353. Everyone can, from the visible phenomena in nature, confirm himself on the side of the Divine if he wills; and everyone also does so confirm himself who thinks of God from a consideration of life. As for example, when he observes birds of the air and sees that each species of them knows its own food and where to find it; that each recognizes by sound and appearance its own kind, and which among other species are its friends and which its enemies; that they form nuptial pairs, know how to mate, skillfully build nests, lay their eggs there, brood over them, know how long to incubate them, and at the end of that time hatch out their young, tenderly love them, shelter them under their wings, share their food with them and feed them, and this until they become independent, and can themselves do the like and produce a brood to perpetuate their kind. Everyone who is willing to think about a Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural one, can see it in these phenomena, and if he will, can say in his heart, "Such instances of knowledge cannot flow into these creatures from the sun through the rays of its light; for the sun from which nature draws its origin and essence is nothing but fire, and consequently the rays of its light are altogether without life." Thus these people may also conclude that such phenomena exist from an influx of Divine wisdom into the outmost effects of nature.