Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/37

N. 41] mentioned only because the "living soul," and the "thing moving itself," are treated of.

. Verse 21. And God created great whales, and every living soul that creepeth, which the waters made to creep forth, after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good. "Fishes," as before said, signify memory-knowledges, now animated by faith from the Lord, and thus alive. "Whales" signify their general principles, in subordination to which, and from which, are the particulars; for there is nothing in the universe that is not under some general principle, as a means that it may exist and subsist. "Whales," or "great fishes," are sometimes mentioned by the Prophets, and they there signify the generals of memory-knowledges. Pharaoh the king of Egypt (by whom is represented human wisdom or intelligence, that is, knowledge (scientia) in general), is called a "great whale." As in Ezekiel:—

[2] And in another place:—

by which words are signified those who desire to enter into the mysteries of faith by means of memory-knowledges, and thus from themselves. In Isaiah:—

By "slaying the whales that are in the sea," is signified that such persons are ignorant of even the general principles of truth. So in Jeremiah:—

denoting that he had swallowed the knowledges of faith, here called "delicacies," as the whale did Jonah; a "whale" denoting those who possess the general principles of the