254. (iv) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been entirely closed up. The spiritual degree is closed up in those who are in evils as to life, and still more in those who are in falsities arising from evils. It is the same as with the fibril of a nerve which contracts at the slightest touch of anything heterogeneous, similarly every motive fibre of a muscle, indeed the muscle itself, and even the whole body shrinks from the touch of whatever is hard or cold. So also the substances or forms of the spiritual degree in man shrink from evils and their falsities, for these are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree, because it is in the form of heaven, admits nothing except goods, and the truths which are from good, these being homogeneous to it, but evils and falsities which are of evil are heterogeneous to it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction is closed up especially in those who in the world are in a love of ruling from love of self because this love is the opposite of love to the Lord. It is also closed up, but not to the same extent, in those who, from love of the world, are in the insane greed of possessing the goods of others. The reason these loves close the spiritual degree is that they are the origins of evil. The contraction or the closing up of this degree is like the turning back of a spiral in the opposite direction. And this is the reason that that degree, after it has been closed up, turns back the light of heaven. Consequently, there is darkness there instead of the light of heaven, and so, truth which is in the light of heaven, becomes nauseous. In those people not only is the spiritual degree itself closed up, but also the higher region of the natural degree which is called the rational, until at last the lowest region of the natural degree which is called the sensual, alone remains open. For this is nearest to the world and to the external senses of the body from which the man afterwards thinks, speaks and reasons. The natural man who has become sensual through evils and their falsities, in the spiritual world in the light of heaven, does not appear as a man but as a monster, even with the nose pulled back. That the nose is pulled back is because the nose corresponds to the perception of truth. Also he cannot bear a ray of heavenly light. Such have in their caverns no other light than that resembling the light from live coals or from burning charcoal. From these facts it is clear who and of what character are those in whom the spiritual degree has been closed up.