Part 11 (1/2)

(6) There are two forms into which the operation by influx takes place, the vegetable and the animal.

(7) Both these forms receive the ability to propagate their kind and the means of propagation.

338. (1) What is meant by evil uses on the earth. By evil uses on earth are meant all noxious things in both the animal and vegetable kingdom, also in the mineral kingdom. It is needless to enumerate all the noxious things in these kingdoms, for to do so would merely heap up names, and doing this without indicating the noxious effect that each kind produces would not contribute to the object which this work has in view. For the sake of information a few examples will suffice:-In the animal kingdom there are poisonous serpents, scorpions, crocodiles, great snakes, horned owls, screech owls, mice, locusts, frogs, spiders; also flies, drones, moths, lice, mites; in a word, creatures that destroy gra.s.ses, leaves, fruits, seed, food, and drink, and are harmful to beast and man. In the vegetable kingdom there are all hurtful, virulent, and poisonous herbs, with leguminous plants and shrubs of like character; and in the mineral kingdom all poisonous earths. From these few examples it can be seen what is meant by evil uses on earth; for evil uses are all things that are opposite to good uses (of which, in the preceding paragraph, n. 336).

339. (2) All things that are evil uses are in h.e.l.l, and all things that are good uses are in heaven. Before it can be seen that all evil uses that take form on earth are not from the Lord but from h.e.l.l, something must be premised concerning heaven and h.e.l.l, without a knowledge of which evil uses as well as good may be attributed to the Lord, and it may be believed that they are together from creation; or they may be attributed to nature, and their origin to the sun of nature. From these two errors man cannot be delivered, unless he knows that nothing whatever takes form in the natural world that does not derive its cause and therefore its origin from the spiritual world, and that good is from the Lord, and evil from the devil, that is, from h.e.l.l. By the spiritual world is meant both heaven and h.e.l.l. In heaven are to be seen all those things that are good uses (of which in a preceding article, n. 336). In h.e.l.l are to be seen all those that are evil uses (see just above, n. 338, where they are enumerated). These are wild creatures of every kind, as serpents, scorpions, great snakes, crocodiles, tigers, wolves, foxes, swine, owls of different kinds, bats, rats, and mice, frogs, locusts, spiders, and noxious insects of many kinds; also hemlocks and aconites, and all kinds of poisons, both of herbs and of earths; in a word, everything hurtful and deadly to man. Such things appear in the h.e.l.ls to the life precisely like those on and in the earth. They are said to appear there; yet they are not there as on earth, for they are mere correspondences of l.u.s.ts that swarm out of their evil loves, and present themselves in such forms before others. Because there are such things in the h.e.l.ls, these abound in foul smells, cadaverous, stercoraceous, urinous, and putrid, wherein the diabolical spirits there take delight, as animals do in rank stenches.

From this it can be seen that like things in the natural world did not derive their origin from the Lord, and were not created from the beginning, neither did they spring from nature through her sun, but are from h.e.l.l. That they are not from nature through her sun is plain, for the spiritual inflows into the natural, and not the reverse. And that they are not from the Lord is plain, because h.e.l.l is not from Him, therefore nothing in h.e.l.l corresponding to the evils of its inhabitants is from Him.

340. (3) There is unceasing influx out of the spiritual world into the natural world. He who does not know that there is a spiritual world, or that it is distinct from the natural world, as what is prior is distinct from what is subsequent, or as cause from the thing caused, can have no knowledge of this influx. This is the reason why those who have written on the origin of plants and animals could not do otherwise than ascribe that origin to nature; or if to G.o.d, then in the sense that G.o.d had implanted in nature from the beginning a power to produce such things, - not knowing that no power has been implanted in nature, since nature, in herself, is dead, and contributes no more to the production of these things than a tool does, for instance, to the work of a mechanic, the tool acting only as it is continually moved. It is the spiritual, deriving its origin from the sun where the Lord is, and proceeding to the outmosts of nature, that produces the forms of plants and animals, exhibiting the marvels that exist in both, and filling the forms with matters from the earth, that they may become fixed and enduring. But because it is now known that there is a spiritual world, and that the spiritual is from the spiritual sun, in which the Lord is and which is from the Lord, and that the spiritual is what impels nature to act, as what is living impels what is dead, also that like things exist in the spiritual world as in the natural world, it can now be seen that plants and animals have had their existence only from the Lord though that world, and through that world they have perpetual existence. Thus there is unceasing influx from the spiritual world into the natural. That this is so will be abundantly corroborated in the next chapter. Noxious things are produced on earth through influx from h.e.l.l, by the same law of permission whereby evils themselves from h.e.l.l flow into men. This law will be set forth in the Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence.

