Animals of the Bible-john Worcester

ANIMALSOF THE

BIBLE

BY JOHN WORCESTER

CORRESPONDENCESOF

THE BIBLE

THE ANIMALS

BYJOHN WORCESTER

NEW EDITION

BOSTON:MASSACHUSETTS NEW CHURCH UNION

1926

COPYRIGHTBY JOHN WORCESTER

1875

CONTENTS

GENERAL DOCTRINE OF CORRESPONDENCES . . . . . . . . . . . 5

THE ANIMALS USED IN SACRIFICESSheep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Goats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Oxen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23The Unicorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

ANIMALS USED FOR TRANSPORTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34The Horse and the Ass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37The Mule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46The Camel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49The Elephant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

VARIOUS ANIMALSAntelopes and Deer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64The Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80The Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93The Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103The Leopard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112The Dog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120The Fox and the Jackal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Swine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136The Wild Boar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Mice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Frogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Apes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

4 ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE

SERPENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

BIRDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Eagles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Doves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Song Birds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

BIRDS OF BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191The Bird of Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194The Peacock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199The Ostrich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

VARIOUS BIRDSThe Stork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204The Cock and Hen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207Partridges and Quails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209The Owl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212The Raven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

FISHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Oysters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

INSECTS, INCLUDING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS . . . . . . 235The Locust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Bees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250Hornets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254Flies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Spiders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256Scorpions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

CORRESPONDENCES

The natural objects of the world about us areimages, or manifestations to bodily sense, of thespiritual things in human minds. If it were notso, we should have no distinct ideas of spiritualthings, and no means of describing them, or oflearning about them. When we speak of affec-tions, we call them warm, pure, fresh, sweet,strong, or the opposites, which expressions arethe names of natural qualities; but we perceivethem to be, in a spiritual sense, the appropriatenames of corresponding spiritual qualities. So ofthoughts, we say that they are lofty, comprehen-sive, luminous, or the reverse; of the rationalmind, that it sees, perceives, listens—that it isclear-sighted, active, sensitive; and, indeed,there is hardly a word used to describe mentalobjects or phenomena which is not primarilydescriptive of natural objects and phenomena.As applied to spiritual things, these words areused figuratively, and contain little parables bywhich spiritual qualities are brought out to ourapprehension, and illustrated.


As men who are made for a never-ending lifein a spiritual world, we might see at a glance thatthis must be so, for this natural life is designed asa preparation for the spiritual life. If naturalthings bore no relation to spiritual, a life spentamong them would have no relation to the eter-nal spiritual life. That they may perfectly servetheir purpose of introduction to spiritual things,all natural objects must be natural forms and rep-resentatives of spiritual. To deny this, or tobelieve it to be only partly or imperfectly true, isto believe that this world is not at all, or onlyimperfectly, adapted to prepare men for the spir-itual world.

If, indeed, it is, as it must be, perfectlyadapted to this purpose, we shall cooperate withHim who designed it, by obtaining definiteknowledge of natural things, and giving carefulattention to their spiritual correlatives; for thusthe spiritual mind will be opened and trained todistinct, clear, spiritual perceptions.

This is the province of the study of correspon-dences. The study is boundless as science itself.Every branch of science, with all the particularsof it, is a physical emblem of deeper things thanitself; and, if interiorly opened, it presents to ourview a corresponding branch of spiritual science,with its particulars. This is beyond our present

CORRESPONDENCES 7

purpose, which is principally to unfold the sym-bols of the Holy Scriptures; but in finding thespiritual sense of these we shall obtain the clueto many other correspondences.

Common speech testifies to a general recog-nition of relationship between animals andhuman feelings. The names of gentle, innocentanimals are bestowed as terms of endearmentupon persons to whom they are appropriate; andthe names of unclean or ferocious animals areused to describe the corresponding feelings andactions of men.

And these terms are employed with some-what careful discrimination of their meanings.“Dove” and “Chick,” as applied to children,present ideas of quite different kinds of inno-cence; nor should we be in any danger of con-founding the meaning of “Puppy” and “Tiger” asapplied to men.

The characteristics of animals are more sim-ple and more easily recognized than those ofmen; for individual men include the qualities ofmany animals. Men also can choose among theiranimal qualities what they will cherish, and whatrepress, and they are responsible for their choice;but animals cannot essentially change theirnatures, though the manifestations of them may


be considerably modified by training or circum-stances.

Careful observation easily detects the affec-tion which is the life of an animal, even underthe veil of hypocrisy which some animals knowhow to assume; the rest of our study consists indetecting the similar affection in human beings,and of this the animal is the embodiment or cor-respondence. In this manner we will study firstthe correspondence of Sheep and Lambs, andthen that of other animals used in sacrifices.

SHEEP

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of sheepis that which the Lord describes in John. Speak-ing of the shepherd, He says:

The sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his ownsheep by name, and leadeth them out. And whenhe putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth beforethem, and the sheep follow him; for they knowhis voice; and a stranger will they not follow, butwill flee from him; for they know not the voiceof strangers. (John 10:3–5)

The Lord spoke of Himself and His Church, inlanguage and imagery that were familiar to Hisdisciples. The shepherds of the East give a nameto each member of their flocks, which the sheepsoon learn, and to which they instantly respond.

In the dry season many shepherds with theirflocks meet at regular times around the wells.The flocks mingle at the troughs, drinking. Butwhen all are satisfied, the shepherds move off indifferent directions, calling their sheep, whichimmediately follow, everyone its own shepherd,with scarcely the possibility of a mistake. In


regard to their drinking, it is worthy of noticethat sheep need very little water. When the herb-age is juicy, and especially when the morningdew is abundant, sheep want no other water forweeks together. But when fed upon hay, or in thehot season in Eastern countries, when the herb-age is dry, they need frequent watering.

It is not uncommon in our country for singlelambs to receive names and be petted, when theybecome models of trustful obedience towardtheir master, but remain timid towards a stranger.

Our sheep, however, rarely have a shepherd’scare, being confined by walls and fences. Insteadof a shepherd, they attach themselves to one oftheir own number, who acts as their leader, andwhom they follow as trustfully as they wouldtheir master. With neither shepherd nor leader,they are distracted, and scatter in every direc-tion.

It is a peculiarity of sheep that while they areso easily led by one whom they know, they aredriven with difficulty. They huddle together as iffrightened, and the more they are pressed, themore frightened they seem; but if the leadersstart forward, the flock follows.

Another noteworthy trait is their memory ofkindness. They never forget a little present ofsalt or grain, or a kind act of protection from

SHEEP 11

danger; every benefit they repay with affection,confidently expecting renewals of it. Sheep areremarkable also for their mutual affection. Theylove to feed with their heads close together, twoor three of them frequently keeping their headsso close as to seem like parts of one animal. Thesudden start of a single member of a flock affectsthe whole, as if they were connected by nervesof mutual affection. When accidentally sepa-rated from its companions, the cries of a sheep orlamb, as it runs anxiously about, are piteous.

Affection for their shepherd is stronger thantheir mutual love. Him they will follow awayfrom their friends, and, I believe, even from theiryoung. Their affection for their young, also, isstronger than their love for one another. Thesounds of affection which a mother sheep makesover her little lamb are of the tenderest kind. Ahuman mother can hardly express more tenderfeeling.

Another characteristic of sheep is patience.When a sheep is caught by the shearer, at firstthere is a short struggle, until she finds that she isfirmly held and cannot get away. Then she givesup entirely. Even if she is hurt, she shows neitherresentment nor resistance; she is, in the hands ofthe shearer, perfectly resigned and patient.


Upon the wool of sheep we depend for warmclothing more than upon all other materialstogether. Fine, soft, long, with a useful facultyfor matting or felting into a compact texture, itgrows thick and heavy, and is retained by thesheep until it is a great burden to herself, evi-dently for the use of man.

