another in imagination those things which, in the other life, appear
to the life. But they instantly transmuted them; they darkened the
meadows and fallow-lands, and by representations filled them with
snakes; the streams they turned black, so that the water no longer
appeared limpid. When I asked why they did so, they said they did
not want to think of such things, but of realities, which are the
knowledges of things abstracted from terrestrial things, especially of
such as exist in the heavens.

33. I afterwards represented to them birds both large and small,
such as exist on our Earth; for in the other life such things can be
represented to the life. On seeing those birds represented, they at
first wanted to change them, but they afterwards were delighted
with them, and became quiet; the reason was, that birds signify the
knowledges of things, and the perception of this fact then flowed
in[o]; they therefore abstained from transmuting them, and so from
turning away the ideas of their memory. Afterwards it was permitted
me to represent before them a very pleasant garden full of lamps and
lights; they then paused and their attention was fixed, because lamps
with lights signify truths (_veritates_) which shine from good[p].
From this it was evident that they could be detained in the
consideration of material things, provided only that the signification
of those things in the spiritual sense were insinuated at the same
time; for the things which belong to the spiritual sense are not
abstracted from material things to the same extent, inasmuch as they
are representative of these.

[Footnote o: Birds signify rational things, intellectual things,
thoughts, ideas, and knowledges, nos. 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988,
993, 5149, 7441. And this with variety according to the genera and