1911. 'And she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes' means that this rational at its conception despised truth itself that was allied to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'mistress', or Sarai, as truth allied to good. The rational conceived first is unable to acknowledge intellectual or spiritual truth as truth because it has clinging to it many illusions that are a product of what is known about the world and the natural order, and many appearances which are not truths but are a product of things known from the literal sense of the Word. For example,

[2] It is an intellectual truth that all life is from the Lord. The rational conceived first does not apprehend this, but supposes that if it did not live of itself it would possess no life at all; indeed it is angry if anything different is asserted, as I have noticed frequently in the case of spirits who cling to the illusions of the senses.

[3] It is an intellectual truth that all good and truth are from the Lord. Again, the rational conceived first does not apprehend this because of its sensation that these are as if from itself; and also it supposes that if good and truth are not from itself, it is unable to think, let alone perform, anything good and true, and that if it did have some other source it would give up its own efforts and constantly wait for influx into itself.

[4] It is an intellectual truth that nothing but good, and not even the smallest amount of evil, comes from the Lord. The rational conceived first does not believe this either, but it supposes that because the Lord rules over every single thing, even evil derives from Him. And because He is all powerful and present everywhere and is Goodness itself but does not abolish the punishments of evil people in hell, it supposes that He wills the evil of punishment, when in fact He does not do evil to anyone and does not will that anyone should be punished.

[5] It is an intellectual truth that the celestial man has from the Lord a perception of good and truth. But the first rational either denies the existence of perception altogether or else it supposes that if it did perceive from another and not from its own self it would be like one who is inanimate, or devoid of life. Indeed the more that the thinking of the rational is based on the facts that arise from sensory evidence and the more it is based on philosophical arguments, the less it apprehends these and all other intellectual truths, for the illusions that result are enveloped in shadows darker still. This is why the learned are less believing than others.

[6] Since the rational conceived first is such, it is clear that 'it despises its mistress', that is, it despises intellectual truth. Intellectual truth is not open to view, that is, it is not acknowledged, until illusions and appearances have been dispersed, and these are never dispersed as long as a person reasons about truths themselves on the basis of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. But the moment he believes in simplicity of heart that it is the truth because the Lord has declared it to be so, the shadows of illusions are at that point dispelled, and then there is nothing to stop him apprehending it.

[7] With the Lord however no illusions were present; but when His rational was first conceived there were appearances of truth which were not truths in themselves, as is evident from what has been stated in 1661. This also explains why His rational when first conceived despised intellectual truth, but step by step, as the rational became Divine, the clouds of appearances were dispersed and intellectual truths in their light were for Him open to view. This was represented and meant by the expulsion of Ishmael from the house when Isaac grew up. That the Lord did not despise intellectual truth but that He perceived and saw that His new rational did so will be clear from what follows in 1914.

1914. That 'may the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant-girl into your bosom' means its unwillingness to take any blame is clear without explanation. In the internal sense these words embody within themselves the truth that the Lord perceived this first rational to be such as despised intellectual truth, and for that reason He reproached it. The Lord did indeed think from intellectual truth, as stated above in 1904; and because that truth was superior to the rational, He was able to perceive and see the nature of the rational, that is to say, that it held that truth in contempt.

[2] The Lord's being able from the interior man to perceive and see the nature of the new rational within Himself becomes clear from the fact that what is interior is able to perceive that which occurs in the exterior, or what amounts to the same, what is higher is able to see that which occurs in that which is lower, but not the reverse. Moreover, those who have conscience are able and are accustomed to do the same, for when anything contrary to the truth constituting conscience enters their thought or the intentions of their will, they not only recognize it for what it is but also pour blame upon it; indeed it grieves them that their own nature is such. This is all the more true of those who have perception, for perception is more interior within the rational. What then could the Lord not do who had Divine celestial perception and whose thought sprang from the affection for intellectual truth which is above the rational? Therefore He could not be anything else but righteously angry since He knew that no evil or falsity at all stemmed from Himself and that from the affection for truth He strove anxiously with all His might so that the rational might be pure. From this it becomes clear that the Lord did not despise intellectual truth, yet perceived that the first rational with Him did so.

[3] What thinking from intellectual truth is cannot be explained intelligibly, all the less so because nobody except the Lord has ever thought from that affection and that kind of truth. Anyone who thinks from them is above the angelic heaven, for the angels of the third heaven do not think from intellectual truth but from the interior part of the rational. But to the extent that the Lord united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, He thought from Divine Good itself, that is, from Jehovah.

[4] The early fathers of the Most Ancient Church, who had perception, thought from the interior rational. The fathers of the Ancient Church, who did not have perception but conscience, thought from the exterior or natural rational. But all who do not have conscience never think from the rational at all, since they have no rational however much they appear to do so. Instead they think from the sensory and the bodily experience of the natural. People who do not have conscience are unable to think from the rational for the reason, as has been stated, that they have no rational. The rational man is one in whom the good and truth of faith are the substance of his thought and never one who thinks in opposition to these. Those in whom evil and falsity are the substance of their thought are insane as to their thought and therefore the rational cannot be attributed to them.