erstanding. Any apparent wisdom, therefore, which
does not make one with the love of wisdom, sinks back into the love which
does make one with it; and this may be a love of unwisdom, yea, of
insanity. Thus a man may know from wisdom that he ought to do this or
that, and yet he does not do it, because he does not love it. But so far
as a man does from love what wisdom teaches, he is an image of God.

40. DIVINE LOVE AND DIVINE WISDOM ARE SUBSTANCE AND ARE FORM.

The idea of men in general about love and about wisdom is that they are
like something hovering and floating in thin air or ether or like what
exhales from something of this kind. Scarcely any one believes that they
are really and actually substance and form. Even those who recognize that
they are substance and form still think of the love and the wisdom as
outside the subject and as issuing from it. For they call substance and
form that which they think of as outside the subject and as issuing from
it, even though it be something hovering and floating; not knowing that
love and wisdom are the subject itself, and that what is perceived outside
of it and as hovering and floating is nothing but an appearance of the
state of the subject in itself. There are several reasons why this has
not hitherto been seen, one of which is, that appearances are the first
things out of which the human mind forms its understanding, and these
appearances the mind can shake off only by the exploration of the cause;
and if the cause lies deeply hidden, the mind can explore it only by
keeping the understanding for a long time in spiritual light; and this
it cannot do by reason of the natural light which continually withdraws
it. The truth is, however, that love and wisdom are the real and actual
substance and form that constitute the subject itself.

41. But as this is contrary to appearance, it may seem not to merit belief
unless it be proved; and since it can be proved only by such things as
man can apprehend by his bodily senses, by these it shall be proved. Man
has five external senses, called touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight.
The subject of touch is the skin by which man is enveloped, the very
substance and form of the skin causing it to feel whatever is applied to
it. The sense of touch is not in the things applied, but in the substance
and form of the skin, which are the subject; the sense itself is nothing
but an affecting of the subject by the things applied. It is the sa