1393. CONCERNING COLORS BY WHICH SPIRITUAL THINGS ARE REPRESENTED That spiritual things are represented by colors is well known from the rainbow and other things, also from experience. That this may be known, take only the colors black and white. The color black is such that it absorbs all the rays of light and scatters them around irregularly without any order; whence arises blackness. In like manner, malice, which is represented by the color black, absorbs all the rays of intellectual light and pours them around in a disorderly manner, so that at length no light or whiteness appears. The color white, however, does not receive the rays of light, but reflects them. In like manner, those who justify themselves and place righteousness in works do not admit, but reflect, the rays of intellectual or interior light. It is similar with respect to other colors. 1748, Mar. 15.