341. (4) Those things that are evil uses are effected by the operation of influx from h.e.l.l, wherever there are such things as correspond thereto.

The things that correspond to evil uses, that is, to hurtful plants and noxious animals, are cadaverous, putrid, excrement.i.tious, stercoraceous, rancid, and urinous matters; consequently, in places where these are, such herbs and such animalcules spring forth as are mentioned above; and in the torrid zone, like things of larger size, as serpents, basilisks, crocodiles, scorpions, rats, and so forth. Every one knows that swamps, stagnant ponds, dung, fetid bogs, are full of such things; also that noxious insects fill the atmosphere in clouds, and noxious vermin walk the earth in armies, and consume its herbs to the very roots. I once observed in my garden, that in the s.p.a.ce of a half yard, nearly all the dust was turned into minute insects, for when it was stirred with a stick, they rose in clouds. That cadaverous and putrid matters are in accord with these noxious and useless little things, and that the two are h.o.m.ogeneous, is evident from mere observation; and it is still more clearly seen from the cause, which is, that like stenches and fumes exist in the h.e.l.ls, where such little things are likewise to be seen. Those h.e.l.ls are therefore named accordingly; some are called cadaverous, some stercoraceous, some urinous, and so on. But all these h.e.l.ls are covered over, that those vapors may not escape from them. For when they are opened a very little, which happens when novitiate devils enter, they excite vomiting and cause headache, and such as are also poisonous induce fainting. The very dust there is also of the same nature, wherefore it is there called d.a.m.ned dust. From this it is evident that there are such noxious insects wherever there are such stenches, because the two correspond.

342. It now becomes a matter of inquiry whether such things spring from eggs conveyed to the spot by means of air, or rain, or water oozing through the soil, or whether they spring from the damp and stenches themselves. That these noxious animalcules and insects mentioned above are hatched from eggs which have been carried to the spot, or which have lain hidden everywhere in the ground since creation, is opposed to all observation. For worms spring forth in minute seeds, in the kernels of nuts, in wood, in stones, and even from leaves, and upon plants and in plants there are lice and grubs which are accordant with them. Of flying insects, too, there are such as appear in houses, fields, and woods, which arise in like manner in summer, with no oviform matters sufficient to account for them; also such as devour meadows and lawns, and in some hot localities fill and infest the air; besides those that swim and fly unseen in filthy waters, wines becoming sour, and pestilential air. These facts of observation support those who say that the odors, effluvia, and exhalations emitted from plants, earths, and ponds, are what give the initiative to such things. That when they have come forth, they are afterwards propagated either by eggs or offshoots, does not disprove their immediate generation; since every living creature, along with its minute viscera, receives organs of generation and means of propagation (see below, n. 347). In agreement with these phenomena is the fact heretofore unknown that there are like things also in the h.e.l.ls.

343. That the h.e.l.ls mentioned above have not only communication but conjunction with such things in the earths may be concluded from this, that the h.e.l.ls are not distant from men, but are about them, yea, are within those who are evil; thus they are contiguous to the earth; for man, in regard to his affections and l.u.s.ts, and consequent thoughts, and in regard to his actions springing from these, which are good or evil uses, is in the midst either of angels of heaven or of spirits of h.e.l.l; and as such things as are on the earth are also in the heavens and h.e.l.ls, it follows that influx therefrom directly produces such things when the conditions are favorable. All things, in fact, that appear in the spiritual world, whether in heaven or in h.e.l.l, are correspondences of affections or l.u.s.ts, for they take form there in accordance with these; consequently when affections or l.u.s.ts, which in themselves are spiritual, meet with h.o.m.ogeneous or corresponding things in the earths, there are present both the spiritual that furnishes a soul, and the material that furnishes a body. Moreover, within everything spiritual there is a conatus to clothe itself with a body. The h.e.l.ls are about men, and therefore contiguous to the earth, because the spiritual world is not in s.p.a.ce, but is where there is a corresponding affection.

344. I heard two presidents of the English Royal Society, Sir Hans Sloane and Martin Folkes, conversing together in the spiritual world about the existence of seeds and eggs, and about productions from them in the earths. The former ascribed them to nature, and contended that nature was endowed from creation with a power and force to produce such effects by means of the sun's heat. The other maintained that this force is in nature unceasingly from G.o.d the Creator. To settle the discussion, a beautiful bird appeared to Sir Hans Sloane, and he was asked to examine it to see whether it differed in the smallest particle from a similar bird on earth. He held it in his hand, examined it, and declared that there was no difference. He knew indeed that it was nothing but an affection of some angel represented outside of the angel as a bird, and that it would vanish or cease with its affection. And this came to pa.s.s.