All that she is, the sheep gives in our service:her wool, her milk, her skin, her flesh, and evenher bones and entrails; not a particle is useless.As is the case also with goats and cows, it is notwhat she does that we value, but what she is.And she is continually busy in making herselfvaluable, and multiplying herself or increasingher own growth for the benefit of others.

Lambs have always been regarded asemblems of Innocence; and, indeed, their active,pretty sports and gambols are nothing but sportsof innocence. But the innocence of which theyare forms is not the dead harmlessness of a log,nor the slow helplessness of a snail; it is helplessand dependent indeed, but it has great need andstrong desire for help; and its necessity anddependence are equaled by its trustful love forhim who supplies its wants.

An innocence closely resembling that oflambs we find in little children. Active depen-dence and loving trust are as evident in them as

SHEEP 13

in lambs. Even a lamb-like fright at the call of astranger is conspicuous in children when theyfirst learn to distinguish their parents from otherpersons; and also a helpless terror when drivenby harsh parents or nurses. And, again, their res-ignation and patience in time of sickness, or inthe care of parents who are firm as well as kind,are as marked as the same qualities in sheep andlambs. Among mature men and women in activelife we do not see much of childlike innocence.But when, through misfortune, sickness, and thediscouragement of the natural desires andefforts, they become sensible of their helpless-ness and dependence, if they are wise they turnfrom self to the Lord, and then receive a percep-tion of His loving care which produces in themgrateful content with trust in His Providence,and a willingness to be led wholly by Him.

These characteristics exist naturally andexternally in children, but internally and spiritu-ally in men who thus love the Lord. The Lordsays that all must become like little childrenbefore they can enter the kingdom of Heaven;and those who are preparing for Heaven He callsHis sheep and His lambs. To them He is parentsand shepherd. He is parents, because they whoare in this state have laid aside in some degreetheir own life, and manifestly are living from a


new life that He gives. He is shepherd, becausethey perceive His guidance in the walks of everyday, and find, in following Him, wisdom anduses and delights which give satisfaction andexpansion to their souls.

These affections love the Lord more than allthings else; they leave all that belongs to themand seems pleasant to them, if they hear Himcall; they trust in Him through every trial, con-tent to feel His care protecting them, fearful onlywhen He is absent; they are frankly innocent,because their whole heart is open to the Lord,and cannot help rejoicing in His Presence. Theyare not cumbered about much serving; for whatneed is there, when they see all wants suppliedby the Lord? Their own love for Him, which isto them the highest good, they will increase andmultiply and communicate to others in everyway they can.

Love of every kind, from the delight there isin it, has a desire to multiply itself and a percep-tion of the means of increase. It has also affec-tion for cherishing the truth which it perceives,until it brings forth new states of love anddelight, which it rejoices over and perfects withtruth of its own life.

These affections are male and female. Theaffection for multiplying the love, with percep-

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tion of the truth by which it may be multiplied, ismale; and the affection for cherishing this truthand the new delights which it produces, isfemale.1

In the Scriptures, where animals of variouskinds are often mentioned, always with exactknowledge of their correspondence, these inte-rior qualities are carefully distinguished: Lambsare always used as representatives of innocentdelight in loving the Lord; Rams are mentionedas forms of perception of truth from love to theLord, by which that love may be multiplied; andewes as representatives of that gentlest mutuallove by which the beginnings of love to the Lordare cherished and sustained.

The wool of sheep, which is the clothing inwhich we see them, is the outward expression oflove to the Lord and mutual love, consisting oftrustful and charitable thoughts, and of continu-ous, kindly reverent manners. In a cold, selfishatmosphere, if we think selfish things, or merelyintellectual truth, the cold will penetrate, anddiscourage and dissipate neighborly affection;but if we persist in thinking, speaking, and act-ing in the forms of innocence and charity, our

1. Lambs: celestial innocence. Sheep: mutual love. Rams,truth of celestial love. Arcana Coelestia #3994.


life, thus clothed and protected, may be pre-served unharmed.

In the Jewish Church the burnt offerings andsacrifices were most frequently of lambs. Therewas no true knowledge of the Lord with them,and consequently no true worship of Him. Buttheir offerings and sacrifices were representa-tives of true worship. They never felt the Lord’sLove, but the fire on their altar was a representa-tive of it. They had no innocent delight in lovingthe Lord and receiving His Love; but they hadlambs which represented this delight; and theoffering of lambs upon the fire of the altar repre-sented the union of the Lord’s Love with inno-cent love for Him, in man.

It was this meaning, and this was all, that theLord and the angels loved in the Jewish offer-ings.

Because there was not in the world, at theclose of the Jewish Church, any of the celestiallove that is represented by lambs, lest all knowl-edge of the Divine Love should cease, and thepossibility of heavenly life from it should perishforever, it was necessary for the Lord to form forHimself a Divine Humanity by which His Loveshould be received with perfect innocence, andmanifested to men. The inmost principle of thatHumanity was Divine Human Love for the Love

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of God; and when that Human Love prevailedthrough the whole of His Human nature, it wasglorified by union with the Divine Love; and inHim the meaning of the burnt offering of a lambupon the fire of the altar was perfectly fulfilled.

GOATS

Goats are in many respects similar to sheep.They are of about the same size, perhaps a littlelarger; and, like sheep, they have horns anddivided hoofs; they ruminate, they are generallyinoffensive and playful; and they give milk,wool, and their flesh and their skins to the usesof man.

They differ from sheep in being capricious,often mischievous, curious, and meddlesome;they are loud and peremptory in their cries; theirwool is short, and concealed by long hairs; theylove more rocky and precipitous feedinggrounds, and browse freely upon the bark andtwigs of trees.

Little kids have so much of the nature oflambs that they were accepted as sacrifices intheir stead; but they are less gentle and affection-ate, more impatient and peremptory in calling,and are full of curiosity, approaching, smelling,and nibbling every new object that falls in theirway.

GOATS 19

There is a similar difference in the dispositionof infants.

One can hardly read Swedenborg’s descrip-tion of infants without being reminded of theinnocence of kids and of lambs respectively. Hesays:

Infants differ in their genius; some being of thegenius by which the spiritual angels are distin-guished, and some of the genius by which thecelestial angels are distinguished. The infantswho are of the celestial genius appear on theright in heaven, and those who are of the spiritualgenius on the left. . . . The distinction betweenthem is very obvious. Those who are of the celes-tial genius think, speak, and act with more soft-ness, than those of the spiritual genius, so thatscarcely anything appears but something of aflowing character derived from the love of gooddirected to the Lord, and towards other little chil-dren.

Those of the spiritual genius, on the otherhand, do not think, speak, and act with such soft-ness; but something of a fluttering and vibratorycharacter, so to speak, manifests itself in every-thing that they say and do. It also is apparentfrom the indignation which they exhibit; and byother signs. (Heaven and Hell #333, 339)

The difference between the celestial and the spir-itual genius that Swedenborg speaks of is as the


difference between love and wisdom. Those whoare in celestial innocence love the Lord for HisLove; those who are in spiritual innocence lovethe Lord for His Wisdom. This difference isquite plainly manifested by the difference in theclothing of sheep and goats. Love for the good-ness of the Lord, with the mutual love springingfrom it, manifests itself in manners, looks, andacts which can hardly be separated from oneanother and examined singly, but are almost con-tinuous. But love for the wisdom of the Lord,with the charity which arises from it, is a love fordistinct truths, and presents itself in manners andacts each of which presents a distinct thought.Goodness is one and continuous; truth is mani-fold and separable.

