4948. Those however who during their lifetime thought about and desired within themselves nothing but that which was selfish and worldly shut off from themselves every path or influx from heaven; for self-love and love of the world are the opposite of heavenly love. Those of them who at the same time immersed themselves in pleasures or else luxurious living coupled with inner deceitfulness are beneath the sole of the right foot, but deep down and so below the land of lower things, where the hell, of such people is situated. Within their dwellings there is nothing but filth. They also seem to themselves to be carrying such, for filth corresponds to the kind of life they lead. One smells there the stench of different kinds of filth matching the genera and species of that kind of life. In that place live many who in the world were quite famous people.

9538. 'Which are on its four feet' means in the natural sphere. This is clear from the meaning of 'four' as that which implies a joining together, dealt with in 1686, 8877; and from the meaning of 'feet' as the natural, dealt with in 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952, 5327, 5328. The firmness resides in the natural sphere because everything spiritual reaches down to and rests on that which is called natural truth, and everything celestial down to and on that which is called natural good. So it is that the natural is their foundation and consequently firm support. Few as yet know of this; therefore something will in the Lord's Divine mercy be said from experience about it elsewhere.