By this experience Sir Hans Sloane was convinced that nature contributes nothing whatever to the production of plants and animals, that they are produced solely by what flows into the natural world out of the spiritual world. If that bird, he said, were to be infilled, in its minutest parts, with corresponding matters from the earth, and thus fixed, it would be a lasting bird, like the birds on the earth; and that it is the same with such things as are from h.e.l.l. To this he added that had he known what he now knew of the spiritual world, he would have ascribed to nature no more than this, that it serves the spiritual, which is from G.o.d, in fixing the things which flow in unceasingly into nature.

345. (5) This is effected by the lowest spiritual separated from what is above it. It was shown in Part Third that the spiritual flows down from its sun even to the outmosts of nature through three degrees, which are called the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural; that these three degrees are in man from creation, consequently from birth; that they are opened according to man's life; that if the celestial degree which is the highest and inmost is opened, man becomes celestial; if the spiritual degree which is the middle is opened, he becomes spiritual; but if only the natural degree which is the lowest and outermost is opened, he becomes natural; that if man becomes natural only, he loves only corporeal and worldly things; and that so far as he loves these, so far he does not love celestial and spiritual things, and does not look to G.o.d, and so far he becomes evil. From all this it is evident that the lowest spiritual, which is called the spiritual-natural, can be separated from its higher degrees, and is separated in such men as h.e.l.l consists of. This lowest spiritual can separate itself from its higher parts, and look to h.e.l.l, in men only; it cannot be so separated in beasts, or in soils. From which it follows that these evil uses mentioned above are effected on the earth by this lowest spiritual separated from what is above it, such as it is in those who are in h.e.l.l. That the noxious things on the earth have their origin in man, thus from h.e.l.l, may be shown by the state of the land of Canaan, as described in the Word; in that when the children of Israel lived according to the commandments, the earth yielded its increase, likewise the flocks and herds; but when they lived contrary to the commandments the ground was barren, and as it is said, accursed; instead of harvests it yielded thorns and briars, the flocks and herds miscarried, and wild beasts broke in. The same may be inferred from the locusts, frogs, and lice in Egypt.

346. (6) There are two forms into which the operation by influx takes place, the vegetable and the animal form. That there are only two universal forms produced out of the earth is known from the two kingdoms of nature, called the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, also that all the subjects of either kingdom possess many things in common. Thus the subjects of the animal kingdom have organs of sense and organs of motion and members and viscera that are actuated by brains, hearts, and lungs.

So the subjects of the vegetable kingdom send down a root into the ground, and bring forth stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. Both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, as regards the production of their forms, derive their origin from spiritual influx and operation out of the sun of heaven where the Lord is, and not from the influx and operation of nature out of her sun; from this they derive nothing except their fixation, as was said above. All animals, great and small, derive their origin from the spiritual in the outmost degree, which is called the natural; man alone from all three degrees, called the celestial, spiritual, and natural.

As each degree of height or discrete degree decreases from its perfection to its imperfection, as light to shade, by continuity, so do animals; there are therefore perfect, less perfect, and imperfect animals. The perfect animals are elephants, camels, horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, and others which are of the herd or the flock; the less perfect are birds; and the imperfect are fish and sh.e.l.l-fish; these, as being the lowest of that degree, are as it were in shade, while the former are in light. Yet animals, since they live only from the lowest spiritual degree, which is called the natural, can look nowhere else than towards the earth and to food there, and to their own kind for the sake of propagation; the soul of all these is natural affection and appet.i.te. The subjects of the vegetable kingdom comprise, in like manner, the perfect, less perfect, and imperfect; the perfect are fruit trees, the less perfect are vines and shrubs, and the imperfect are gra.s.ses. But plants derive from the spiritual out of which they spring that they are uses, while animals derive from the spiritual out of which they spring that they are affections and appet.i.tes, as was shown above.

