All things whatsoever that are in the vegetable and in the animate kingdom, are portrayals and as it were results of things spiritual and heavenly, and in fact, in a countless variety. For earthly things could never have come forth nor continued, except from spiritual ones, a fact that can be demonstrated in countless ways. Here I will speak only of how character develops in a person growing up. This is seen imaged in trees and their fruits, such as apples and others: the surface or covering is the mother of the fruit in the inward parts or cores; through the surface and the fibers reaching in from it, all the inward parts are developed. The flavor images pleasantness [of character]. After the inward parts have developed from the surface, by means of fibers branching in from all sides, then the hard coverings are separated - as with an almond - and the kernels remain. So in the comparable process of human development: it commences from higher knowledge, thus from matters of the intellect, whereby character is acquired, which is like the kernel so formed. From the flavor of the kernel it is evident what the juice or sap, that is, the life of the person, had been like. These things were written in the presence of angels and spirits. 1747, the 25th day of December. Because many human characters, or souls, resemble unripe or rotten fruits, having a stinking odor, therefore they cannot be compared to anything but those fruits which must develop anew in good ground.* * This paragraph seems to be deleted in the original.