10050. 'And its legs' means purification of the more external things belonging to the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing the legs' as purification of the natural man (for the meaning of 'washing' as purifying, see immediately above in 10049); and from the meaning of 'the legs' as the more external things belonging to the natural man. The reason why these things are meant by 'the legs' is that one must at the same time understand the feet, since an animal's four legs are closely connected to its feet, and 'the feet' by virtue of their correspondence mean the natural or external level in a person, see 2162, 3147, 3761, 4938-4952.

[2] Much the same is meant by 'the legs' in Amos,

As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so will the children of Israel dwelling in Samaria be rescued, on the corner of a bed and on the end of a couch. Amos 3:12.

'The lion' here means those who lay the Church waste, 'legs' the external part of it, which is also the external part of the natural man, 'a piece of an ear' its discernment, and those 'dwelling in Samaria' those whose worship is external. 'The corner of a bed and the end of a couch' is the lowest part of the natural, which is external sensory awareness and its truth and good.

[3] In Daniel's description of Nebuchadnezzar's statue - its head made of pure gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and side of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay, Daniel 2:32-33 - what is meant by 'the legs' is the truth of faith in the external or natural man; and the same thing is also meant by 'iron', see 10030. The reason why the legs in the description are distinguished from the feet is that human legs are by nature different from animal legs.

5711. CORRESPONDENCE - continued

IN THIS SECTION THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SICKNESSES WITH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

Since the subject is to be the correspondence of sicknesses, it should be recognized that all human sicknesses too have a correspondence with the spiritual world. For nothing at all comes into being in the natural creation that does not have a correspondence with the spiritual world; it has no cause from which it may be brought into being and from which it may be kept in being. Things existing in the natural world are nothing else than effects; their causes exist in the spiritual world, while the causes behind those causes, which are the ends, exist more internally in heaven. No effect can remain in being unless its cause is present within it constantly; for the instant a cause ceases to exist, so does its effect. Essentially an effect is nothing else than its cause; but a cause so clothes itself outwardly with an effect that it is enabled to act as a cause in a lower sphere than its own. And similar to the relationship between an effect and its cause is the relationship between a cause and its end. Unless a cause likewise comes into being from its own cause, which is the end, it is not a cause; for without an end a cause is devoid of order, and where there is no order nothing is brought into being. From this it is now evident that the essence of an effect is its cause, while the essence of a cause is its end, and that an end which has good in view exists in heaven and comes forth from the Lord. Consequently an effect is not an effect unless there is a cause within it, constantly there, and a cause is not a cause unless there is an end within it, constantly so. Nor is an end an end that has good in view unless the Divine which goes forth from the Lord is present within it. From this it is also evident that even as every single thing in the world has been brought into being from the Divine, so it is kept in being from the Divine.