347. (7) Each of these forms receives with its existence the means of propagation. In all products of the earth, which pertain, as was said above, either to the vegetable or to the animal kingdom, there is a kind of image of creation, and a kind of image of man, and also a kind of image of the infinite and the eternal; this was shown above (n. 313-318); also that the image of the infinite and the eternal is clearly manifest in the capacity of all these for infinite and eternal propagation. They all, therefore, receive means of propagation; the subjects of the animal kingdom through seed, in the egg or in the womb or by sp.a.w.ning; and the subjects of the vegetable kingdom through seeds in the ground. From which it can be seen that although the more imperfect and the noxious animals and plants originate through immediate influx out of h.e.l.l, yet afterwards they are propagated mediately by seeds, eggs, or grafts; consequently, the one position does not annul the other.

348. That all uses, both good and evil, are from a spiritual origin, thus from the sun where the Lord is, may be ill.u.s.trated by this experience. I have heard that goods and truths have been sent down through the heavens by the Lord to the h.e.l.ls, and that these same, received by degrees to the lowest deep, were there turned into evils and falsities, which are the opposite of the goods and truths sent down. This took place because recipient subjects turn all things that inflow into such things as are in agreement with their own forms, just as the white light of the sun is turned into ugly colors or into black in those objects whose substances are interiorly of such a form as to suffocate and extinguish the light, and as stagnant ponds, dung-hills, and dead bodies turn the heat of the sun into stenches. From all this it can be seen that even evil uses are from the spiritual sun, but that good uses are changed in h.e.l.l into evil uses. It is evident, therefore, that the Lord has not created and does not create any except good uses, but that h.e.l.l produces evil uses.

349. THE VISIBLE THINGS IN THE CREATED UNIVERSE BEAR WITNESS THAT NATURE HAS PRODUCED AND DOES PRODUCE NOTHING, BUT THAT THE DIVINE OUT OF ITSELF, AND THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, HAS PRODUCED AND DOES PRODUCE ALL THINGS.

Speaking from appearances, most men say that the sun by heat and light produces whatever is to be seen in plains, fields, gardens, and forests; also that the sun by its heat hatches worms from eggs, and makes prolific the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air; and that it even gives life to man. Those who speak from appearances only may speak in this way without ascribing these things to nature, because they are not thinking about the matter; as there are those who speak of the sun as rising and setting, and causing days and years, and being now at this or that alt.i.tude; such persons speak from appearances, and in doing so, do not ascribe such effects to the sun, because they are not thinking of the sun's fixity or the earth's revolution. But those who confirm themselves in the idea that the sun produces the things that appear upon the earth by means of its heat and light, end by ascribing all things to nature, even the creation of the universe, and become naturalists and, at last, atheists. These may continue to say that G.o.d created nature and endowed her with the power of producing such things, but this they say from fear of losing their good name; and by G.o.d the Creator they still mean nature, and some mean the innermost of nature, and then the Divine things taught by the church they regard as of no account.

350. There are some who are excusable for ascribing certain visible things to nature, for two reasons. First, because they have had no knowledge of the sun of heaven, where the Lord is, or of influx therefrom, or of the spiritual world and its state, or even of its presence with man, and therefore had no other idea than that the spiritual is a purer natural; consequently, that angels are in the ether or in the stars; and that the devil is either man's evil or if an actual existence, that he is in the air or the abyss; also that the souls of men, after death, are either in the interior of the earth, or in an undetermined somewhere till the day of judgment; and other like things deduced by fancy out of ignorance of the spiritual world and its sun.

Secondly, they are excusable, because they are unable to see how the Divine could produce everything that appears on the earth, where there are not only good things but also evil things; and they are afraid to confirm themselves in such an idea, lest they ascribe the evil things also to G.o.d, and form a material conception of G.o.d, and make G.o.d and nature one, and thus confound the two.

For these two reasons those are excusable who have believed that nature produces the visible world by a power implanted in her by creation. But those who have made themselves atheists by confirmations in favor of nature are not excusable, because they might have confirmed themselves in favor of the Divine. Ignorance indeed excuses, but does not remove, falsity - which has been confirmed, for such falsity coheres with evil, thus with h.e.l.l. Consequently, those same persons who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature to such an extent as to separate the Divine from nature, regard nothing as sin, because all sin is against the Divine, and this they have separated, and thus have rejected it; and those who in spirit regard nothing as sin, after death when they become spirits, since they are in bonds to h.e.l.l, rush into wickednesses which are in accord with the l.u.s.ts to which they have given rein.

