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.

4969. 'Who made him go down there means a descent from this simple good to that factual knowledge. This is clear from the representation of 'the Ishmaelites who made him go down' as those in whom simple good is present, dealt with immediately above in 4968, and from the meaning of Egypt, to which 'there' refers here, as factual knowledge in general, dealt with just above in 4964, 4966. The expression 'going down' is used because the subject is factual knowledge which is exterior. For in the Word passing from interior things to exterior ones is described as 'going down', and passing from exterior to interior ones as 'going up', see 3084, 4539.