and the "right hand" signifies superior power.
And such being the evolution and putting forth of degrees into power, the
angels that are with man and in correspondence with all things belonging
to him, know merely from such action as is effected through the hands,
what a man is in respect to his understanding and will, also his charity
and faith, thus in respect to the internal life pertaining to his mind
and the external life derived therefrom in the body. I have often wondered
that the angels have such knowledge from the mere action of the body
through the hands; but that it is so has been shown to me repeatedly by
living experience, and it has been said that it is from this that
inductions into the ministry are performed by the laying on of the hands,
and that "touching with the hand" signifies communicating, with other
like things. From all this the conclusion is formed, that the all of
charity and faith is in works, and that charity and faith without works
are like rainbows about the sun, which vanish away and are dispersed by
a cloud. On this account "works" and "doing works" are so often mentioned
in the Word, and it is said that a man's salvation depends upon these;
moreover, he that doeth is called a wise man, and he that doeth not is
called a foolish man. But it should be remembered that by "works" here
are meant uses actually done; for the all of charity and faith is in uses
and according to uses. There is this correspondence of works with uses,
because the correspondence is spiritual, but it is carried out through
substances and matters, which are subjects.

221. Two arcana, which are brought within reach of the understanding by
what precedes, may here be revealed. The First Arcanum is that the Word
is in its fullness and in its power in the sense of the letter. For there
are three senses in the Word, according to the three degrees; the celestial
sense, the spiritual sense, and the natural sense. Since these senses are
in the Word according to the three degrees of height, and their conjunction
is effected by correspondences, the outmost sense, which is the natural
and is called the sense of the letter, is not only the complex, containant
and base of the corresponding interior senses, but moreover in the outmost
sense the Word is in its fullness and in its power. This is abundantly
shown and proved in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the
Sacred Scripture (n. 27-35, 36-49, 50-61, 62-69). The Second A