2620. How portrayals arise, and how they work
When heavenly and spiritual things, that is, those which are of the Lord, and from the Lord in the heavens, come down into the evil world of spirits, and first in fact to the nearest spirits who are in the inward realm of that world, then because of the spirits' nature, namely, their utterly corrupt natural character, what is of a heavenly and spiritual angelic nature is turned into the opposite, thus into contrary purposes, because their natural character looks toward contrary purposes. Hence those things that pass through such a spiritual world still remain portrayals of heavenly ones, as also in the case of the descendants of Jacob. 1748, 16 July.
2620. HOW REPRESENTATIONS ARISE, AND HENCE HOW THEY ARE CIRCUMSTANCED [se habeant].
When celestial and spiritual things, that is, those which are of the Lord and from the Lord in the heavens, flow [labuntur] into the evil world of spirits, and indeed first into proximate spirits who are in the interior sphere of that world, then because spirits are of such a nature, to wit, that their natural disposition [is] wholly perverted, therefore whatever is celestial and spiritual angelic is turned into the opposite, therefore into contrary ends, because their natural disposition respects contrary ends; hence whatever things thus pass through such a spiritual world still remain representations of celestial things: therefore it was also the case with the posterity of Jacob. - 1748, July 16.
2620. Quomodo repraesentationes oriantur, et inde se habeant
Cum coelestia et spiritualia, hoc est illa quae sunt Domini, et a Domino in coelis, labuntur in mundum spirituum malum, et quidem primum 1
in proximos spiritus, qui in sphaera interiori istius mundi sunt, tunc quia tales sunt spiritus, nempe quod eorum naturalis indoles prorsus perversa, ideo quod coeleste et spirituale angelicum est, vertitur in oppositum, ita inncontrarios fines, quia naturalis eorum indoles spectat contrarios fines, inde qui 2
sic per mundum spiritualem talem transeunt usque manent repraesentationes coelestium, sic quoque apud posteros Jacobi. 1748, 16 Julius.
Footnotes:
1. In the Manuscript primum alieno stilo et eronee in prius mutatum est
2. sic manuscript; J.F.I. Tafel's edition has quae subtituit