From one idea of
thought they were able to discern the entire series and fill it with
delightful things of wisdom combined with charming representations.
From this they were perceived to be among the more wise, and I was
told that they were some of the ancient people; and when they came
nearer I read to them something from the Word, and they were
delighted beyond measure. I perceived the essence of their delight
and gratification, which arose chiefly from this, that all things and
each thing they heard from the Word were representative and
significative of heavenly and spiritual things. They said that in
their time, when they lived in the world, their mode of thinking and
speaking and also of writing was of this nature, and that this was
their pursuit of wisdom.
324. But as regards the heathen of the present day, they are not so
wise, but most of them are simple in heart. Nevertheless, those of
them that have lived in mutual charity receive wisdom in the other
life, and of these one or two examples may be cited. When I read the
seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Judges (about Micah, and how
the sons of Dan carried away his graven image and teraphim and
Levite) a heathen spirit was present who in the life of the body had
worshiped a graven image.
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