That kids represent spiritual innocence isplain from their inquiring restlessness, comparedwith the quiet content of lambs. This innocenceis received naturally by infants of the kind justdescribed; it is received interiorly and spirituallyby those who love wisdom, when, havinglearned that their own intelligence is delusiveand foolish, they are led and taught by the Lordalone.

The love of wisdom, even the love of beingtaught by the Lord, is sadly liable to perversion.If it retains its innocence, it holds the truth rever-

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ently, and serves it humbly, delighting to intro-duce others to the ennobling service. It may,however, too easily make truth the servant andself the master, using truth to glorify self, andintroducing others, not to the service of truth, butto the service of self as the possessor of truth.

The love of truth for truth’s sake, and theaffection for leading to truth, is represented byhe-goats in a good sense; and the love of cher-ishing the affection for truth and showing thegoodness of it in life, is represented by she-goats.1 But the love of exalting self by means ofthe truth, and of taking to self the honor andregard that belong to the truth, is figured in thewantonness and mischievousness of goats.

The goats on the left hand had learned truthfrom the Lord, but they had not lived it. Theyhad gloried in it, and demanded honor and ser-vice on account of it; and the very truth they hadcondemned them (Apocalypse Explained #817).

Upon the head of a goat were laid all the sinsof the congregation of Israel, and he bore themaway into the wilderness, a representative of thepeople taught by the mouth of the Lord, yet

1. Kids: spiritual innocence. She-goats: charity or thegood of truth. He-goats: the love of truth for truth’s sake orfor the sake of self. Arcana Coelestia #4169, 3519, 3995.


despising others, and finally rejecting the LordHimself because He would not use His Divinepower to exalt them above all other nations uponthe earth (Apocalypse Explained #817).

OXEN

A leading characteristic of the Ox family is thatthey are submissive to authority, and easilydriven. They do not follow their master’s calllike sheep and goats; but to the word of com-mand and to the goad they are obedient.

This submission to authority they showamong themselves. Among a herd of cows feed-ing, the strongest goes where she chooses, andthe others stand aside. If a new cow comes tothem, the others gather round, not to hurt her, butto try their strength with her. If she can push thestrongest, she is obeyed by them all. If not, shetries her strength with them, one by one, findsher place, makes way for the stronger, and drivesout of her path the weaker.

There is, however, no malice in their contests,which are purely trials of strength. The victorsdo not pursue the conquered. That they yield issufficient. The animals are usually mild and gen-tle, innocent in a rough way, and, when young,very playful; “to skip like a calf” is an expres-sive scriptural phrase.


They have strong affection for one another,feeding always near together, even when theyhave a wide range of pasture; and, if severalherds are in the same pasture, the cattle that livetogether and are acquainted stay together in thefield. If a cow by chance is separated, she runsabout, lowing, until she finds her friends.

They are easily contented. With a moderatesupply of food, and room for exercise, they eatuntil they are satisfied, and then lie down, mod-els of tranquil enjoyment.

Cows are remarkable among animals forattachment to their young. If the calf is carriedaway in sight of its mother, the cow will leavehome, friends, and food, and follow as long asshe can walk.

The abundance of the milk which they pourout for their offspring is, perhaps, a consequenceand a manifestation of this maternal affection.Their milk is of so great a quantity that it affordsthe main supply of that kind of food for man.

Another important quality in cattle is theircapacity for labor. Oxen are large and strong,and will move very heavy loads slowly. They arealso patient of difficulties. A succession ofobstacles, as in rough plowing, which wouldexhaust the patience of a horse, and make himrestive or unwilling to pull at all, have no such

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effect upon the ox; he will pull again and againat the word of command, the hundredth time justas patiently as the first.

We find an external parallel to these qualitiesin childhood,1 during the time when the love ofacquiring knowledge is the ruling principle—that is, between the ages of seven and fourteen.At this period the feeling of dependence, whichis a characteristic of infancy, is wearing away;but obedience is strong—obedience to commandand to rules.

Children of this age are very much under con-trol of the strongest will. A group of school chil-dren behave, when a new companion comesamong them, just as the cattle do. They approachcautiously, the stronger ones more confidently,and, if they are rude, they soon engage him intrials of physical strength; if of better character,they test his skill and zeal for their favorite pur-suits. He soon finds his place, and is respectedand treated accordingly. Though fond of roughplay, such children are usually guiltless of inten-tional harm; and their sympathy with those whoare oppressed and in trouble is always ready. It isa rare child who is not willing to pour out his

1. Arcana Coelestia #2179, 2180, 2566; Apocalypse Re-vealed #242.


own stores generously to assist the weak, and torelieve those who are suffering.

Their good will also is patient and persever-ing. If it does not succeed in accomplishing itsobject in one way, it tries another and againanother, working patiently as long as it hasstrength.

The heavy loads of the mind are stores offacts and knowledge in the memory, which chil-dren carry easily, but only a little way—not yetbeing able to bring remote things together.

These good qualities of childhood generallydisappear in youth, and are succeeded by facul-ties less kindly, less patient, but of greater intel-lectual activity.

But as men advance in regeneration, knowingwell their own difficulties in doing well, theymay again become patient of the faults of others,patient too in overcoming their own natural hab-its of thought and misplaced facts, which, likestumps and stones, cumber the ground, and alsoin helping others to do the same, and to preparetheir minds for better thoughts and uses.

The sincere friendliness of those who are try-ing together to live a good life in obedience toknown truth, is rightly represented by a kind andpatient ox. The affection for learning all theways of useful life and work—an affection

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which is innocent and glad—is represented by acalf; and the love of encouraging such affectionsin others, by neighborly communication of theways in which we enjoy living, is represented bya milk cow.1 The milk itself is the truth; the but-ter is the kindliness; the sugar the pleasantness;and the curd is the love of work in it. A motherwho is a willing worker, patient, helpful, andcontented, desires to train her child to similarhelpfulness; she accordingly teaches the childwhat is useful and practicable, and with herteaching imparts also her kindliness, her love ofwork, and her pleasure in it. The child interestedin learning the mother’s ways is spiritually acalf, and grows by the milk of the mother’steaching. So, too, a person coming into a societyengaged in useful work, or entering upon a newoccupation, desires to know how to help; heneeds friendly instruction, such as is representedby milk; his desire for it is spiritually a calf,which learns eagerly, and gambols with delightin his growing powers.

When a society has little regard for spirituallife, and is engaged in doing, not what will min-ister to the lasting good of its members and thecommunity, but what is expressively called

1. Arcana Coelestia #2184; Apocalypse Revealed #2420.


“having a good time,” that is, in obtaining thegreatest present pleasure, the desire to be initi-ated into its knowledge and enjoyments is alsorepresented by a calf, but in a perverted sense.This was the desire of the Israelites, who, whileMoses was receiving the Law for them fromJehovah, impatient at the slow fulfillment of theDivine promises, gathered riotously in heathensports and feasts about a golden calf, which rep-resented the affection which they chose toserve.1

It was said of the Lord representatively, bythe prophet Isaiah, “Butter and honey shall heeat, that he may know to refuse the evil andchoose the good”; and by butter is meant thekindness and goodness which the Lord in Hisboyhood would perceive in the instructions ofthe Word, and by honey the natural pleasantnessof learning from it. By this the Lord learned todistinguish good from evil.

Burnt offerings of calves, bullocks, and heif-ers were frequent among the ceremonies of theJewish Church; and by them were representedthe continual perception and acknowledgmentby spiritual men that the good things represented

1. Apocalypse Revealed #242.

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by these animals are in the Lord, and from Himalone in man.

The Lord received such things in Divinepurity and fullness from His Divinity into HisHumanity; and by such reception His Humanitywas perfected. In the history of Abraham wehave, in the spiritual sense, an account of thegrowth and spiritual progress of the Lord in Hischildhood and youth. And therefore it was thatwhen the angels appeared to Abraham, by whichwas represented the Lord’s interior perception ofthe Divinity within Him, Abraham presented tothem butter and milk and the calf which he haddressed; and in that prophetic act was foretold bythe Lord the growth in His own Humanity ofnatural goodness and truth and the affection forthem.

