252. It is also surprising that man has not yet rightly observed, that all the things which owe their existence artificially to man, let them be what they may, such as statues, pictures, and innumerable other things, appear beautiful outwardly, and indeed are esteemed of great value; when nevertheless, these things are so constituted within, as to be semblances made of clay and dirt. The sight of the eye admires only the surface, whereas those things which grow from seeds begin from the internal, and grow up or come forth to the externals, and are not only beautiful to the sight, but also the more interiorly they are examined, the more beautiful they are. It is similar in man's life. Those things which begin from externals, thus which proceed from man, are compared to things artificial, of which men value and admire the external appearance, but the internals are altogether worthless: whereas those things that are from God Messiah are formed from inmosts; these are to be likened to the things in nature which are beautiful from their inmosts. This, then, is what God Messiah says, that all the magnificence of Solomon cannot be compared to the least lily, which nevertheless is lightly esteemed. [Matt. vi 29; Luke xii 27.] 1747, Nov. 15, o.s.