[2] [Continuation concerning the Life of Animals]. - The particular signs that bear a similar testimony are still more numerous and striking, and with some species of animals they are such that the sensual man, whose thoughts are fixed in material things, places the powers belonging to beasts on the same footing only as those possessed by man. From his deluded intelligence, he concludes that their states of life are similar, even after death, alleging, that if he lives after death, they live, or if they die, he dies also. The signs which bear this testimony, and still delude the sensual man, are that in the case of some animals they appear to have similar prudence and cunning, similar marriage love, similar friendship, and, as it were, charity, similar probity and benevolence, in a word, a moral nature similar to that which exists in men. Dogs, for example, from a quality innate in them, as if from a kind of mental power, know how to keep faithful watch. From a hint of their master's affection they know, as it were, his will; from perceiving the scent of his footsteps or clothes they can trace him out; they know the bearings of the country in which they live, and speedily find their way home, even through pathless tracts or in thick forests. From these and other traits of a similar kind the sensual man concludes that the dog is endowed with knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. Nor is this to be wondered at, when he ascribes these powers in the case of the dog, as well as in his own case, to nature. It is different with the spiritual man; he sees that there is something spiritual which leads in all these cases, and that this is united to the Natural.

[3] Particular signs also are observable in birds. They know how to build their nests, to lay in them their eggs, to sit upon these, to hatch their young, and afterwards, from that love which exists between parent and offspring, to provide them with warmth under their wings, and food from their bills, until they are fledged and provided with wings, also until they of themselves come into all the knowledge (scientia) of their parents, from which they provide for themselves, the result of that spiritual which is their soul. Particular signs, again, are the contents of the egg, in which lie concealed the rudiments of the new bird, encompassed with every element ministering to the formation of the foetus, from its beginnings in the head to the complete structure of all parts of the body. Is it possible that such provision could be made by nature? For this involves not only the process of production, but also that of creation; and nature does not create. What has nature in common with life, but that life may be clothed by nature, and come forth, and appear in form as an animal?

Among the particular signs testifying the same are caterpillars. When these are about to undergo a change of form they encompass themselves as it were with a womb, that they may be born again. In this state they are changed into nymphs and chrysalises, and after the necessary process and time, they come forth and soar as beautiful butterflies into the air as their heaven, where the male and female sport together as married partners with each other. They now feed upon odoriferous flowers, and lay their eggs, thus providing that their species may live after them. The spiritual man sees that this emulates man's re-birth, and is a representative of his own resurrection, and thus is spiritual.

[4] Still more striking are the signs observable among bees, which have a form of government analogous to the forms of government with men. They construct for themselves cells of wax according to the rules of art in a regular series, with convenient passages through which to come and go; they then fill them with honey collected from flowers. They appoint over themselves a queen, from whom as from a common parent the future race is to proceed. She dwells above her people, in the midst of her guards, and these, when she is about to become a mother, follow her, with a promiscuous crowd in their train, as she goes from cell to cell, laying a little egg in each. She does this without intermission until the matrix is exhausted, when she returns home, and repeats again and again the same process. Her guards, which are called drones, because they perform no other use than waiting as so many domestics upon one mistress, and possibly inspire her with something of amatory desire, are then considered useless, and therefore, lest they should invade and consume the produce of the labour of others, are brought out and deprived of their wings. In this way the community is cleared of its indolent members. Afterwards, again, when the new offspring is grown up, they are commanded by the general voice, which is heard as a loud humming, to depart and to seek shelter and food for themselves. They therefore depart, and collecting into a swarm, establish a similar order of things in a new hive of their own.

These and many other particulars which have been observed and published by investigators, are not unlike the forms of government which have been established and arranged in kingdoms and republics by human intelligence and wisdom, according to the laws of justice and judgment. Bees, again, like men, as if they were aware of the approach of winter, lay up a store of provision for it, lest they should then die of want. Who can deny that such things as these are from a spiritual origin? or that things similar to these are from any other source? All such things are to me convincing arguments and proofs of a spiritual influx into the things of nature, and I am amazed how facts of this kind can be regarded as grounds and proofs of the operation of nature alone, as they are by some men who are infatuated by their own intelligence.