3068. 'Let down now your pitcher' means submitting facts. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'letting down' as submitting, and from the meaning of 'a pitcher' as facts. The reason why a water-pot or a pitcher means facts is that 'water' means truth, 680, 739, 2702, and a pitcher is a vessel with water in it, even as factual knowledge is a vessel with truth in it. All factual knowledge is a vessel for truth, and all truth is a vessel for good. Factual knowledge without truth is an empty vessel, and so is truth without good; but factual knowledge in which truth is held is a vessel that is filled, as is truth in which good is held. Affection which is an attribute of love is what joins them together so that they may exist in order. For love is spiritual conjunction.

8005. 'And you shall not break a bone of it' means that factual knowledge of truth must also remain intact. This is clear from the meaning of 'a bone' as what is last and lowest, serving as a foundation for more internal things to rest on and as a support to prevent them from falling apart. This last and lowest support in spiritual things is factual knowledge; for all spiritual truths and forms of good flow down in accordance with order towards lower levels, coming to rest finally in factual knowledge, in which a person can then catch sight of them. As for the meaning of 'you shall not break' - that such knowledge must remain intact - this is self-evident. Factual knowledge is said to remain intact when it lets into itself nothing but truths that are in accord with its good; for factual knowledge is the general receptacle of them. Furthermore items of knowledge are like the bones in a person's body. If they do not remain intact or properly arranged, as when they are dislocated or are bent out of shape, the form of the body is consequently altered, and that altered form conditions its movements. Factual knowledge of truth may be equated with matters of doctrine.