8942. 'For if you move your chisel over it' means if a product of the proprium or self. This is clear from the meaning of 'chisel' as counterfeit truth, thus a product of the self. For a chisel is a piece of iron used to carve and shape figures out of stones, and therefore the human self is meant here since this shapes things which are to compose religion, to make them look like the truth. Instead of the word 'chisel' some places elsewhere have '[a piece of] iron', while others elsewhere have 'axe', as in Deuteronomy 27:5; Joshua 8:30-31; 1 Kings 6:7; Isaiah 44:10-12; Hosea 13:2; Jeremiah 10:3-4; and these tools mean such things as are implements of self-intelligence used for fabrication.

1973. To give an account of all types of visions would take far too long, for there are many. Purely by way of illustration, let two visions be recounted, from which the nature of such may become clear. At the same time these visions will show how spirits are affected by the things which they see, and how evil spirits are tormented when the ability to see what others see and hear is withdrawn from them; for they cannot bear to have any such thing as that taken away from them. Spirits do not possess the sense of taste, but instead they have a desire or kind of appetite for knowing and learning. And this is so to speak their food by which they are nourished, 1480. How distressed they are therefore when this food is taken away from them may become clear from the example that follows.