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both is valour; and, as to keep the middle tenor, is
very difficult, this has been emblematized by some-
thing which is finer than a hair and sharper than
the edge of a sword, and by three arches, which
indicate the due mixture of three powers, viz. :
knowledge, courage, and lust. Under hell is meant
elemental nature.

We shall pass to the interpretation of the gates
of heaven, the number of which is eight; that of the
gates of hell, seven. It is established that there are
five external senses and five internal; but all of
them are not apt to perceive without the assistance
of inference and imagination; because it is imagi-
nation which perceives the forms, and inference
completes the perception of sensible things. The
two internal with the five external senses, make
seven. If they attend not to the commands of rea-
son, each of them goes for imprisonment to that hell

which is under the heaven of the moon, and if thev

fj

listen to these commands, they reach with the ninth
rank of intelligence the eight gates of heaven for
salvation and emancipation, as well as enter the
Paradise which is among the heavens.

" As to him who disobeyed, and preferred the worldly life, hell shall
" be his abode; and as to him who feared the being of the Lord and
'* refused to give up his soul to concupiscence, Paradise shall be his
41 abode."