351. Those who believe in a Divine operation in all the details of nature, are able by very many things they see in nature to confirm themselves in favor of the Divine, as fully as others confirm themselves in favor of nature, yea, more fully. For those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine give attention to the wonders which are displayed in the production both of plants and animals. In the production of plants, how out of a little seed cast into the ground there goes forth a root, and by means of the root a stem, and branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits in succession, even to new seeds; just as if the seed knew the order of succession, or the process by which it is to renew itself. Can any reasonable person think that the sun, which is mere fire, has this knowledge, or that it is able to empower its heat and light to effect these results, or is able to fas.h.i.+on these wonderful things in plants, and to contemplate use? Any man of elevated reason who sees and weighs these things, cannot think otherwise than that they come from Him who has infinite reason, that is, from G.o.d. Those who acknowledge the Divine also see and think this, but those who do not acknowledge the Divine do not see or think this because they do not wish to; thus they sink their rational into the sensual, which draws all its ideas from the lumen which is proper to the bodily senses and which confirms their illusions, saying, Do you not see the sun effecting these things by its heat and light? What is a thing that you do not see? Is it anything?

Those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine give attention to the wonders which are displayed in the production of animals; to mention here only, in reference to eggs, how the chick in its seed or beginning lies hidden therein, with everything requisite till it is hatched, also with everything pertaining to its subsequent development, until it becomes a bird or winged thing of the same form as its parent. And if one observes the living form, it is such as to fill any one with astonishment who thinks deeply, seeing that in the minutest as in the largest living creatures, even in the invisible, as in the visible, there are the organs of sense, namely, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch; and organs of motion which are muscles, for they fly and walk; also viscera surrounding the heart and lungs, which are set in action by brains. That even the commonest insects enjoy such organisms is shown in their anatomy as described by some writers, and especially by Swammerdam, in his Biblia Naturae. Those who ascribe everything to nature, see all these things, but they merely perceive that they exist, and say that nature produces them. They say this because they have turned their minds away from thinking about the Divine; and those who have done this are unable, when they see the wonderful things in nature, to think rationally, still less spiritually; but they think sensually and materially; and then they think in nature from nature, and not above nature, just as those do who are in h.e.l.l. They differ from beasts only in having the power to think rationally, that is, in being able to understand, and therefore to think otherwise, if they choose.

352. Those who have averted themselves from thinking about the Divine when observing the wonderful things in nature, and who thereby become sensual, do not reflect that the sight of the eye is so gross as to see many little insects as an obscure speck, when yet each one of these is organized to feel and to move, and is accordingly furnished with fibers and vessels, also with a minute heart, pulmonary tubes, viscera, and brains; also that these organs are woven out of the purest substances in nature, their tissues corresponding to that somewhat of life by which their minutest parts are separately moved. When the sight of the eye is so gross that many such creatures, with innumerable particulars in each, appear to it as an obscure speck, and yet those who are sensual think and judge by that sight, it is clear how dulled their minds are, and therefore what thick darkness they are in concerning spiritual things.

353. Any one who chooses may confirm himself in favor of the Divine from things seen in nature, and whoever thinks about G.o.d in reference to life does so confirm himself; as when he observes the birds of the air, how each species knows its food and where to find it, recognizes its kind by sound and sight, and which among other kinds are its friends and which its enemies; how also they mate, have knowledge of the s.e.xual relation, skillfully build nests, lay eggs therein, sit upon these, know the period of incubation, and this having elapsed, bring forth their young, love them most tenderly, cherish them under their wings, bring them food and feed them, until they can do for themselves, perform the same offices, and bring forth a family to perpetuate their kind. Any one who is willing to reflect on the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural can see such influx in these things, and if he will, can say from his heart, Such knowledges cannot flow into these creatures out of the sun through its rays of light, for the sun, from which nature derives its origin and essence, is mere fire, consequently its rays of light are wholly dead; and thus he may conclude that such things are from the influx of Divine Wisdom into the outmosts of nature.

354. Any one may confirm himself in favor of the Divine from things visible in nature, when he sees larvae, from the delight of some impulse, desiring and longing to change their terrestrial state to a certain likeness of the heavenly state, and for this purpose creeping into corners, and putting themselves as it were into a womb in order to be born again, and there becoming chrysalises, aurelias, caterpillars, nymphs, and at length b.u.t.terflies; and having undergone this metamorphosis, and each after its kind been decked with beautiful wings, they ascend into the air as into their heaven, and there disport themselves joyfully, form marriage unions, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity, nourished meanwhile with pleasant and sweet food from flowers. Who that confirms himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things in nature can help seeing a kind of image of man's earthly state in these as larvae, and in them as b.u.t.terflies an image of the heavenly state? Those who confirm themselves in favor of nature see the same things, but because in heart they have rejected the heavenly state of man they call them merely natural instincts.