THE DIVINE LOVE, WHICH IS LIFE ITSELF, WITH HEAT AS AN INTERMEDIARY, PRODUCES ANIMATE SPIRITUAL FORMS WITH EACH AND EVERY THING IN THEM

There are two forms in general that the Lord, Creator of the universe, has brought into being in the outermost things and innermost things of the world, from His Sun which is Divine Love and Life Itself, namely, the animal form and the vegetable form. By "animal forms" are meant animals of every kind, also men and angels, and by "vegetable forms" are meant vegetables of every kind, trees, plants and flowers. These two forms have been treated of before.* [2] But as the subject here is the Divine Love from which all things have been created, and from which since creation all things are being also unceasingly formed, something may be inserted here also about the first of these two forms, the animal form.

[61.] The Divine Love, which is Life Itself, proceeding from Him Who is its fountain, namely the Lord, bears in its bosom no other purpose than to create and form images and likenesses of Itself, which are human beings, and from human beings angels, and in addition to clothe with a corresponding body affections of every kind, which are animals. All these forms, the perfect as well as those that are not perfect, are forms of love, and are alike as far as their life in externals is concerned: this consists in desiring to make various movements, to walk about, to perform various actions, to see, hear, smell, taste and feel, to eat and drink, to congregate with their like and to propagate their kind; but the perfect differ from the imperfect in respect of their life in internals, which consists in desiring to think, will, speak, know, understand, be wise, and to find delight and blessedness in doing these things. Forms of this kind are men and angels: the others are the many varieties of animal life. In order that these faculties may each come into effect and into its use, they have been made out of created substances and matters, and have been marvelously organized.

[62.] That the Lord, who is Man, and thus His Divine Love which is Life Itself; has formed these things out of His Spiritual that goes forth from Him as a Sun, is clearly evident from the fact that living souls are also affections and that all of them, the imperfect as well as the perfect, are alike in externals. Is there anyone unable to see that such things have no other source, unless he is myopic, or only able to see in the dark, or has eyes without any sight in them? Only raise your reason a little above Nature at its lowest level, and discernment will come to you.

[63.] With regard to heat being the intermediary in formation, this is well known from the fluid that surrounds the embryo in the womb or the chick in the egg. The belief that it is the heat of the world's sun that effects production, results from the mind being blinded by the fallacies of the physical senses. The heat from that sun effects no more than an opening of the outermost things of the body, or its coatings, so that the internal heat may flow into them; for in that way life comes into full effect from first things to last things. It is on account of this that every year during spring and summer the living creatures of the earth and the flying creatures of the air enter upon or renew the functions, labours and delights of their prolification. In man's case it is different, possessing as he does on the one hand heat arising from an interior love excited by allurements of thought, and on the other hand garments keeping the cold from approaching the coatings which are the outermost parts of the body. * APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, NOS. 1196 - 1215.