ancients likewise had the science of correspondences, which is also
the science of representations, the very essential science of the wise,
which was principally cultivated by the Egyptians, whence their
hieroglyphics were derived. From that science they knew what was
signified by animals and trees of every kind, likewise by mountains,
hills, rivers, fountains, and also by the sun, the moon, and the stars:
by means of this science also they had a knowledge of spiritual things;
since things represented, which were such as relate to the spiritual
wisdom of the angels, were the origins (of those which represent). Now
since all their worship was representative, consisting of mere
correspondences, therefore they celebrated it on mountains and hills,
and also in groves and gardens; and on this account they sanctified
fountains, and in their adorations turned their faces to the rising sun:
moreover they made graven horses, oxen, calves, and lambs; yea, birds,
fishes, and serpents; and these they set in their houses and other
places, in order, according to the spiritual things of the church to
which they corresponded, or which they represented. They also set
similar images in their temples, as a means of recalling to their
remembrance the holy things of worship which they signified. In process
of time, when the science of correspondences was forgotten, their
posterity began to worship the very graven images as holy in themselves,
not knowing that the ancients, their fathers, did not see anything holy
in them, but only that according to correspondences they represented and
thence signified holy things. Hence arose the idolatries which
overspread the whole globe, as well Asia with its islands, as Africa and
Europe. To the intent that all those idolatries might be eradicated, it
came to pass of the Lord's divine providence, that a new religion,
accommodated to the genius of the orientals, took its rise; in which
something from each testament of the Word was retained, and which taught
that the Lord had come into the world, and that he was a grand prophet,
the wisest of all, and the Son of God. This was effected by means of
Mahomet, from whom that religion took its name. From these
considerations it is manifest, that this religion was raised up of the
Lord's divine providence, and accommodated, as we have observed, to the
genius of the orientals, to the end that it might destroy the idolatries
of so many nations, and might give its pr