The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in
which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the
fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of
life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of
the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself forms his
opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference,
where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms
his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are.
The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks
to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the
circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp,
and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ
that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most
beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon
wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are
in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on
the earth. As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to
outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes
forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended
to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order
according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was
recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels
there. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to
men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man's
understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its
letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three