263. I have also seen writings from heaven made up of mere numbers set down in order and in a series, just as in writings made up of letters and words. I have been instructed, too, that this writing is from the inmost heaven, and that their heavenly writing (spoken of above, n. 260, 261), when the thought from it flows down, is presented to the angels of the lower heavens in numbers, and that this numerical writing likewise involves arcana, some of which can neither be comprehended by thought nor expressed by words. For all numbers correspond, and have a meaning, as words have, in accordance with the correspondence;# yet with the difference that numbers involve generals, and words particulars. As one general involves innumerable particulars, so numerical writing involves more arcana than writing composed of letters. It was evident to me that in the Word the numbers as well as the words signify things. What the simple numbers signify, as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and what the compound numbers, as 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 144, 1000, 10,000, 12,000, and others, signify may be seen in ARCANA CALESTIA, where they are dealt with. In that writing in heaven, a number is always prefixed on which those following in a series depend as on their subject. For that number is, as it were, an index to the matter dealt with, and from it is the determination of the numbers following in relation to the particular point. # All numbers in the Word signify things (n. 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4670, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253). Shown from heaven (n. 4495, 5265). Numbers multiplied have the same signification as the simple numbers from which they result by multiplication (n. 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973). The most ancient people had heavenly arcana in numbers, forming a kind of computation of states of the Church (n. 575).