1508. On many occasions I have been given to observe that those who in the world had been endowed with high rank bad inevitably acquired to themselves a sphere of authority, and therefore in the next life could neither conceal nor get rid of that sphere. With those of them who have been endowed with faith and charity the sphere of authority is joined wonderfully to a sphere of goodness, so that it is not troublesome to anyone. Indeed a kind of corresponding deference is paid to them by well-minded spirits. But with them it is not a sphere of ruling, merely a natural sphere that exists because they were born such and which they get rid of eventually after a period of time because they are good and strive to get rid of it.

2503. That 'Kadesh' is the affection for interior truth coming from rational concepts, while 'Shur' is the affection for exterior truth deriving from factual knowledge, becomes clear from the meaning of 'Kadesh' and of 'Shur'. 'Kadesh' means truth over which there is strife, as has been shown in 1678; thus it means strife over truth regarding its origin, whether it comes from the rational, as is evident from what follows. But because with the Lord all truth came from a celestial origin, 'Kadesh' here means the affection for truth. Residing with every member of the Church there are rational truths and there are factual truths. Rational truths are interior, but factual truths exterior. The former are quite distinct and separate from the latter, altogether so as man's interior memory is from his exterior memory, dealt with in 2469-2473, and following paragraphs. From this it follows that there are two affections for truth, the first more interior, which is an affection for rational truths, the second more exterior, which is an affection for factual truths. The affection for interior truth deriving from rational concepts is meant here by 'Kadesh', while the affection for exterior truth deriving from factual knowledge is meant by 'Shur'. As regards 'Shur' meaning exterior truth, see 1928; and the fact that names in the Word mean nothing other than real things has been shown already in 1224, 1264, 1876, 1888, and many times elsewhere.