1201. Who did corrupt the earth with her whoredom.- That this signifies by whom all the truths of the Word are falsified, and all its goods adulterated, is evident from the signification of the earth, as denoting the church; and from the signification of corrupting it with whoredom, as denoting to falsify all its truths, and to adulterate all its goods, concerning which see above (n. 141, 161, 1083, 1130). That truths are falsified by them is evident from this fact, that they make light of the Word, and hatch new statutes, judgments, and precepts from their proprium, most of which look to dominion over heaven and the church as an end, all being truths falsified. That the goods of the church are also adulterated is evident from, this, that they declare everything given to monasteries and to their idols, and also to the papal chair, to be holy, and they call them good works; and yet by that means they spoil houses, and deprive widows and orphans of their goods; and they do this although they live in treasure houses, and their wealth abounds. They moreover make such works meritorious, not to mention many other similar things.
[2] Continuation [concerning the Life of Animals]. - Having premised these things, we shall now explain what the soul of beasts is. The soul of beasts, considered in itself, is spiritual; for affection, of whatever kind it is, whether good or evil, is spiritual, for it is a derivation from some love, and derives its origin from the light and heat which proceed from the Lord as the Sun, and whatever proceeds therefrom is spiritual. That evil affections, called concupiscences, are also from a spiritual source, is evident from what has been said above on the subject of the evil loves and insane lusts of infernal genii and spirits.
[3] Beasts and wild beasts, whose souls are similar evil affections, such as mice, poisonous serpents, crocodiles, basilisks, vipers, and others of a similar kind, with the various noxious insects, were not created at the beginning, but originated with hell, in ponds, marshes, putrid and foul waters, and wherever there were putrid, filthy, and urinous effiuvia, with which the malignant loves of the infernal societies communicate. I have been permitted to know by experience that communication with such things does exist. There is also in everything spiritual a plastic force, and also a propagative force, wherever homogeneous exhalations are present in nature, for it forms not only the organs of sense and motion, but also organs of prolification, by means of wombs or eggs. But at the beginning, useful and clean beasts alone were created, whose souls are good affections.
[4] It must, however, be observed, that the souls of beasts are not spiritual in the degree in which the souls of men are, but they are spiritual in a lower degree; for there are degrees of spiritual things. The affections, also, of the lower degree, although spiritual viewed in regard to their origin, must still be spoken of as natural, for the reason that they are similar to the affections of the natural man. There are in man three degrees of the natural affections, and the same also in beasts. In the lowest degree are insects of various kinds; in the higher degree are the fowls of heaven, and in the degree still higher are the beasts of the earth, which were created from the beginning.
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