1199. For true and just are his judgments.- That this signifies that the laws of the Divine Providence, and all the works of the Lord, are of the Divine Wisdom and Divine Love, is evident from the signification of true and just, when said of the Lord, as denoting those things which pertain to His Divine Wisdom, and also those which pertain to His Divine Love, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of judgments, when said of the Lord, as denoting the laws of His Divine Providence (concerning which see above, n. 946). By judgments, therefore, are signified works, since all the works of the Lord are from His Divine Providence, and according to its laws; the reason is, that everything which the Lord does has regard to eternity, and those things which have regard to eternity are of His Divine Providence. The reason why truths signify those things which are of His Divine Wisdom, and just things those which are of His Divine Love, is, that from the Lord as the Sun proceed heat and light; the light is His Divine Wisdom, and the heat is His Divine Love. Light therefore signifies Divine Truth, from which angels and men derive all their intelligence and wisdom, while heat signifies Divine Good, from which angels and men derive all their love and charity. Such are this light and heat in their essence.
[2] Continuation [concerning the Life of Animals]. - No one can understand the nature of the life of the beasts of the earth, of the birds of heaven, and of the fish of the sea, unless he is also acquainted with the nature and quality of their soul (cenima). That every animal has a soul is a well-known fact; for animals live, and life is the soul; for this reason they are also called in the Word living souls. That this soul in its ultimate form, which is corporeal, such as it appears before the sight, is an animal, cannot be better known from any other source than the spiritual world. For in the spiritual world, just as in the natural, beasts, birds, and fishes of every kind are seen, and in form so similar that they cannot be distinguished from those which are in our world. But the difference is this, that in the spiritual world they have an apparent existence from the affections of angels and spirits, so that they are appearances of affections. For this reason they also vanish as soon as the angel or spirit departs, or his affection ceases. It is therefore evident that their soul is nothing else; and consequently that there are as many genera and species of animals as there are genera and species of affections.
It will be seen in what follows that the affections, which are represented in the spiritual world by animals, are not interior but exterior spiritual affections, which are called natural; and further that there is not a hair or thread of wool on any beast, not the smallest portion of a quill or feather upon any bird, nor the point of a fin or scale upon any fish, which is not formed from the life of their soul, and thus which is not from the Spiritual clothed with the Natural. But something shall first be said concerning the animals which appear in heaven, in hell, and in the world of spirits, which is between heaven and hell.
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