Divine Love and Wisdom (Harleys) n. 108

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108. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE ANGELS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD IS AN APPEARANCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RECEPTION BY THEM OF THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM

All the fallacies that hold sway with the evil and the simple arise from appearances confirmed. So long as appearances remain appearances, they are apparent truths according to which everyone can think and speak. But when they are accepted for the truths themselves, as happens when they are confirmed, then apparent truths become falsities and fallacies. For example, it is an appearance that the sun moves around the earth daily, and once a year follows the apparent path of the sun round the earth. So long as this is not confirmed, it is an apparent truth according to which everyone can think and speak. For he can say that the sun rises and sets, and thereby causes morning, mid-day, evening and night, also that the sun is now in such and such a degree of the ecliptic path or of its altitude, thereby causing spring, summer, autumn and winter. But when that appearance is confirmed as the truth itself, then he who confirms it thinks and speaks a falsity springing from a fallacy. It is the same with innumerable other appearances, not only in natural, civil and moral things but also in spiritual things.


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