Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 6055

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

6055. He who does not know the interiors of man, cannot know about influx and the interaction of the soul with the body; for the interaction and the influx are effected by means of these interiors. In order to know the interiors of man, it is necessary to know that there is an internal man and an external man, and that the internal man is in the spiritual world, and the external man in the natural world; thus that the former is in the light of heaven, and the latter in the light of the world. It is also necessary to know that the internal man is so distinct from the external man that the former, being prior and interior, can subsist without the latter; but that the latter or external man, being posterior and exterior, cannot subsist without the former. It must be known, further, that the internal man is what is properly called the intellectual or rational man, because this is in the light of heaven," in which light are reason and understanding; whereas the external man is what is properly to be called that of memory-knowledge, because in him there are memory-knowledges, which for the most part derive their light from those things which are of the light of the world, when this light is enlightened and thus vivified by the light of heaven.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church