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.

2490. With regard to the interior memory, it not only retains every single thing that a person has ever seen and heard since early childhood, and what he has thought, said, and done, but also the things he sees and hears in the next life, and those he thinks, says, and does. But this phenomenon varies. People who are governed by false persuasion and evil desire imbibe and retain all things that suit them, for these things enter into them like water into a sponge. All else flows in as well but is retained so superficially that they hardly know it as anything at all. But those who believe in truth and have an affection for good retain all things that are true and good and are consequently being perfected all the time. In this way people can and do receive instruction in the next life.