ponds to the soul in respect to all the
functions and powers of its life.

From these few examples it can be seen what correspondence is and what
influx is; and that when the spiritual, which belongs to the life of
man's understanding and will, flows into the acts which belong to his
body, it exhibits itself in a natural effigy, and there is
correspondence; also that thus the spiritual and the natural act as one
by correspondences, like interior and exterior, or like prior and
posterior, or like the effecting cause and the effect, or like the
principal cause which belongs to man's thought and will, and the
instrumental cause which belongs to his speech and action. There is
such a correspondence of natural things and spiritual not only in each
and every thing of man, but also in each every thing of the world; and
the correspondences are produced by an influx of the spiritual world and
all things of it into the natural world and all things of it. From all
this it can be seen in some measure how our Word, as to the sense of the
letter, which is natural, makes one by influx and correspondences with
the Words in the heavens, the senses of which are spiritual. (A.E., n.
1080.)

What the Word is in respect to influx and correspondences can now be
shown. It is said in John:

"He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should
see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn
themselves and I should heal them" (xii. 40).

The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and
belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and love
of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not
permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit
profanation; for a wicked man who is healed and who returns to his evil
and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the
Jewish nation. In Matthew:

"Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear"
(xiii. 16).

Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and belief in
it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears"
signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to
hear" signifies to obey and live. For one is blessed not because he
sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives.
In the same,

"The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is
light, if