xed with clay_, Dan. ii. 41-43:'" and he said, "By the seed of
man, whereby iron shall be mixed with clay, and still they shall not
cohere, is meant the truth of the Word falsified." After he had said
this, I followed him, and in the way, he related to me these
particulars. "They dwell in the borders between the south and the west,
but at a great distance beyond those who lived in the four former ages,
and also at a greater depth." We then proceeded through the south to the
region bordering on the west, and passed though a formidable forest; for
in it there were lakes, out of which crocodiles raised their heads, and
opened at us their wide jaws beset with teeth; and between the lakes
were terrible dogs, some of which were three-headed like Cerberus, some
two-headed, all looking at us as we passed with a horrible hungry snarl
and fierce eyes. We entered the western tract of this region, and saw
dragons and leopards, such as are described in the Revelation, chap.
xii. 3; chap. xiii. 2. Then the angel said to me, "All these wild beasts
which you have seen, are not wild beasts but correspondences, and
thereby representative forms of the lusts of the inhabitants whom we
shall visit. The lusts themselves are represented by those horrible
dogs; their deceit and cunning by crocodiles; their falsities and
depraved inclinations to the things which relate to worship, by dragons
and leopards: nevertheless the inhabitants represented do not live close
behind the forest, but behind a great wilderness which lies
intermediate, that they may be fully withheld and separated from the
inhabitants of the foregoing ages, being of an entirely different genius
and quality from them: they have indeed heads above their breasts, and
breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, like the primeval
men; but in their heads there is not any thing of gold, nor in their
breasts any thing of silver, nor in their loins any thing of brass, no,
nor in their feet any thing of pure iron; but in their heads is iron
mixed with clay, in their breasts is each mixed with brass, in their
loins is also each mixed with silver, and in their feet is each mixed
with gold: by this inversion they are changed from men (_homines_) into
graven images of men, in which inwardly nothing coheres; for what was
highest, is made lowest, thus what was the head is become the heel, and
_vice versa_. They appear to us from heaven like stage-players, who lie
upon their elbows wit