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have not the living force of knowledge and of art; who, having not the
reasoning life of any knowledge whatever, are as the stones. And in
order that this hidden thing should be discovered by the wise, it will
be demonstrated in the last Treatise. Verily the theologians take this
meaning otherwise than do the poets: but, because my intention here is
to follow the way of the poets, I shall take the Allegorical sense
according as it is used by the poets.

The third sense is termed Moral; and this is that which the readers
ought intently to search for in books, for their own advantage and for
that of their descendants; as one can espy in the Gospel, when Christ
ascended the Mount for the Transfiguration, that, of the twelve
Apostles, He took with Him only three. From which one can understand
in the Moral sense that in the most secret things we ought to have but
little company.

The fourth sense is termed Mystical, that is, above sense,
supernatural; and this it is, when spiritually one expounds a writing
which even in the Literal sense by the things signified bears express
reference to the Divine things of Eternal Glory; as one can see in
that Song of the Prophet which says that by the exodus of the people
of Israel from Egypt Judaea is made holy and free. That this happens to
be true according to the letter is evident. Not less true is that
which it means spiritually, that in the Soul's liberation from Sin (or
in the exodus of the Soul from Sin) it is made holy and free in its
powers.

But in demonstrating these, the Literal must always go first, as that
in whose sense the others are included, and without which it would be
impossible and irrational to understand the others. Especially is it
impossible in the Allegorical, because, in each thing which has a
within and a without, it is impossible to come to the within if you do
not first come to the without. Wherefore, since in books the Literal
meaning is always external, it is impossible to reach the others,
especially the Allegorical, without first coming to the Literal.
Again, it is impossible, because in each thing, natural and
artificial, it is impossible to proceed to the form without having
first laid down the matter upon which the form should be. Thus, it is
impossible for the form of the gold to come, if the matter, that is,
its subject, is not first laid down and prepared; or for the form of
the ark to come, if the material, that is, the wood, be not first