Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 3818

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3818. WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN BEASTS AND MAN. Whatever beasts do is natural, because their ends terminate in natural things. It appears, indeed, as if beasts derived it from a spiritual and celestial [source] that, from the prompting of conjugial love, as [for instance in the case] of doves and other birds which go in pairs, they should thus associate themselves in pairs; so also in regard to their young, whether chicks or whelps; then again as to their love towards their mates, with which they live in harmony, and are conjoined, as is the case with many animals, and especially birds, as also serpents, and insects, for instance bees; thus they exhibit friendship towards each other, besides other things [by which they are distinguished] in their societies and economies, all which appear at first blush as if they were spiritual and celestial, but [still] they are not so, because they regard only worldly and terrestrial ends. From ends [alone] can it appear whether anything is spiritual and celestial. It is one thing to be prompted by an end spiritual and celestial, and another to receive such ends, and regard them; [for] unless the recipient be as the agent, then there is not given in the recipient any such thing as that which pertains to the agent.


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