1358. What the tongue symbolizes, and who constitute its province
The tongue affords entrance both to the lungs and to the stomach, thus providing for both. So it symbolizes a kind of entryway to spiritual and heavenly regions. For the lungs symbolize spiritual regions, and because the stomach pertains to the heart, which it serves by providing its nourishment to the blood, therefore the tongue serves as an entryway to heavenly regions. It is by virtue of the lungs that man is able to speak.
1358. WHAT THE TONGUE SIGNIFIES AND WHO THEY ARE WHO CONSTITUTE THAT PROVINCE
The tongue affords entrance both to the lungs and to the stomach, and so provides for both. Thus it signifies a court-yard, as it were, to spiritual and celestial things. For the lungs signify spiritual things, and the stomach, because it pertains to the heart to which it ministers [by providing] the blood with its aliments, and for other reasons, serves as a court-yard to celestial things. It is by aid of the lungs that man is able to speak.
1358. Lingua quid significat, et qui ejus provinciam constituunt
Lingua introitum praebet tam ad pulmones, quam ad ventriculum, ita prospicit utrique, ita significat quasi atrium ad spiritualia et coelestia, nam pulmones significant spiritualia, et quia ventriculus pertinet 1
ad cor, cui subministrat quia sanguini sua alimenta, ideo coelestibus inservit pro atrio, tum ex aliis causis; pulmones sunt, quorum beneficio loqui potest homo.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has pertinent