5057. Many cities above the mountains sank down in the middle and in sinking looked like a spinning spiral, like a volume of water going down through a hole. It was said that this is a sign they could not be saved.
Through much experience it has become known that in the other life Societies make up cities and that those who are in a particular city are in one society and arranged in order. In cities where the good are, the best are in the center, and they are situated toward the peripheries according to their life's goodness. And sometimes there is also an opening made there to the hells which are below them.
5057. Many cities, on mountains, sank down in the middle; and, in the sinking, it appeared like a vortical whirling, such as there is in volumes of water falling down through a chasm. It was said that it is a sign that they cannot be saved. It was made known, by experience, that societies in the other life constitute cities; and that they who are in the same city, are in society, and arranged there, according to order; that in the cities where the good are, the best are in the middle, and [the rest], in order, [towards] the circumferences, according to good of life; and that there is also an opening sometimes made there, to the hells, which are beneath the cities.
5057. Subsiderunt plures urbes super montibus in medio, et in subsidentia apparebat sicut gyratio vorticalis qualis in voluminibus aquae quae decidunt per hiatum, dictum quod id signum, quod non salvari possint. Per experientiam notum factum est, quod Societates in altera vita constituant urbes, et quod qui in una urbe sint in societate sint, et ibi dispositi secundum ordinem, in urbibus ubi boni, quod optimi in medio, et ordine secundum bonum vitae [versus] peripherias, et quod ibi aperiatur quoque quandoque ad inferna quae sub illis.