Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/71



These words, as is plain from their connection with the preceding and subsequent verses, signify celestial things of faith. Similar things were signified by the queen of Sheba, who came to Solomon, and proposed hard questions, and brought him spices, gold, and precious stones (1 Kings x. 1, 2). For all things contained in the historical parts of the Word, as well as in the Prophets, signify, represent, and involve arcana.

. Verse 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth eastward toward Asshur; and the fourth river it is Phrath. The "river Hiddekel" is reason, or the clearsightedness of reason. "Asshur" is the rational mind; the "river which goeth eastward toward Asshur," signifies that the clearsightedness of reason comes from the Lord through the internal man into the rational mind, which is of the external man; "Phrath," or Euphrates, is memory-knowledge (scientia), which is the ultimate or boundary.

. That "Asshur" signifies the rational mind, or the rational of man, is very evident in the Prophets, as in Ezekiel:—

The rational is called a "cedar in Lebanon;" the "offshoot among the thick boughs," signifies the knowledges of the memory, which are in this very plight. This is still clearer in Isaiah:—

By "Egypt" in this and various other passages is signified memory-knowledges, by "Asshur" reason, and by "Israel" intelligence.