10050. 'And its legs' means purification of the more external things belonging to the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing the legs' as purification of the natural man (for the meaning of 'washing' as purifying, see immediately above in 10049); and from the meaning of 'the legs' as the more external things belonging to the natural man. The reason why these things are meant by 'the legs' is that one must at the same time understand the feet, since an animal's four legs are closely connected to its feet, and 'the feet' by virtue of their correspondence mean the natural or external level in a person, see 2162, 3147, 3761, 4938-4952.

[2] Much the same is meant by 'the legs' in Amos,

As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so will the children of Israel dwelling in Samaria be rescued, on the corner of a bed and on the end of a couch. Amos 3:12.

'The lion' here means those who lay the Church waste, 'legs' the external part of it, which is also the external part of the natural man, 'a piece of an ear' its discernment, and those 'dwelling in Samaria' those whose worship is external. 'The corner of a bed and the end of a couch' is the lowest part of the natural, which is external sensory awareness and its truth and good.

[3] In Daniel's description of Nebuchadnezzar's statue - its head made of pure gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and side of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay, Daniel 2:32-33 - what is meant by 'the legs' is the truth of faith in the external or natural man; and the same thing is also meant by 'iron', see 10030. The reason why the legs in the description are distinguished from the feet is that human legs are by nature different from animal legs.

233. Investigating mysteries of faith by means of facts is as impossible as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, or for a rib to control the tiniest fibres of the chest and the heart. Just as gross, indeed far more gross, is what is sensory and factual in comparison with what is spiritual and celestial. Anyone who wishes to probe merely the secrets of nature, which are countless, discovers scarcely a single one, and when he starts to probe he sinks, as is well known, into falsities. What then would happen if he wished to probe the secrets of spiritual and celestial life, where thousands and thousands of secrets exist for each one contained in the unseen parts of nature?

[2] To illustrate the point, let just one example be taken. Of himself man is incapable of anything other than doing evil and turning himself away from the Lord. Yet it is not the man who does so but the evil spirits residing with him. Yet again it is not the evil spirits who do it but the evil itself which they have made their own. All the same, man does that evil and turns himself away, and is blameworthy, even though his life comes from the Lord alone. On the other hand man of himself cannot possibly do good and return to the Lord. This is accomplished by angels. Yet the angels cannot do it, but only the Lord. All the same, man is capable as if of himself of doing good and of returning to the Lord. The truth of all this cannot possibly be grasped by the senses, formulated knowledge, or philosophy. If these are consulted they deny those things outright, even though they are inherently true. And the same applies with everything else.

[3] These considerations show that people who consult sensory evidence and factual knowledge in matters of belief plunge themselves not only into doubt but also into denial, that is, into thick darkness. And in plunging into thick darkness they also become immersed in every kind of evil desire, for in believing what is false they also do what is false. And when they believe that the spiritual and the celestial do not exist they believe that only the bodily and the worldly do so. So they love anything that belongs to self and the world, and this is how evil desires and evils themselves arise out of what is false.