Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/65

 . Verse 9. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree desirable to behold, and good for food; the tree of lives also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge (scientiae) of good and evil. A "tree" signifies perception; a "tree desirable to behold," the perception of truth, a "tree good for food," the perception of good; the "tree of lives," love and the faith thence derived; the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," faith derived from what is sensuous, that is, from mere memory-knowledge (scientia).

. The reason why "trees" here signify perceptions is that the celestial man is treated of, but it is otherwise when the subject is the spiritual man, for on the nature of the subject depends that of the predicate.

. At this day it is unknown what Perception is. It is a certain internal sensation, from the Lord alone, as to whether a thing is true and good; and it was very well known to the Most Ancient Church. This perception is so perfect with the angels, that by it they are aware and have knowledge of what is true and good; of what is from the Lord, and what from themselves; and also of the quality of any one who comes to them, merely from his approach, and from a single one of his ideas. The spiritual man has no perception, but has conscience. A dead man has not even conscience; and very many do not know what conscience is, and still less what perception is.

. The "tree of lives" is love and the faith thence derived; "in the midst of the garden," is in the will of the internal man. The will, which in the Word is called the "heart," is the primary possession of the Lord with man and angel. But as no one can do good of himself, the will or heart is not man's, although it is predicated of man; cupidity, which he calls will, is man's. Since then the will is the "midst of the garden," where the tree of lives is placed, and man has no will, but mere cupidity, the "tree of lives" is the mercy of the Lord, from whom come all love and faith, consequently all life.

. But the nature of the "tree of the garden," or perception; of the "tree of lives," or love and the faith thence derived; and of the "tree of knowledge," or faith originating in what is sensuous and in mere memory-knowledge, will be shown in the following pages.