In comparing the ox family with sheep andgoats, it is worthy of notice that, as they feednaturally, the kine prefer the ranker grasses ofthe valleys and over hillsides, but the sheep andgoats climb the mountains, preferring thesweeter though scantier grasses of their lessaccessible nooks and slopes. These correspondto truths concerning a state of spiritual elevation,or nearness to the Lord; and the coarser food totruth of good natural life.


All these animals naturally have horns anddivided hoofs, and chew the cud; and because oftheir divided hoofs and ruminating habit theywere by the Levitical Law clean for food and fitfor sacrifices. Their horns represent the truth bywhich good loves defend themselves, and whichthey desire others to obey. They are truths ofexperience which grow from their own life, andwhich they are ready to maintain as fixed andcertain.

Hoofs are of similar material, formed to takehold of the ground and support the animal as itstands, walks, or runs. They represent the holdwe have from our own experience upon factsand natural truth. If we desire to do good toanother, we must be sure of our footing as weapproach; there must be common facts and natu-ral principles which we can stand upon; if thesefail, we are brought to a stand; or if we havebeen hurt by them, or are morbidly sensitive tothem, we advance lamely.

A solid hoof, as of a horse or ass, desires onlyto know what it is sound and right; this it strikeswith a blow and bounds on. A divided hoof isitself more tender; it presses more lightly andcarefully, and feels each step in two ways, con-sidering not only whether its ground is true, butwhether it is good also. This is characteristic of

OXEN 31

the steps of the good loves represented by sheep,goats, and kine.

The rumination of these animals representsthe meditation of such affections upon truthlearned, for the sake of giving it. Merely to eatand swallow is to understand and receive; fur-ther rumination is from love for good life.Because the natural good will which oxen repre-sent may be turned either to good or to evil,Swedenborg calls them animals of a “mediatekind,” and speaks of seeing them in the World ofSpirits, but not in Heaven, nor in Hell.1

1. Apocalypse Explained #1200.

THE “UNICORN”

There is one other animal mentioned in theScriptures which should be noticed here; andthat is the “Unicorn.” The name “unicorn” is atranslator’s mistake. The Bible says that the ani-mal has “horns,” not one horn (Deuteronomy33:17, Hebrew); and further, that it was fit forsacrifice (Isaiah 34:7)—consequently havingdivided hoofs and chewing the cud; that it wasan animal of great size and strength, but too wildto plough or harrow (Job 39:9–12). In two placesalso it is used as a poetic parallel to a bullock orcalf: “His glory is like the firstling of his bul-lock, and his horns are like the horns of an uni-corn” (Deuteronomy 33:17); “He maketh themalso to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like ayoung unicorn” (Psalm 29:6).

These facts seem entirely to justify the unani-mous conclusion of modern Bible scholars thatthe animal belonged to the ox family, and proba-bly to that branch of it which was formerly com-mon in northern Europe under the name ofAuerochs, or yore ox (ancient ox), abbreviated

THE “UNICORN” 33

by the Romans to Urus; which is said still toexist in the Caucasus mountains; whose form issculptured upon the monuments of Nimroud as awild animal of the chase; whose bones, six and ahalf feet in height and twelve in length, withbony horn cores more than three feet long, arefound in Switzerland; and whose teeth Tristramasserts that he found in Palestine.1

If all this is to be trusted, as I think it is, weare prepared to see that the “Reem” representsthe vehement power of a love for merely exter-nal good things, not subordinated to spirituallove, to urge and insist upon its principles,whether true or false.2

1. Tristram’s Natural History of the Bible; Art. “Uni-corn”; Bible Dictionary; and Wood’s Bible Animals.2. Apocalypse Explained #316; Doctrine of the SacredScripture #18.

ANIMALS USED FOR TRANSPORTATION

The general distinction as to uses between theclass of animals used for food and sacrifices—sheep, goats, and cattle—and those which laborin carrying burdens, is that the former give theirown substance, their milk and wool, their skinsand flesh, for beneficent purposes; but the lattergive their power of action.

There is a similar distinction between themental faculties to which they correspond. If weshare with one another our love for the Lord andfor the neighbor, showing mutual sympathy andkindness, and communicating helpful knowl-edge of good ways of life, in the effort to com-municate ourselves to others we exercise theaffections represented by sheep, goats, and kine.But if there be a subject which we wish to under-stand, and we set our minds to work upon it, inthe delight of understanding we are exercisingthe intellectual faculties represented by the ani-mals which serve for transportation.

There are many varieties of mental activity inpersons of different qualities and at different

ANIMALS USED FOR TRANSPORTATION 35

stages of life. Some are slow and plodding, andothers quick and frisky; some are minute, othersbroad and comprehensive; some are uncertain,unexpectedly shying and starting, and requiringconstant watching to make any progress, andothers are strong, steady, and well sustained.Some, again, are set and obstinate, utterlyunwilling and mentally unable to vary their gait,and almost equally averse to changing theirdirection; while others are free and generous,yielding easily and gracefully to the varyingemotions of the will and demands of the occa-sion. In these characteristics of the mental pow-ers we cannot fail to see in a general view thelikeness of our traveling animals; and the like-ness becomes more distinct as we examine moreclosely the working of our minds. Observe, forinstance, the tendency of the mind to run infamiliar channels, how disposed it is to thinkover and say over the things it has thought andsaid before; and when we have started it in pur-suit of some remote object, see how it takesadvantage of every relaxation of the reins to turnback towards home, and go over the easy, famil-iar ways of thought. Notice how freely and con-fidently it steps where it is sure of its facts, andits own experiences are abundant to sustain it;and again, how lamely it moves where its experi-


ence is deficient, or it is morbidly sensitive to thefacts of the case.

Literature and common speech show that thislikeness is not unfamiliar. The ancient Greeks—who made the top of their highest mountain,Olympus, the home of the gods, established theabode of Heavenly wisdom upon the lowermountain, Heliconæum, and that of the wisdomof men upon Parnassus—described the flights ofthe understanding, in its effort to attain spiritualtruth, as a winged horse called Pegasus, who, ashe swiftly ascended the slopes of Heliconæum,burst open with a stroke of his hoof the fountainof the Muses; by which they understood the birthof the sciences from the influence of spiritualintelligence upon natural knowledge.1 Wemoderns preserve the figure of the winged horseas descriptive of a poet’s power of seeing thereal life of events through their outward forms.More familiarly yet, we speak of a man of mag-nificent ideas as riding a high-stepping horse;and, with too much impatience, we call an obsti-nate man, who is impenetrable by new ideas, anass or a donkey.

1. Arcana Coelestia #4966, 7729, 2762; Conjugial Love#182; White Horse.

THE HORSE AND THE ASS

In our more particular examination of mentalcharacteristics, we will begin with those figuredin the ass, attending first to the nature of the ani-mal. Tristram says of him:

When we read of the ass in Holy Scripture wemust not picture to ourselves the stunted,degraded, spiritless, and ill-used creature whichwe too often meet with in northern countries,where the ass has degenerated both in size andspirit from the powerful and nimble animal of theEast. The ass is less capable of enduring coldthan the horse, and has often degenerated as ithas advanced northwards.

