7112. 'You shall no longer give the people straw' means factual knowledge, the basest and most general kind of all. This is clear from the meaning of 'straw' as factual truths, dealt with in 3114, in particular the basest and most general kind of factual knowledge, for since 'straw' is the food of beasts 'straw' means the basest kind of food in the spiritual sense. Factual knowledge is said to be the basest when it is full of the illusions of the senses. It is what the evil misuse to pervert forms of good and truth and so lend support to evils and falsities; for on account of the illusions it contains that knowledge can be twisted round in favour of false suppositions and evil desires. That kind of factual knowledge is also the most general of all, and unless it is filled out with less general and more specific truths it can be of use to evils and falsities. But the more it is filled out with truths, the less it can have that kind of use. Such knowledge is the means by which the upright in the next life are molested by those who, when they were in the world, proclaimed belief in faith alone and yet led a life of evil. But because it is banished by the angels the narrative says at this point that they should no longer give the people straw to make bricks, that is, no longer provide such knowledge for producing fabrications and falsities which are to be introduced. This is the internal sense of these words, which does indeed seem remote from the sense of the letter; but it should be recognized that there is nothing in the natural world that does not correspond to some reality in the spiritual world. The angels present with a person understand in a spiritual way everything understood by the person in a natural way. They do not know what straw is, or what bricks are either. Such things were well known to those angels when they were in the world, but they forgot about them when they entered heaven, because there they moved on to spiritual things. This explains why when a person's ideas of such things in the natural world are perceived by angels they convert them into the corresponding spiritual realities. The fact that 'straw' or 'grass' means the basest kind of factual knowledge, and 'bricks' fabrications and falsities, may be seen from a number of considerations; for herbaceous plants, and also those that produce straw, are nothing else than such knowledge. But seeds, barley-grains, wheat-grains, and the like are interior truths and forms of good; and stones that are not man-made are truths.

1974. After troubled sleep a very lovely sight presented itself round about the first watch. There were wreaths as of laurel, green and fresh, placed in a very beautiful order, and moving as though they were alive. They were formed and arranged in such a way that their beauty and unity, and the feeling of bliss flowing from these, defy description. They ran in a double series spaced a little distant from each other and extended quite a long way with ever varying beauty. This was plainly seen by spirits, even by evil ones. Then another sight followed, which was still more beautiful, holding heavenly happiness within it; yet it was only dimly visible. Young children were playing heavenly games which filled the mind with feelings beyond description.

[2] Subsequently I spoke to the spirits about those sights and they confessed that they had seen the first as clearly as I had done but not the second except so obscurely that they could not tell what it was. This gave rise to anger within them, and after that gradually to envy, when they were told that the angels and young children had seen it; and I was allowed to experience with my senses their feeling of envy so that nothing should escape me insofar as it contributed to what I had to learn about. Their envy was such that it not only caused them extreme annoyance but also agony and interior pain, and solely because they did not see the second sight as well as the first. They were consequently led through different kinds of envy until they experienced pain in the region of the heart.

[3] While they were passing through this state I talked to them about their envy. I said that they might have been contented with having seen the first vision, and that they could have seen the second as well if they had been good spirits. But this too merely roused their anger, which increased their envy to such an extent that after that they could not bear the faintest recollection of the experience without feeling pain. The states and the successive stages of their envy, together with the degrees of it, the increases in it, and the varied intermingled feelings of distress in mind and heart, are indescribable. In this way I was shown how much the wicked are tormented by envy alone when they see from afar the blessedness of the good, or indeed when they simply think about it.