682. So it is also with a Rainbow, in which nothing but the most general form appears, namely, bands of successive colors, when yet each color is made up of countless rays flowing into it separately and producing this most general effect. The eye perceives the myriads of rays only as a unit, and even then indistinctly. That indistinct unit appears simply as some one color which is [actually] an indistinctness thus made up of many shades. Since the sight perceives myriads of myriads as only a single entity, and an indistinct one at that, why should it be any different in the case of the earthly mind, whose sight is no deeper than the sight of the eye? That mind, consequently, does not understand where mental images come from, which are likewise [composed of] myriads of more inward ones. If these latter were not flowing forth in distinct forms from an innermost life, and this from the Lord, nothing distinct could ever be conceived of in a mental picture. But since a mental image is not in itself a matter of understanding, but does come forth as it is by the agency of the understanding, it can therefore be understood by means of mental images. Therefore it is evident how general, in fact most general or most vague, that is which one thinks to be clear, sharp, wise, ingenious - which, however, is anything but intelligent and wise.