5495. To give his ass provender in the inn. That this signifies when they reflected upon the memory-knowledges in the exterior natural, is evident from the signification of “giving his ass provender,” as being to reflect upon memory-knowledges; for provender is the food with which asses are fed, consisting of straw and chaff, and hence it denotes all reflection upon memory-knowledges, for these are what reflections chiefly feed on (that an “ass” denotes memory-knowledge may be seen just above, n. 5492); and from the signification of an “inn,” as being the exterior natural. That an “inn” here is the exterior natural cannot indeed be confirmed from parallel passages elsewhere in the Word, but still it can be confirmed from the fact that memory-knowledges are as it were in their inn when in the exterior natural. (That the natural is twofold, exterior and interior, may be seen above, n. 5118.) When memory-knowledges are in the exterior natural, they communicate directly with the external senses of the body, and there repose and as it were rest upon these senses. Hence it is that this natural is to memory-knowledges an “inn,” or place for resting, or for passing the night.

5492. And they lifted their produce upon their asses. That this signifies that truths were gathered into memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “produce,” as being truth (see n. 5276, 5280, 5292, 5402); and from the signification of an “ass,” as being memory-knowledge (n. 2781). Hence it follows that by their “lifting their produce upon their asses,” is signified that truths were gathered into memory-knowledges. That this is the signification of these words seems strange to him who keeps his mind in the historic sense of the letter, especially if he believes that there is no other internal sense than that which proximately shines forth from the letter; for he says to himself, How can lifting produce upon their asses signify truths gathered into memory-knowledges? But let him know that the literal sense of the Word passes into such a spiritual sense when it passes from man to the angels, or into heaven, and even into a still more remote sense when it passes into the inmost heaven, where all and each of the things of the Word pass into affections which are of love and charity, to which sense the internal sense serves as a plane.

[2] That the historicals of the Word pass into another sense when they are elevated into heaven, may be seen by the man who concludes from reason, and who knows anything about the natural and the spiritual. He can see that to lift produce upon their asses is a purely natural act, and that there is nothing spiritual in it whatever; and he can also see that the angels who are in heaven, or they who are in the spiritual world, cannot apprehend these words otherwise than spiritually, and that they are apprehended spiritually when in their place are understood their correspondences, namely, the truth of the church in place of “produce,” and the memory-knowledges that are in the natural in place of “asses.” That by “asses” in the Word are signified things that serve, and thus memory-knowledges (for these are things that serve relatively to things spiritual and also to things rational), may be seen explained at n. 2781. Hence also it is plain what angelic thought and speech are relatively to man’s thought and speech-that angelic thought and speech are spiritual, but man’s natural; and that the former falls into the latter when it descends, and that the latter is turned into the former when it ascends. Unless this were so, there would be no communication whatever of man with angels, or of the world with heaven.