Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 130

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130. He who desires to be wise from the world, has for his "garden" the things of sense and of memory-knowledge [sensualia et scientifica]; the love of self and the love of the world are his "Eden"; his "east" is the west, or himself; his "river Euphrates" is all his memory-knowledge [scientificum], which is condemned; his "second river" where is "Assyria" is infatuated reasoning productive of falsities; his "third river" where is "Ethiopia" is the principles of evil and falsity thence derived, which are the knowledges of his faith; his "fourth river" is the wisdom thence derived, which in the Word is called "magic." And therefore "Egypt"-which signifies memory-knowledge [scientia]-after the knowledge became magical, signifies such a man, because, as may be seen from the Word, he desires to be wise from self. Of such it is written in Ezekiel:

Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great whale that lieth in the midst of his rivers, who hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. And the land of Egypt shall be for a solitude, and a waste, and they shall know that I am Jehovah, because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it (Ezek. 29:3, 9). Such men are also called "trees of Eden in hell" in the same Prophet, where also Pharaoh, or the Egyptian, is treated of in these words:

When I shall have made him descend into hell with them that descend into the pit; to whom art thou thus made like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be made to descend with the trees of Eden into the lower earth, in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crew (Ezek. 31:16, 18), where the "trees of Eden" denote knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones] from the Word, which they thus profane by reasonings. Genesis 2, verses 18-25 18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help as with him. 19. And Jehovah God formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and brought it to the man to see what he would call it; and whatsoever the man called every living soul, that was the name thereof. 20. And the man gave names to every beast, and to the fowl of the heavens, and to every wild animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a help as with him. 21. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in the place thereof. 22. And the rib which Jehovah God had taken from the man, He built into a woman, and brought her to the man. 23. And the man said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; therefore she shall be called wife, because she was taken out of man [vir]. 24. Therefore shall a man [vir] leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. 25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.


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