487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.

[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.

4325. The activity of the senses in general, or general sensory activity, is divided into voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary sensory activity belongs properly to the cerebrum, but involuntary to the cerebellum. These two forms of general sensory activity are combined in the human being; yet they are distinct and separate. The fibres which issue from the cerebrum establish voluntary sensory activity in general, and the fibres which do so from the cerebellum establish involuntary. The fibres from these two sources combine together in the two appendages called the medulla oblongata and the medulla spinalis, and through these pass into the body and there shape its members, viscera, and organs. The parts which envelop the body, such as muscles and skin, and also the sensory organs, for the most part receive fibres from the cerebrum, and through these a person has sensory awareness and also movement controlled by his conscious will. But the parts which are contained within that outer envelopment or enclosure and which are called the viscera of the body receive fibres from the cerebellum, and therefore a person does not experience any feeling in these, and they are not subject to his conscious will. This shows something of what sensory activity in general is, that is, what general sensory activity is, both voluntary and involuntary. In addition it should be recognized that the general whole must exist first before any individual part can do so; that no individual part can possibly come into being and be kept in being without the general whole, and indeed that it is kept in being within this; and that every individual part is conditioned by the nature and state of the general whole. The same applies to sensory activity in the human being, and also to movements.