1015. Be ye fruitful and multiply. That this signifies increase of good and truth in the interior man, and that “to be fruitful” is predicated of goods, and “to multiply” of truths, is evident from what has been shown before at the first verse (Genesis 9:1) of this chapter, where the same words occur. That the increase is in the interior man, is evident from what follows, where it is said again “be ye multiplied” which repetition would be needless, because superfluous, if it did not signify something special, distinct from what goes before. From this and from what was said above it is evident that being fruitful and multiplying are here predicated of goods and truths in the interior man. It is said the interior man because, as was shown above, in respect to what is celestial and spiritual, which is of the Lord alone, man is an internal man; but as to what is rational he is an interior or middle man, intermediate between the internal man and the external; and in respect to the affections of good and knowledges of the memory he is an external man. That such is the nature of man has been shown in what is premised to this chapter n. 978); but his not knowing it while he lives in the body is because he is in the things of the body, and hence does not even know that there are interior things, still less that they are set in this distinct and separate order. Yet on reflecting the fact will be quite evident to him, when he is in thought withdrawn from the body and is thinking as it were in his spirit. The reason fruitfulness and multiplication are predicated of the interior or rational man is that the working of the internal man is not perceived, except in the interior man in a very general manner. For in the interior man an innumerable host of particulars are presented to view as one general thing; most extremely general in fact. How innumerable the particulars are, what is their nature, and how they present an obscure general whole, is evident from what has been shown above n. 545).