241. CONCERNING THE MORE INTERIOR THINGS, OR THE FORM OF INTERIOR THINGS IT CAN NEVER BE OVERCOME BUT IT RESISTS EVERY ASSAULT AND ALWAYS REMAINS THE FIRMER. IT IS OTHERWISE WITH THE INTERIOR FORM: THUS STILL LESS WITH THE LOWER NATURAL FORMS. mWHAT THE SPIRITUAL IS WITHOUT THE CELESTIAL IT IS BROKENn I was thinking about forms, and indeed about the form of the more interior things, which is the spiritual form. It is of such a nature that it resists every assault; and its properties are such that by means of anxieties and straitnesses, it can be reduced into all possible, thus infinite forms; it can be applied to all forms, even to those in a lower sphere, and indeed, as if it cared nothing about them, however much those who dwell in the lower sphere may suppose otherwise because they reason from themselves, and also because the more they are confirmed, so much the more are they straitened. One thing consisting of an indefinite number of things concurs and unites itself for the defence of another; for there is nothing in the general which is not defended by the single, indeed by the most single things, even to what is indefinite, yea to what is infinite, and is thus held together to eternity, so that it can never be injured; and many more things, deduced according to order from the constancy of that form, can be deduced in regard to its perfections. Its general defends the particular, and every particular conspires to the firm establishment of the general; and indeed the more it yields, or is yielding, and as I may say, the softer it is, the more firmly does it stand: for then the inmost in the universal and in the single things, which is its universal, binds together and so forth, etc. mMoreover there is nothing so irrational that it may not be reduced to something rational, and thus be found in the indefinite things of the finite, that is, in the Infinite: here in God Messiah.n * These were my thoughts about forms this morning, and the angels of the more interior and of the inmost heaven, as I believe, took note of it, but as applied to the whole heaven and to their [states of] resistance and constancy, to their patience and similar things which are spiritual and celestial; and thus they confirmed them by a voice conveyed to me, saying, that they marveled that such a thing could ever enter the human mind. Thus when human minds know verities, then of the mercy of God Messiah, that [knowledge] passes over to the more interior and inmost heavens. It is indeed altogether different in natural things when there are falsities, by which the learned world is at this day so opposed [to the truth], that scarcely anyone knows what truth is and what good, either in natural or in moral things: hence, also, communication with the more interior heaven, and thus with the inmost, is taken away. When I would write these things, natural expressions cannot be satisfactory, because they contain more of the natural in my mind than could have easily been removed, and so have the spiritual presented more purely. It is, however, different in the interior from where is the natural which is injured; this so communicates with the lower natural things, or with forms rendered imperfect, that they can be easily broken, and the more natural they are, the more easily are they broken. All the continuity of the interior form comes from the more interior, and this from the inmost, and thus from God Messiah. Indeed, the spiritual itself, without the inmost as it were infilling it, is broken, as I have discovered in many ways, and by wonderful representations, and also by experiences. It is this spiritual which as yet dominates in man, and induces an appearance as though it were the more interior, when yet it is the interior; so it is called thought, but it is only reasoning: for the rational has with itself the true spiritual inwardly within it, and this the celestial inwardly within it. 1747, Nov. 6, o.s. * These words were added by the author in the margin of the MS. and seem to belong here. They are thus referred to in the Index (s.v. Dominus): "There is nothing so irrational that it cannot be bent into what is rational by Infinite Power, that is, by the Lord."