In Syria, it has almost as much care bestowedon it as the horse; it is groomed and well fed,always obtaining its share of barley with itsequine companions; great attention is paid to thecultivation of the breed, and the finest and tallesthe-asses are carefully selected. . . . They haveoften great vivacity, and exhibit both ingenuityand humor, sometimes decidedly mischievous.One of our asses which had been severely beatenfor misconduct by a member of our party, never


forgot the circumstance, but, while ready to sniffand caress any of the others, would standdemurely whenever his old enemy was near, as ifunconscious of his presence, until he was withinreach of his heels, when a sharp sudden kick,with a look of more than ordinary asinine stolid-ity, was the certain result. The Eastern ass willaccomplish quite as long a day’s journey as thehorse or the camel; though its speed is not sogreat, it will maintain an easy trot and canter forhours without flagging, and always gains on thehorse up the hills or on the broken ground.

Other writers unanimously testify to the superi-ority of the asses of Egypt and Palestine overthose with which we are acquainted. Yet I sup-pose that even the best asses will justify Hamer-ton’s discriminating criticism:

The deficiency of the ass may be expressed in asingle word; it is deficiency of delicacy. You canguide a good horse as delicately as a sailing boat;when the skillful driver has an inch to spare he isperfectly at his ease, and he can twist in and outamongst the throng of vehicles when a momen-tary display of self-will in the animal would bethe cause of an immediate accident. The assappears to be incapable of any delicate disciplineof this kind. He may be strong, swift, coura-geous, entirely free from any serious vice; but heis always in a greater or less degree unmanage-able. When he is really vicious, that is another

THE HORSE AND THE ASS 39

matter. There is no end to his inventions, for he isquite as intelligent as the horse, and a thousandtimes more indifferent to man’s opinion or man’spunishment. I have seen a donkey feign death soperfectly as to take in everybody but his master,who had been too often a spectator of that littlecomedy.” (Chapters on Animals)

This waywardness is very strongly marked inasses as we commonly know them; they stopwhen they please, and go when they please; theirown whims they will follow, no matter at whatinconvenience to their rider, with a headstrongassurance that they know what is best; and onlythe most patient coaxing, or blows which seemreally cruel, will affect their resolution.

In contrast with this somewhat slow, minute,and self-willed character—that we may see bothnatures more distinctly by comparison—thehorses of the Arabs, which are probably as farsuperior to ours for riding purposes as are theasses, seem to be almost perfect embodiments oftheir masters’ love of going. A well-bred Arabmare is off like the wind, as the tension of hermaster’s body and the tightening grasp of theknees betoken his desire, her delicate ears strain-ing to catch every sound, and her sensitive skinevery lightest touch, of command. A touch uponthe neck guides her, the relaxation of her rider’s


body slackens her speed almost as if she werehis own organs of locomotion. And the sameresponsiveness to the human will is in a greatdegree characteristic of all good horses.

To complete the contrast, it should be addedthat the speed of horses is, as a whole, consider-ably superior, though they are not so able to picktheir way carefully over stony paths and hill-sides. Horses also require a somewhat more gen-erous diet of good grass and grain, and wouldstarve on the coarse shrubs and thistles whichasses eat with pleasure, and sometimes in prefer-ence to better fare.

Man, as a rider, represents the human willwith its power to choose good or evil, and tocompel the reasoning, thinking mind to supportit in the ways of its choice.

A generous horse, in the good sense, repre-sents a mind that delights in thinking the truthwhich the spiritual will desires. It bounds lightlyover natural truths, using them as supports to itsflight, but giving its first attention to the spirituallove which it bears. An ass, picking its way morecarefully among the stones, heeding its rider lessand the objects about it more, represents in agood sense the right understanding of naturalthings.


The horse represents, Swedenborg says,1 theintellect—the power of seeing the inner truth ofthings, or of understanding spiritual wisdom.The ass represents the power of understandingparticulars of knowledge. Of this power ofunderstanding, which the ass represents, thereare several kinds. There is a love that takes plea-sure in mere quickness of comprehension, sharp-ness of criticism, and agility in argumentation. Itis selfish, solitary, morose, combative. This isthe wild ass man, Ishmael, of whom it is said,“His hand shall be against every man, and everyman’s hand against him.” Of the wild ass, Tris-tram writes:

I saw a wild ass in the oasis of Souf, which hadbeen snared when a colt; but though it had beenkept three years in confinement, it was as intrac-table as when first caught, biting and kickingfuriously at everyone who approached it, andnever enduring a saddle on its back. In appear-ance and color it could not have been distin-guished from one of the finest specimens of thetame ass.

But though so closely resembling the tame ass inappearance and physical ability, it is of a differ-

1. Apocalypse Explained #2761; also the treatise on TheWhite Horse. On horses in the spiritual world, see Apoca-lypse Explained #364.


ent species. The tame ass, even when allowed torun wild for many generations, is subdued againas quickly as a wild horse;1 but the wild assproper is absolutely unwilling to be of service. Inthis he represents the power of understandingsolely for the selfish pleasure in the exercise,never for the sake of use. It is a faculty whichcannot take interior views and see things in spir-itual light, but still can exercise its wits naturallyand remorselessly upon spiritual subjects.

A much nobler understanding is that which,with similar quickness of wit, considers also thegoodness and usefulness of the subjects of itsthought, and is unwilling to use its powers to theinjury of that goodness. This faculty increases ingentleness and nobleness with its willingness toserve. Yet, as the ass never adopts the rider’s willfor his own, but preserves his individuality, andneeds some watchful coercion to make his waysserviceable, so the understanding of this kindnever becomes an intelligent perception of spiri-tual wisdom which perfectly serves spirituallove, but always finds its pleasure in the under-standing of the particulars of knowledge pre-sented to it, and unless compelled to its work, it

1. Bible Animals.


magnifies one or another, and continually straysfrom the main purpose.

Judges in olden time rode upon she-assesbecause their business was to hear and attend toall the practical questions brought to them, andto advise and decide from a right understandingof the goodness and truth in them. Their sonsrode upon young asses, which represent thetruths themselves which the judges taught, inwhich their sons were instructed.1 In the Song ofDeborah, she thus addresses the judges of Israel:“Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit injudgment and walk by the way” (Judges 5:10).“Jair, the Gileadite, judged Israel twenty and twoyears; and he had thirty sons that rode uponthirty ass colts” (Judges 10:3, 4).

It was predicted of the Lord that He wouldcome to Zion “sitting upon an ass and a colt thefoal of an ass”; because He came then, not toreveal spiritual truth, but to teach what wasreally good and right in natural life. When He lit-erally fulfilled the prediction, and came to Jerus-alem upon the ass, He wept over the city, saying,“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in thisthy day, the things that belong unto thy peace;but now they are hid from thine eyes.” He went

1. Arcana Coelestia #2781.


into the temple, and drove out them that soldoxen and sheep and doves, and overthrew thetables of the money changers, and said, “It iswritten, My house shall be called of all nations ahouse of prayer, but ye have made it a den ofthieves.” And these are just such things as anoble judge of Israel, not now revealing spiritualtruth, but teaching genuine natural goodness andtruth, should do and teach.

But when the coming of the Lord to open theScriptures, to reveal the inner life of all things,and to give intelligence in spiritual truth, is pre-dicted, the form of representation is changed.John says, “I saw heaven opened, and behold, awhite horse, and He that sat upon him is calledfaithful and true, and in righteousness He dothjudge and make war. His eyes were as a flame offire, and upon His head were many crowns; andHe had a name written which no one knew butHe Himself. And He was clothed with a vesturedipped in blood; and His name is called, TheWord of God. And the armies which are inheaven followed Him upon white horses clothedin linen white and clean; and He had upon Hisvesture and upon His thigh a name written, Kingof kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11–16). Thus the Lord is represented as to HisDivine intelligence concerning the heaven of


angels and the spiritual life of men; and uponthose who now receive and follow Him Hebestows spiritual intelligence in the interiorthings of the Word, and the truth which angelsthink and live, which is represented by whitehorses upon which they ride.1

One other representation we are now pre-pared to enjoy, which is that when the Lord wasborn into the world, He was first laid in a man-ger.

