ors. These are
closed up because they have turned themselves away from heaven, and
have retroverted those faculties that were capable of looking
heavenward, which are, as has been said above, the interiors of the
human mind. For this reason they are incapable of seeing anything
true or good, this being to them in thick darkness, while whatever is
false and evil is in light. [3] And yet sensual men can reason, some
of them more cunningly and keenly than any one else; but they reason
from the fallacies of the senses confirmed by their knowledges; and
because they are able to reason in this way they believe themselves
to be wiser than others.{2} The fire that kindles with affection
their reasonings is the fire of the love of self and the world. Such
are those who are in false intelligence and wisdom, and who are meant
by the Lord in Matthew:

Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do
they understand (13:13-15).

And again:

These things are hid from the intelligent and wise, and
revealed unto babes (11:25, 26).

{Footnote 1} The sensual is the outmost of man's life, clinging
to and inhering in his bodily part (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216,
9331, 9730). He is called a sensual man who forms all his
judgments and conclusions from the bodily senses, and who
believes nothing except what he sees with his eyes and touches
with his hands (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks in things
outermost and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564,
7693). His interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing of
Divine truth (n. 6564, 6844, 6845). In a word he is in gross
natural light and thus perceives nothing that is from the light
of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624,
6844, 6845). Therefore he is inwardly opposed to all things
pertaining to heaven and the church (n. 6201, 6310, 6844, 6845,
6948, 6949). The learned that have confirmed themselves against
the truths of the church are sensual (n. 6316). A description
of the sensual man (n. 10236).

{Footnote 2} Sensual men reason keenly and cunningly, since
they place all intelligence in speaking from the bodily memory
(n. 195, 196, 5700, 10236). But they reason from the fallacies
of the senses (n. 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693). Sensual men are more
cunning and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236). By the
ancients such were called serpents of the tree of knowledge (n.
195-197, 6398,