on account of them. Grief of mind is grief of the thought and understanding, which are of truth; and grief of heart is grief of the affection and will, which are of good; and because there is everywhere in the word a marriage of truth and good, therefore both weeping and tears are mentioned in the Word when grief is expressed on account of falsities of doctrine or of religion. That weeping is grief of heart may appear from the consideration that it bursts forth from the heart, and breaks out into lamentation through the mouth; and that shedding tears is grief of mind may appear from the fact that it issues forth from the thought through the eyes. In both weeping and shedding tears water comes forth, but bitter and astringent; which is occasioned by influx into the grief of man from the spiritual world, where bitter water corresponds to defect of truth because of falsities, and to grief on account of them. (A. E. n. 484.)
By the dragon in general they are meant who are more or less natural, and yet in the knowledge of things spiritual from the Word. The reason is that serpents in general signify the sensual things of man, and thence sensual men; and therefore the dragon which is a flying serpent signifies the sensual man, who though sensual yet flies towards heaven, in that he speaks and thinks from the Word, or from doctrine derived from the Word. (A. E. n. 714.)
The Spiritual Sense of Numbers.
Number and measure are mentioned in many places in the Word, and it is supposed that in either case number and measure is meant; but by number and measure in the spiritual sense the quality is meant of the thing treated of. The very quality is determined by the numbers which are expressed. . . . The reason why number signifies the quality of the thing treated of
- In modern usage "weeping" has become synonymous with "shedding tears;" but the original and more exact meaning of "weep" is to bewail, or to express sorrow, grief, or anguish by outcry or other manifest outward sign. It is necessary to mark this distinction here, for a proper understanding of the author's language. Weeping in this sense it is true is generally accompanied by the shedding of tears, because the understanding acts in sympathy and unison with the will; but according to the author the tears even then proceed from and therefore correspond relatively to the action of the thought, and the weeping or bewailing to that of the affection. A good example of this distinction between the terms occurs in the passage, "Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from shedding tears" (Jer. xxxi. 16).