3089. 'Let me sip now a little water from your pitcher' means to see whether it was possible for any truth from that source to be joined to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'sipping' as an activity similar to that meant by 'drinking', but taking in only a small amount because it was to be an investigation - for 'drinking' means perceiving, see 3069, and also in the internal sense being communicated and joined together, and has reference to what is spiritual just as 'eating' has reference to what is celestial, 2187, 2343; and from the meaning of 'water' as truth, dealt with in 680, 739, 2702. Here therefore 'let me sip now a little water from your pitcher' means an investigation to see whether it was possible for any truth from that source to be joined. 'A pitcher' is a recipient which has truth in it and from which truth is obtained, 3068, 3079. The reason for this investigation was that the initial affection for truth also carried with it something from the mother that was to be separated, 3040, 3078. With anyone who is to be regenerated his initial affection for truth is largely impure, for it holds within it the desire to satisfy a purpose and an end that have himself in view, the world, glory in heaven, and similar things which regard himself and not the common good, the Lord's kingdom, still less the Lord Himself. Such affection inevitably comes first. Nevertheless the Lord purifies it gradually so that at length falsities and evils are removed and banished so to speak to the circumference. But they have nevertheless served as means.

3080. 'And the girl was very good looking' means the beauty of the affection for truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a girl' as affection that has innocence within it, dealt with in 3067. The reason 'very good looking' means beauty, in this case the beauty of the affection for truth since it is called 'a girl', is that all beauty comes from good in which innocence is present. When flowing in from the internal man into the external man good itself constitutes that which is beautiful. This is the source of all human beauty. This may be recognized also from the fact that it is not a person's face but the affection shining out of it that stirs the feelings in another; and in the case of those who love what is good it is the affection for good seen in a person's face that stirs them, which it does in the measure that innocence is present in the good which they love. Thus it is the spiritual within the natural that stirs their affections, not the natural devoid of the spiritual. In a similar way the feelings of those who love what is good are stirred by young children whom they see as beautiful in the measure that the innocence which goes with charity is present in the children's faces, actions, and speech. It is goodness and charity that give form to and constitute beauty, see 553; and that is why 'the girl was very good looking' means the beauty of the affection for truth that has good within it.