-knowledges (of which below); from the signification of “children” or “sons,” as being truths (see n. 4357); and from the signification of “bowing one’s self,” as being submission. The sensuous memory-knowledges signified by the “handmaids” are the memory-knowledges of the external things of the world, and therefore are the most general of all knowledges (n. 4345), and are those which enter immediately through the external senses, and are perceived by the sense itself. In these are all little children; and moreover they serve as planes to the knowledges of spiritual things, for spiritual things are founded upon natural, and are represented in them. As truths are conjoined with good according to order, beginning with the more general (as shown above, n. 4345), therefore it is here mentioned that the handmaids and their children bowed themselves, that is, submitted, first.