3415. It was asked what they wished to do with those whom they drew to themselves, and collected by phantasies; they said that they would wrap them in a net and cast them into a sea or abyss; wherefore some wished that they should mean a flood: that by such [phantasies] they perished as by a flood. Whether there was such a correspondence of a flood, then in the antediluvian times appears probable; but that the flood took place is evident from very many things whereof I spoke with them: but as to Noah's Ark, there were many things which induce me to believe that it signifies something else: for instance, that there must be place and food [pasana] also water for so many animals, which [were contained] therein, and that [the ark] must have been so capacious. But I drop these matters, because there are spirits who desire to confuse thereby, what facts have actually transpired: so that I think that each and everything written by Moses in Genesis, is of such a character, for example that [there was] such a paradise, and Adam and other things besides.