5495. 'To give fodder to his ass, in a lodging-place' means when they stopped to reflect on the facts present in the exterior natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'giving fodder to his ass' as stopping to reflect on facts (for fodder is the food, made up of straw and chaff, that asses are fed with, and therefore all reflection on facts is meant by it since reflection primarily is what nourishes these; as regards 'an ass' meaning factual knowledge, see just above in 5492); and from the meaning of a lodging-place' as the exterior natural. The meaning of 'a lodging-place' here as the exterior natural cannot, it is true, be substantiated from other places in the Word; even so it is evident from the consideration that facts are in their proper lodging-place so to speak when they are present in the exterior natural. For the natural has two parts, the exterior natural and the interior natural, see 5118. When facts exist in the exterior natural they have a direct communication with the external senses of the body, where they install themselves and so to speak rest. Therefore the exterior natural provides a lodging-place for facts, that is, a place for them to rest or spend the night.