5100. CONCERNING THE DRAGON. There are those who relate to the head of the dragon, to his body and to his tail. Those who form the head are sensual persons, who remain in the sense of the letter of the Word alone. Those who form the body are, principally, those who have been learned, or who, by virtue of scientific knowledge, are able to reason, as well concerning spiritual as concerning moral and civil matters, and yet only from the senses and the fallacies thereof; and, because they reason from the sciences, they are accounted learned; but, all the while, they, in heart, deny God, the life after death, and salvation. They attribute all things to nature; but yet they excel in the faculty of reasoning. Since, however, they deny those things which belong to the interior understanding, and thus are wise from worldly and terrestrial things only, they are sensual, and, in fact, Serpents of the tree of Knowledge. Amongst the principal of this class was Peter Ribbing, who attributed all things to nature. In heart, he denied God; and yet he could reason, both in favor of, and against, Divine things. He was more sensual than the rest. Those, however, who constitute the tail of the dragon, are hypocrites of various kinds, who, in heart, deny God and eternal life, but yet preach them with the mouth - as also the remaining points; as, for instance, those which relate to conscience, to faith, to the welfare of the country and the welfare of the neighbor. They kill with their tails - both the latter and the former are amongst the worst in the other life, since they are able to turn themselves both ways, as well to heaven as to the hells. The former are such as [the man] who came amongst the invited guests, and had not on a wedding-garment. The sphere of both former and latter is atrocious, impairing and deadening all piety, truth, good of faith, and, in general, all Christianity; leading away from the Lord, and leading to the proprium.