In the manger, asses and horses find theirfood. In the best sense, asses represent theunderstanding of what is good and right in prac-tical affairs, and horses intelligence in spiritualthings, and this understanding and intelligenceare nourished by instruction in truth from theWord. But the truth of the Word is from the Lordand is the Lord; and He first comes consciouslyto us when we, loving the rightness or the spiri-tual beauty of the truth of the Word, perceivethat it is Himself—His own thought with His lifein it. To everyone’s consciousness He first lies inthe manger.

1. Citations above; also Apocalypse Revealed #611.

THE MULE

Another kind of understanding intermediatebetween these two is the understanding of natu-ral truth in the light of spiritual intelligence. Theanimal which represents this understanding isthe mule, the offspring of the ass and the mare.Mr. Wood remarks:

It is a very strange circumstance that the off-spring of these two animals should be, for somepurposes, far superior to either of the parents, awell-bred mule having the lightness, sure-footed-ness, and hardy endurance of the ass, togetherwith the increased size and muscular develop-ment of the horse. Thus it is peculiarly adaptedeither for the saddle or for the conveyance ofburdens over a rough or desert country

He adds:The mules that are most generally serviceable arebred from the male ass and the mare, those whichhave the horse as the father and the ass as themother being small and comparatively valueless.

The reason of this seems to be that this smallermule has the spirit and desires of the horse withonly the faculties of the ass, and must corre-

THE MULE 47

spond to a mental state in which spiritual intelli-gence can exercise itself only through aknowledge of natural truth—seeing this, how-ever, I should suppose, more intelligently, andusing it more generously in the service of thespiritual man. The larger mule would have themore moderate ambition of the ass with thelarger abilities of the horse, and would corre-spond to natural truth as considered by the facul-ties of spiritual intelligence, and thus to arational and more comprehensive understandingof natural things in their relation to one anotherand to spiritual things. It was on account of thissomewhat nobler understanding of natural thingswhich the mule represented that kings formerlyrode upon mules, as judges upon asses; and thatSolomon was mounted upon David’s mule wasequivalent to placing him upon the judgmentseat of the kingdom.

The mule is, however, in moral quality still anass. Mr. Wood continues his description thus:

That the mule was as obstinate and contentiousan animal in Palestine as it is in Europe, is evi-dent from the fact that the Eastern mules of thepresent day are quite as troublesome as theirEuropean brethren. They are very apt to shy atanything or nothing at all; they bite fiercely, andevery now and then they indulge in a violentkicking fit, flinging up their heels with wonderful


force and rapidity, and turning round on theirforefeet so quickly that it is hardly possible toapproach them. There is scarcely a traveler in theHoly Land who has not some story to tell aboutthe mule and its perverse disposition.

Probably everyone feels in his own mind the dif-ference as to gentleness and charity between arational understanding of natural things, thoughit be with a view to their spiritual relations, andan intelligent delight in spiritual truth for thesake of the life of Heaven. There is the same dif-ference between the temper of both ass and muleand that of a good horse.

THE CAMEL

Another animal most important for transporta-tion under certain circumstances is the camel.An excellent account of him is given by Mr.Wood, from which I will quote at some length,because we have so little personal acquaintancewith the animal, though the mental characterwhich he symbolizes is much more familiar. Iwill premise that the camel is fitted for its desertlife especially by its power of storing nourish-ment in its hump and water in one of its stom-achs, so that for several days at a time it canjourney comfortably with small supplies of both.Mr. Wood continues:

The food of the camel is very simple, being, infact, anything that it can get. As it proceeds on itsjourney, it manages to browse as it goes along,bending its long neck to the ground, and crop-ping the scanty herbage without a pause. Camelshave been known to travel for twenty successivedays, passing over some eight hundred miles ofground, without receiving any food except thatwhich they gathered for themselves by the way.


The favorite food of the camel is a shrub calledthe ghada, growing to six feet or so in height, andforming a feathery tuft of innumerable littlegreen twigs, very slender and flexible. It is sofond of this shrub that a camel can scarcely everpass a bush without turning aside to crop it; andeven though it be beaten severely for its miscon-duct, it will repeat the process at the next shrubthat comes in sight. It also feeds abundantly onthe thorn bushes which grow so plentifully inthat part of the world; and though the thorns arean inch or two in length, very strong, and assharp as needles, the hard, horny palate of theanimal enables it to devour them with perfectease.

This is the manner of feeding; however, only incrossing the desert and when more nourishingfood cannot be had. At other times it is well fed,and it is essential to a successful journey that atthe start it be in good flesh, with a full, firmhump of fat.

These advantages would be useless withoutanother—i.e., the foot. The mixed stones andsand of the desert would ruin the feet of almostany animal, and it is necessary that the camelshould be furnished with a foot that cannot besplit by heat like the hoof of a horse, that is broadenough to prevent the creature from sinking intothe sand, and is tough enough to withstand theaction of the rough and burning soil. Such a foot

THE CAMEL 51

does the camel possess. It consists of two longtoes resting upon a hard elastic cushion with atough and horny sole. . . . Owing to the divisionof the toes, it spreads as the weight comes uponit, and thus gives a firm footing on looseground. . . . In consequence of this structure, thecamel sinks less deeply into the ground than anyother animal. . . . It is popularly thought that hillsare impracticable to the camel, but it is able toclimb even rocky ground from which a horsewould recoil.

The ordinary camels are large and clumsy; but inthe eyes of an Arab a good deloul, or dromedary,“is one of the finest sights in the world.”

The limbs of the deloul are long and wiry, havingnot an ounce of superfluous fat upon them, theshoulders are very broad, and the hump, thoughfirm and hard, is very small. . . . Instead of plod-ding along at the rate of three miles an hour,which is the average speed of the commoncamel, the deloul can cover, if lightly loaded,nine or ten miles an hour, and go on at the samepace for a wonderful time, its long legs swingingand its body swaying as if it were but an ani-mated machine. Delouls have been reported tohave journeyed for nearly fifty hours without asingle stop for rest, during which time the ani-mals must have traversed nearly five hundredmiles. Such examples must, however, be excep-tional, implying, as they do, an amount of endur-


ance on the part of the rider equal to that of theanimal, and even a journey of half that distance isscarcely possible to ordinary men on delouls.

The stern gravity of the camel’s character ismost strikingly shown by its young, of which itis said that it is not one whit more playful thanits parents.

Unlike almost all other animals, the camel seemsto have no idea of play, and even the youngcamel of a month or two old follows its motherwith the same steady, regular pace which she her-self maintains.

The camels know their master well, some ofthem being more affectionate than others. Butthey are liable to fits of strange fury, in whichcase even their own masters are not safe fromthem. They are also of a revengeful nature, andhave an unpleasant faculty of treasuring up aninjury until they can find a time of repaying it.”

Several instances are related by travelers of thecruel murder of their masters by camels inrevenge for harsh treatment, after days of delay.

Still, it is not a clever animal. If its master shouldfall off its back, it never dreams of stopping, as awell-trained horse would do, but proceeds at thesame plodding pace, leaving his master to catchit if he can. Should it turn out of the way to cropsome green thorn bush, it would go on in thesame direction, never thinking of turning backinto the right road unless directed by its rider.

THE CAMEL 53

Should the camel stray, “it is a thousand to onethat he will never find his way back to his accus-tomed home or pasture, and the first man whopicks him up will have no particular shyness toget over; . . . the losing of his old master and ofhis former cameline companions gives him noregret, and occasions no endeavor to find themagain.”

The camel never makes way for anyone, itsinstinct leading it to plod onward in its directcourse. Through innate stupidity, according toMr. Palgrave, it goes straight forwards in thedirection to which its head happens to be pointed,and is too foolish even to think of stoppingunless it hears the signal for halt.

