21. XXI.

There are in general two forms which the Lord, the Creator of the universe, from His sun, which is Divine love and life itself, has produced in the ultimates and in the inmosts of the world, the animal form and the vegetable form. By animal forms both animals of every kind and men and angels are meant; and by vegetable forms vegetables of every kind, as trees, plants, and flowers, are meant. These two forms have already been treated of (AE 1196-1212); but as the Divine love is the subject here treated of, and as from this all things have been created, and all things from creation are being formed continually, it is permitted here to say something about the first form, that is, the animal form. [2] The Divine love, which is life itself, from its author who is the Lord, bears nothing else in its bosom than to create and form images and likenesses of itself, which images and likenesses are men and angels from men; and also to cover with a correspondent body affections of every kind, which are animals. All these forms, perfect and imperfect, are forms of love, and are alike in what pertains to their life in externals, which is an inclination to move, to walk, to act, to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, to feel, to eat, to drink, to associate with others, to propagate themselves. But they are unlike in what pertains to their life in internals, which is an inclination to think, to will, to speak, to know, to understand, to be wise, and from these things to find enjoyment and blessedness. Men and angels are forms of the latter class, animate things of many kinds are forms of the former class. That these several faculties may exist in effect and in use, they have been made and wonderfully organized from created substances and matters. [3] That the Lord, who is Man, and His Divine love, which is life itself from its spiritual which proceeds from Him as a sun, formed all these, is clearly evident from this, that living souls are also affections, and in externals are all similar, the imperfect as well as the perfect. Who cannot see, unless he is near-sighted or can see by night only, or one whose sight is failing from amaurosis, that such things can have no other source? Elevate your reason only a little above the deep of Nature, and you will become wise. That heat is a means of formation is well known from the fluids in which is the embryo in the womb, and the chick in the egg. The belief that the heat of the sun of the world produces, originates in a mind blinded by the fallacies of the bodily senses. The heat of that sun operates only in opening the outermost parts of the body or the cuticles, that internal heat also may flow into them; for in this way life comes into full effect from firsts to ultimates. It is from this that the animals of the earth and the flying things of the heaven every year in the spring-time and in the summer enter upon and renew the functions, works, and joys of their prolifications. It is otherwise with man who has heat from an interior love that is excited by the allurements of his thoughts, and who has garments to protect him against the cold that falls upon the cuticles, which are the outermost parts of his body.