At another argumentative season, when the apprentice had ventured to ask if Toby did not think there was something incongruous in the account of Noah's flood, and in the size the ark was said to be,--and how the beasts went in,--and how they were supported,--the penetrating Swedenborgian assured the inquirer, with the utmost gravity, that he thought there was nothing in the whole world of books or facts more easy of explication. "Know thou, my beloved Joey," said the sincere old man, raising his spectacles, and placing them, like two additional eyes, in the centre of his large forehead, "that whoever giveth his hearty faith to the teaching of the celestial-minded Swedenborg will receive a second eye-sight,--spiritual, and far more precious than the eyes of this earthly body. The Deluge, Joey, represents 'the Second Church,' as the garden of Paradise represents the first. The ark is the man of the church; and the forty days' rain is a figure for the temptations of the senses, by which the Second Church, as well as the First, was tried: you may see that figure plainly cleared up by our Saviour's temptation in the wilderness. The ark is also described as having a window above,--that signifies the intellectual principle; and a door, moreover, at the side,--that denotes the faculty of hearing." "I wish all these things had been described in a plainer way, if they mean all this," interjected the youth, impatient of his mystic friend's harangue. "_If!_" exclaimed Toby, astonished out of measure that any sane person could, for one moment, doubt what seemed to himself to be so pellucidly clear;--"if!--why, only read it for yourself, Joe, in the 'Celestial Arcana' of the inspired Emanuel of the North!"--and, therewith, the agile old philosopher sprang from his chair, and reached the volume from his shelves. "Never mind, friend Toby: not at present," said Joe, very quietly. "Well, well," said Toby, "another time then;--but you won't hear me out, or otherwise I could clearly prove what I had begun to say." "But what confidence can one place in these dreams of your favourite Emanuel?" said Joe. "Dreams!" retorted the mystic tailor, lowering his voice, and changing the expression of his countenance, until Joe wondered what was the matter with him.--"Dreams! no, no, he didn't dream, Joey. He was favoured with heavenly visions! The angels actually took him several times to heaven,--for he says so himself----" "And Mahomet said the same," interjected Joe.