338. [330.] To be observed: Suppose there to be some matter, whether spiritual, moral, or civil, whose accomplishment a person has previously achieved and so loved.

1) The person hears of it from someone else or reads about it in a book.

2) This in turn prompts his thought.

3) Reawakened in the thought is his perception, because this had previously been connected with the matter.

4) Present in the perception is his affection, thus an affection for truth.

5) This affection, which we call an affection for truth, springs from an affection for good, which is a property of the will. Thus from the will, in the affection for truth, a conjunction of good and truth takes place, and as a result of that conjunction the will and intellect or good and truth operate in harmony.

6) Thus one element lies within another, and all are stirred by the last, even as a result of hearing and sight (that is, the stirring occurs as a result), namely, because the will lies inmostly within the hearing and so in the thought, and emerges in the same way that the spiritual and celestial meanings [of the Word] do from the natural meaning. There is in the hearing and so in the sight a concurrent presence.

But none of this produces anything. Production proceeds from the will or affection for good to an affection for truth, from there into the perception, and from this into the thought, and not conversely. The foregoing makes plain the reason for the appearance.