It is no kindly charity that is thus described, norgentle spiritual affection for truth. It is a sternmind, comprehensive in its grasp of natural prin-ciples, unpitying and unwearying in its applica-tion of them. It is a mind that applies generalprinciples regardless of their particular conse-quences.1 It is the faculty which trains youth forphysical contests through hardship and severediscipline. It is the reformer who would cut offabuses by sweeping laws heedless of the injurieswhich they must also inflict. It is John the Bap-tist, who came, as his name implies, to cut off

1. Arcana Coelestia #2781, 3048 end.


the abuses of life into which the Jews had fallen,and compel them to straight, honest, uprightways in which the Lord could come to them. Afearless rebuker of king, soldiers, Pharisees, andcommon people alike, he was clothed in camel’shair, he lived in the wilderness, and braved thedeath which his own righteous severity pro-voked.

The camel lives in the desert because thecamel-mind cares not to produce, but to destroythe growth of abuses; it thrives upon hard, nega-tive prohibitions, where others would starve forwant of pleasant, kindly words and acts. Hechews the cud, because such a mind meditatesupon and generalizes all its knowledge. He doesnot divide the hoof because it does not considerthe kindliness and usefulness of its steps; it caresonly for their rightfulness. The breadth of thefoot is its power of generalizing the facts uponwhich it depends. His water stomach is its amplememory of cleansing truth; his hump the mem-ory of the good results of discipline and reform.

THE ELEPHANT

Elephants are sometimes employed to carry bur-dens, not for great distances, but when greatforce is required, or great sagacity under tryingcircumstances. Perhaps no other animal, noteven a dog, is so quick in comprehending a diffi-cult situation, and so ready in removing the diffi-culties.

This quickness of perception seems to arisefrom an underlying love and sense of justice,which is sensitive to injustice and false pre-tenses, and therefore quick to perceive the realstate of a case.

The following characteristic anecdotes illus-trate these qualities in the elephant. The first isquoted by Mr. Wood from Sir Emerson Ten-nent’s work on Ceylon:

One evening, while riding in the vicinity ofKandy, . . . my horse evinced some excitement ata noise which approached us in the thick jungle,and which consisted of a repetition of the ejacu-lation, urmph! urmph! in a hoarse and dissatis-fied tone. A turn in the forest explained the


mystery, by bringing me face to face with a tameelephant, unaccompanied by any attendant. Hewas laboring painfully to carry a heavy beam oftimber, which he balanced across his tusks, butthe pathway being narrow, he was forced to bendhis head to one side to permit it to pass endways;and the exertion and inconvenience combinedled him to utter the dissatisfied sounds which dis-turbed the composure of my horse.

On seeing us halt, the elephant raised his head,reconnoitered us for a moment, then flung downthe timber, and forced himself backwards amongthe brushwood, so as to leave a passage, of whichhe expected us to avail ourselves. My horse stillhesitated; the elephant observed, and impatientlythrust himself still deeper into the jungle, repeat-ing his cry of urmph! but in a voice evidentlymeant to encourage us to come on. Still the horsetrembled; and, anxious to observe the instinct ofthe two sagacious creatures, I forbore any inter-ference. Again the elephant wedged himself far-ther in amongst the trees, and waited impatientlyfor us to pass him; and after the horse had doneso, tremblingly and timidly, I saw the wise crea-ture stoop and take up his heavy burden; turn andbalance it on his tusks, and resume his route,hoarsely snorting, as before, his discontentedremonstrance.

The sense of injustice and sagacity in exposingsham are conspicuous in the next two anecdotes:

THE ELEPHANT 57

A gentleman in India had a favorite elephant, andwas wont always to be present at the time hiskeeper was feeding him. Business, however,demanded his absence for many weeks, and hegave the charge of feeding him to his servant.This man, however, was greedy and avaricious,and gave the poor animal only half the food towhich he had been accustomed, so that hebecame very lean, and by the time his ownerreturned, looked as if ready to drop down. Thefaithless servant declared he could not imaginewhat was the reason of the animal’s falling away,as he had been well fed. At the next feeding time,however, his master was present, and a full por-tion, of course, was placed before the animal,who, dividing it into two portions, ate oneeagerly, and, after first touching the other withhis trunk, pointed to the servant in such a mannerthat the gentleman at once guessed the cause ofhis favorite’s appearance.

Another elephant which was growing unac-countably thin was visited by its owner near theclose of a meal. Its keeper protesting that itreceived full supplies, and that there was noknown cause for the emaciation, the elephantseized him, and shook out from the folds of hisgarments the pilfered grain which he was carry-ing away.


Even when guilty of a sham himself, heshows a remarkable consciousness of the factthat it is a sham. An elephant in Ceylon:

. . . was employed in laying stones under thesupervision of an overseer. Whenever he com-pleted one course, he signaled to the overseer,who came and inspected his work; and afterascertaining that the task was properly per-formed, gave the signal to lay another course. Onone occasion the elephant placed himself againsta portion of the wall, and refused to move fromthe spot when the overseer came to the part of thewall which his body concealed. The overseer,however, insisted on the animal’s moving aside,and the elephant seeing that his ruse had failed,immediately set hard to work at pulling down thewall which he had just built, and which wasdefective in the spot which he had been attempt-ing to conceal from the inspector’s eye.

The following story illustrates the sensibility ofelephants both to injury and to kindness:

An elephant refused to pass over a slight bridgewhich had been erected in a theatre, deeming itunsafe. There stood the animal, with downcasteyes and flapping ears, meekly submitting toblow after blow from a sharp iron goad, whichhis keeper was driving ferociously into the fleshypart of his neck, at the root of the ear. The flooron which he stood was converted into a pool ofblood. One of the proprietors, impatient at what

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he regarded as senseless obstinacy, kept urgingthe driver to proceed to still severer extremities,when Charles Young, who was a great lover ofanimals, expostulated with him, went up to thepoor, patient sufferer, and patted and caressedhim; and when the driver was about to wield hisinstrument again with even greater vigor, hecaught him by the wrist as in a vice, and stayedhis hand from further violence. While an angryaltercation was going on between Young and theman of color, who was the driver, Captain Hay,of the Ashel, who had brought over “Chung” inhis ship, and had petted him greatly on the voy-age, came in and begged to know what was thematter. Before a word of explanation could begiven, the much wronged creature spoke for him-self; for, as soon as he perceived the entrance ofhis patron, he waddled up to him, and, with alook of gentle appeal, caught hold of his handwith his proboscis, plunged it into his bleedingwound, and then thrust it before his eyes. . . . Thehearts of the hardest present were sensiblytouched by what they saw, and among them thatof the gentleman who had been so energetic inpromoting its harsh treatment. It was under a farbetter impulse that he ran out into the street, pur-chased a few apples at a stall, and offered them tohim. Chung eyed him askance, took them, threwthem beneath his feet, and when he had crushedthem to pulp, spurned them from him. Young,


who had gone into Covent Garden on the sameerrand, . . . shortly after returned, and also heldout to him some fruit, when, to the astonishmentof the bystanders, the elephant ate every morsel,and after he had done so, twined his trunk withstudied gentleness around Young’s waist.

Very many anecdotes are related of elephants,and they all seem more or less to illustrate andconfirm the idea that a sense of natural justice istheir essential characteristic. An apparent excep-tion exists in the willingness with which thedomesticated females aid in the capture of wildmales; but even this may come from their appre-ciation of the kindness which they themselveshave received, and their notion that the captivemales will appreciate it after they are accus-tomed to it. The first feeling of the males, whenthey discover that they are bound, is one offierce resentment at the apparent treachery; but itwould be satisfactory to know if they forgive it,when kindness makes their captivity pleasant tothem.

