Afterwards, from that whole region a smoke ascended as after a conflagration, and finally a thick dust which was borne by the east wind to the sea, and strewn over it; for their treasures were turned into dust, with all those things which they had called holy because they possessed them. This dust was strewn over the sea, because such dust signifies damnation.
In the last place there was seen as it were a blackness flying over that whole region, which, when it was viewed narrowly, appeared like a dragon; a sign that the whole of that vast city and region was become a desert. This was seen, because dragons signify the falsities of such a religion, and the abode of dragons signifies the desert state which remains after their overthrow (Jer. ix. 11; x. 22; xlix. 33; Mai. i. 3). Certain persons were also seen to have, as it were, a mill-stone around their left arms, which was a representative of their having confirmed their abominable dogmas from the Word,—a mill-stone signifying such things. Hence it was plain what these words in the Apocalypse signify: "The angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and hurled it into the sea, saying: Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall no more be found" (Apoc. xviii. 21).
But they who were in the session, which also was in that region, but nearer to the east, and in which they were consulting on the modes of enlarging their
