5872. And there stood not anyone with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. That this signifies that there were not any such knowledges present when the internal celestial by means of the intermediate conjoined itself with the truths in the natural, may be seen from what was unfolded just above (n. 5871), thus without further exposition.

5871. Cause every man to go out from with me. That this signifies that memory-knowledges, not in agreement and adverse, should be cast out from the midst, is evident from the signification of “every man from with him,” as being memory-knowledges, for the men were Egyptians, by whom are signified memory-knowledges (see n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702). That these were not in agreement and were adverse, follows, because they were cast out. The case herein is this. When a conjunction is being effected of the truths which are in the external or natural man with the good which is in the internal, that is, when the truths of faith are being conjoined with the good of charity, then all those memory-knowledges which are not in agreement, and especially those which are adverse, are rejected from the midst to the sides, thus from the light which is in the midst to the shade which is at the sides; and then they are partly not seen and partly regarded as of no account. But from the memory-knowledges which are in agreement and harmonious, which remain, there is effected a kind of extraction, and so to speak a sort of sublimation, whence arises an interior sense of things, a sense which is not perceived by man while he is in the body except by somewhat of gladness, as the mind is gladdened by the morning of the day. Thus is effected the conjunction of the truth which is of faith with the good which is of charity.