3086. To have any idea at all, even a very general one, of the things contained here in the internal sense, it should be recognized that the whole of this chapter is dealing with Divine truth that was to be joined to Divine Good. That is to say, Divine Good flowed into the natural man, that is, into the facts, cognitions, and matters of doctrine there, for these belong to the natural man insofar as they are in his memory. And by means of that influx, Divine Good brought light and life, and ordered all that was there; for all light, life, and order in the natural man result from influx from the Divine, as anyone may know if he pays the matter any attention. By means of that influx affection comes into being, first of all a general affection for truth, the affection dealt with in these two verses - its origin, in 3077, 3078; its nature, in 3079-3081; and the initial stage of its introduction, in 3082-3084. But the verses that follow directly after them, in the internal sense describe that process further, that is to say, investigation of that truth, and also the separation of the elements received from the mother which had been allied to it first of all, and so on. But I realize that these arcana are too deep to be understood easily, the reason being, as has been stated, that they are not known. Nevertheless since the internal sense describes them, and does so in great detail, what else is to be done but explain them, no matter how much they appear to be beyond human apprehension? At least one may see from this how deep the arcana are within the internal sense of the Word, and also that those arcana are such as to be hardly visible at all in the light of the world which man has during his lifetime, but that they are always seen more clearly and plainly to the extent that he passes from the light of the world into the light of heaven, the light into which he passes after death, and so sees in the light in which blessed and happy souls, that is, angels, dwell.

5874. 'And the Egyptians heard' means right through to last and lowest [mental images]. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' - hearing the voice given forth in weeping - as a perception of mercy and joy; and from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, thus the last and lowest [mental images], for the facts a person knows form the lowest level [of his mind]. It is not evident to a person that such facts form this lowest level, that is, the lowest level of his memory and conscious thought, for they seem to him to compose the whole of his intelligence and wisdom. But they do not. Facts are merely vessels in which matters of intelligence and wisdom are stored; and indeed they are last and lowest vessels, for they link with sensory impressions received through the body. The fact that they are last and lowest is evident to anyone who stops to reflect on the way he thinks. When he investigates some truth the facts he knows are at that time present yet not apparent; for his thought at that time draws out ideas contained within those facts. He draws those ideas out of great numbers of known facts scattered in this direction and that, as well as ones deeply hidden, and by doing this arrives at some conclusion. And the deeper his thought goes, the further away he gets from those facts. This may be seen quite plainly from the consideration that when a person enters the next life and becomes a spirit he does indeed take his factual knowledge with him, but is not allowed to use it, for a number of reasons, 2476, 2477, 2479; yet his thought and utterances about what is true and good are far clearer and more perfect than when he was in the world. From all this one can see that factual knowledge serves a person in the formation of his understanding; but once this has been formed his factual knowledge forms the last and lowest level, and he no longer thinks on this level but on a level above it.