[2] To enable people to have a clearer knowledge of what the situation is with the literal sense of the Word, let this be discussed briefly: The relationship of the internal sense to the literal is like the relationship between the interiors and the exteriors of the human being, that is, between all that is celestial or spiritual in him and all that is natural or bodily. His interiors dwell in the light of heaven, but his exteriors in the light of the world. For the nature of the difference between the light of heaven and the light of the world, consequently for the difference between things belonging to the light of heaven and those belonging to the light of the world, see 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 1783, 1880, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3337, 3339, 3341, 3413. That is to say, the difference is like that existing between the light of day and the shade of night. Since man dwells in that shade and does not wish to know that truth from the Lord has light within it he inevitably believes that his shade is light, and indeed the reverse also - that his light is shade. For he is like the owl which, when flying in the shade of night, imagines it is in the light, but when flying in the light of day imagines it is in the shade. Indeed the internal eye - that is, the understanding - by means of which a person sees interiorly, assumes no other shape with someone like that, such being exactly how he has shaped it. For he opens it when he looks downwards, that is, to worldly and bodily things, and shuts it when he looks upwards, that is, to spiritual and celestial. With these people it is similar with the Word. That which appears in its literal sense they imagine to belong to the light but that which appears in the internal sense they imagine to belong to the shade. For how the Word appears to anyone depends on his own essential nature. In reality the internal sense of the Word in relation to its literal sense is like the light of heaven to the light of the world, 3086, 3108, that is, it is like the light of day to the light of night.

[3] Within the internal sense there are individual details, millions of which together constitute one particular feature that occurs in the literal sense. Or what amounts to the same, within the internal sense there exist particular features, millions of which together constitute just one general whole that occurs in the literal sense. This general whole is what is seen by man, but not the particular features which are present within it and which constitute it. Nevertheless man can see within the general whole the order that holds the particular features together, though he sees it according to his own essential nature. That order is the holiness which stirs his affections.