258. The essential reason why it is hurtful to confirm the appearances of truth that are in the Word, which thereby become fallacies, and thus the Divine truth concealed within the appearances is destroyed, is that each thing and all things of the sense of the letter of the Word, communicate with heaven. For it has been shown above that within each thing and all things of the sense of the letter there is a spiritual sense, and this sense is opened in passing from man to heaven. All things of the spiritual sense are genuine truths; so when man is in falsities and applies the sense of the letter to those falsities, the falsities enter into that sense, and when they enter truths are dissipated, which is done on the way from man to heaven. This may be compared to a shining bladder filled with gall which is thrown towards another, and which bursts in the air before reaching him, and the gall is scattered about; whereupon the other, when he smells the air infected with the gall, turns away, and shuts his mouth lest it should touch his tongue. Or it may be compared to a leather bottle girt with wicker-work of cedar and containing vinegar full of worms, and the bottle bursts on the way, and its stench is perceived by the other, who is nauseated by it and instantly fans it away that it may not enter his nostrils. It is also like an almond shell, within which instead of an almond is a newly-born snake, and the shell being broken, the little serpent appears to be carried by the wind towards the eyes of another, who obviously would turn away to avoid it. It is the same when the Word is read by a man who is in falsities, and who adapts to his falsities something of the sense of the letter of the Word, in which case it is rejected on the way to heaven, lest any such thing should flow in and infest the angels. For when falsity touches truth, it is like the point of a needle touching the fibril of a nerve or the pupil of the eye; it is known that the fibril instantly coils itself up spirally and withdraws within itself and that the eye at the first touch covers itself with its lids. All this makes clear that truth falsified takes away communication with heaven and closes heaven. This is why it is hurtful to confirm any heretical falsity.