[2] Continuation [concerning the Vegetable Kingdom]. - This origin is from use. The reason of this is, that affections have reference to uses; use being the subject of all affection. For man cannot be affected, unless it is for the sake of something, and this something is use. Now since all affection supposes use, and the vegetative soul, from its spiritual origin, is affection, as was observed, therefore it is also use. It is from this cause that there is use inherent in every plant, spiritual use in the spiritual world, and both spiritual and natural use in the natural world; the spiritual use being for the various states of the mind, and the natural for the various states of the body. It is well known that the spirits (animi) are revived, refreshed, and aroused, and again brought into a state of slumber, sadness, and fainting, by the odours and flavours of different plants, while the body also is on the one hand restored to health by the plants themselves, and the various preparations, remedies, and medicines that are made from them, and on the other hand deprived of life by the poisons that are extracted from them.

[3] The external spiritual use derived from these in the heavens is, the refreshing of the spirits; the internal is the representation of Divine things in them, and thus also the elevation of the mind. For the wiser angels see in them the quality of their affections in a series; the varieties of the flowers in their order, the variegations in the colours, and the perfumes also, render manifest their affections and whatever lies more remotely concealed within these. For every ultimate affection which is called natural, although it is really spiritual, derives its quality from an interior affection which pertains to intelligence and love, while these again derive theirs from use and the love of it. In a word, no other plant but that of use blossoms from the soil in the heavens, because use is the vegetative soul.

[4] And since use is the vegetative soul, therefore in those places in the spiritual world that are called deserts and are inhabited by such as in the world rejected the works of charity, which are essential uses, neither a blade of grass nor a single herb appears, but all is mere gravel and sand. By the uses which alone blossom in the heavens, is meant all good in active operation; and this proceeds from the Lord, by means of love to Him, and towards the neighbour. Every vegetable there represents a form of use; and whatever appears in it - from its origin to its ultimate, and from its ultimate to its origin, or from the seed to the flower, and from the flower to the seed - represents the progress and extension of affection and its use, from end to end. Those who are skilled in botany, chemistry, medicine, and pharmacy, come, after death, into the knowledge of the spiritual uses from the plants in the spiritual world; they also cultivate it and derive the highest gratification from it. I have conversed with them and heard wonderful things from them.