412. Little children are instructed chiefly through representations accommodated and suited to their natures, of such beauty and at the same time so full of interior wisdom as can scarcely be believed in the world. I can cite two of these representations here, from which conclusions may be drawn in regard to the rest.

Little children once represented the Lord rising from the tomb, and together with it the union of His Humanity with the Divine. They presented first an idea of the tomb, but not at the same time an idea of the Lord, except so remotely that one scarcely perceived that it was the Lord, and then only as though at a distance, the reason being that in the idea of a tomb there is something funereal, which they thus removed. Afterwards they carefully let into the tomb some sort of atmosphere, yet having the appearance of a thin watery mist, by which they symbolized, also by an appropriate remoteness, the spiritual life in baptism.

Later I saw represented by them the Lord's going down to those who were bound, and His ascent with the bound into heaven. ¹ And, in typically childlike fashion, they let down delicate and fine little threads, almost invisible, by which to raise the Lord in His ascent, governed always by a holy fear lest anything in the representation touch on any point in which there was not something heavenly.

I could mention other representations besides, by which, as by games compatible with their infantile minds, little children are brought simultaneously into concepts of truth and affections for good.

Little children are led by the Lord to these and similar activities by the innocence passing through the third heaven, and spiritual elements are thus insinuated into their affections and consequent tender thoughts, in such a way that the little children do not know but that they do and think these things on their own, by which their understanding begins.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3413. 'And filled them up with dust' means by means of earthly things, that is, by means of self-love and love of material gain. This is clear from the meaning of 'dust' as such, dealt with in 249. The meaning is that those who are called 'the Philistines', that is, who are not concerned with life but with doctrine, efface interior truths by means of earthly loves, which are self-love and love of gain. Because of those loves they are called 'the uncircumcised', 2039, 2049, 2056, 2632. Indeed people who are under the influence of those loves cannot avoid 'filling up the wells of Abraham with dust', that is, effacing the interior truths of the Word by means of earthly things, for there is no way in which they are able from these loves to see spiritual things, that is, things which belong to the light of truth from the Lord. In fact those loves introduce darkness, and this banishes that light, for as stated just above in 3412, as the light of truth from the Lord draws nearer, people who are concerned with doctrine alone and not with life are plunged into complete darkness and stupidity. Indeed they become like those in a rage, doing all they can to destroy truths in every way. For self-love and the love of gain are such that they do not allow any truth at all from the Divine to come anywhere near them. Nevertheless those people are able to boast of and pride themselves in the fact that they know truths; indeed they proclaim them with seeming zeal. It is however the fires of self-love and love of gain which inflame them and spur them on, and their zeal is merely the enthusiasm fired by those loves. This becomes quite clear from the fact that even though truths run counter to such persons' actual lives they are able to proclaim them with the selfsame zeal or enthusiasm. These are the earthly things which block the Word itself, the fountain of all truth.