The most striking peculiarities of the ele-phant’s form—the trunk and the tusks—appearto sustain this view of his character. The nose, byits sense of smell, detects the essential quality ofa thing, and ferrets out a deception which the eyewould never discover. This is the peculiar talent

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of those in the province of the nose in the otherworld; whence Swedenborg says that the nosecorresponds to perception. But in the elephant itis the nose that is developed into the trunk. Itssense of smell is keen, probably residing chieflyin the highest part of the cavity, as in other ani-mals, and its extension becomes the means ofexamining and taking up every article of foodand drink, and conveying it to the mouth. Such adevelopment of the nose can hardly fail to repre-sent a corresponding development of the percep-tion of fairness or of shams.

The elephant is not mentioned in the Bible;but Solomon “made a great throne of ivory, andoverlaid it with the best gold” (1 Kings 10:18).Ivory also was brought by the ships of Tharshish(1 Kings 10:22), and was among the treasures ofthe king of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:6, 15). And ivory isfrom the tusks of elephants, and has the samesignification.

The tusks, which are used to uproot smalltrees, to break off the branches, and strip off thebark, as well as for weapons of offense anddefense, are enormous developments of teeth.And teeth, which are stationed as guards at theentrance to the mouth, have for their commonfunction to break open and expose the interiorquality of every morsel of food that seeks


entrance to the body. Their correspondence iswith the kind of truth by which such explorationis effected. The tusks of the elephant, with theirpeculiar development and use, correspond totruth of natural justice by which all externalappearances are stripped off, and hidden motivesand actions are brought to light; and their ivory,in its perfect elasticity, its whiteness and hard-ness, is a representative of knowledge of what isperfectly fair, sincere, and just, which is themeans of compelling justice—the suitable mate-rial for the throne of Solomon.

The love of justice is probably the strongestand most vehement of our natural feelings, as theelephant is the largest and strongest of the landanimals. This affection is easily chafed and irri-tated; and when its resentment is thoroughlyaroused, it is the most furious and vehement ofall affections. And we are told that, in perfectparallelism with this, the elephant, unwieldy ashe is, is so liable to chafing of the skin, and ten-derness of the feet, that with the best of care hecan be used only about four days in the week;and that occasionally an elephant, in a chronicstate of ill humor and exasperation—in whichcondition he is called a “rogue elephant”—breaks loose from all restraint, and roams thewoods and the fields, venting his indignation

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everywhere, dreaded and shunned both by hisformer companions and by his more recent mas-ters.

Swedenborg mentions elephants, togetherwith horses, asses, camels, lions, and some otheranimals, among the animals seen by him, not inHeaven nor in Hell, but in the World of Spirits,where the interior quality of all is explored, andwhere the separation of the good from the evil iseffected.1

Certainly the mental faculty which they rep-resent is here especially useful. It is also in har-mony with the nature of this faculty, thatelephants are among the very few animals thathave been trained to efficient service in war.


ANTELOPES AND DEER

Several species of antelopes and deer are men-tioned in the Bible under various names, whichin our version are often mistranslated. Some ofthe species are not satisfactorily determined; butthere seems to be no doubt that “hart” and“hind” are names rightly applied to the male andthe female of true deer, perhaps of several spe-cies, and that the “wild roe” of our translation isthe gazelle, one of the most familiar and gracefulof antelopes. We will confine ourselves to theseas types; and from these others will readily bedistinguished when they are accurately known.

Of antelopes, in general, Mr. Wood writes:Resembling the deer in many respects, they areeasily to be distinguished from those animals bythe character of the horns, which are hollow atthe base, set upon a solid core like those of theoxen, and are permanently retained throughoutthe life of the animal. Indeed, the antelopes areallied very closely to the sheep and goats, and, insome instances, are very goat-like in externalform. In all cases the antelopes are light and ele-

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gant of body, their limbs are gracefully slender,and are furnished with small cloven hoofs. Thetail is never of any great length, and in some spe-cies is very short. The horns, set above the eye-brows, are either simply conical, or are bent so asto resemble the two horns of the ancient lyre.(Natural History, “Antelopes”)

The gazelles of Palestine, Tristram thusdescribes from his own observation:

It is not so much because it yields savory meat asfrom its swiftness, grace, beauty, and gentlenessthat the gazelle is best known. . . . It is by far themost abundant of all the large game in Palestine;indeed it is the only wild animal of the chasewhich an ordinary traveler has any chance of see-ing. Small herds of gazelle are to be found inevery part of the country, and in the south theycongregate in herds of near a hundred together.One such herd I met with at the southern end ofthe Jebel Usdum, or salt mountain, south of theDead Sea, where they had congregated to drinkof the only sweet spring within several miles,Ain Beida. Though generally considered an ani-mal of the desert and the plains, the gazelleappears at home everywhere. It shares the rocksof Engedi with the wild goats; it dashes over thewide expanse of the desert beyond Beersheba; itcanters in single file under the monastery of Mar-saba. We found it in the glades of Carmel, and itoften springs from its leafy covert on the back of


Tabor, and screens itself under the thorn bushesof Gennesaret. Among the gray hills of Galilee itis still ‘the roe upon the mountains of Bether,’and I have seen a little troop of gazelle feedingon the Mount of Olives, close to Jerusalem itself.

While, in the open glades of the south, it is thewildest of game, and can only be approached,unless by chance, at its accustomed drinkingplaces, and that before the dawn of morning, inthe glades of Galilee it is very easily surprised,and trusts to the concealment of its covert forsafety. I have repeatedly startled the gazelle froma brake only a few yards in front of me; andonce, when ensconced out of sight in a storaxbush, I watched a pair of gazelle with their kidwhich the dam was suckling. Ever and anon boththe soft-eyed parents would gambol with it asthough fawns themselves.

In Gilead, in the forest districts especially, . . .the ariel gazelle is extremely numerous, and inriding among the oaks we were continually put-ting up small troops. It is, if possible, a morebeautiful creature than the common gazelle, ofwhich it is now considered only a local variety.”

Of the ariel, Mr. Wood writes:So exquisitely graceful are its movements, andwith such light activity does it traverse theground, that it seems almost to set at defiance thelaws of gravitation, and, like the fabled Camilla,to be able to tread the grass without bending a


single green blade. When it is alarmed, and runswith its fullest speed, it lays its head back, so thatthe nose projects forward, while the horns liealmost as far back as the shoulders, and thenskims over the ground with such marvelouscelerity that it seems rather to fly than to run, andcannot be overtaken even by the powerful, long-legged, and long-bodied greyhounds which areemployed in the chase by the native hunters.

Some of the general characteristics of antelopesappear more clearly from the descriptions ofseveral kinds. Of the springbok, a South Africanantelope, it is said:

The springbok is a marvelously timid animal,and will never cross a road if it can avoid thenecessity. When it is forced to do so, it oftencompromises the difficulty by leaping over thespot which has been tainted by the foot of man.(Wood’s Natural History)

The pallah, another South African antelope:. . . has a curious habit of walking away whenalarmed, in the quietest and most silent mannerimaginable, lifting up its feet high from theground, lest it should haply strike its foot againsta dry twig and give an alarm to its hidden foe.Pallahs have also a custom of walking in singlefile, each following the steps of its leader with ablind confidence.

The Indian antelope, or sasin:


. . . is a wonderfully swift animal, and quitedespises such impotent foes as dogs and men,fearing only the falcon. . . . At each bound thesasin will cover twenty-five or thirty feet ofground, and will rise even ten or eleven feet fromthe earth, so that it can well afford to despise thedogs. . . . It is a most wary animal, not only set-ting sentinels to keep a vigilant watch, as is thecase with so many animals, but actually detach-ing pickets in every direction, to a distance ofseveral hundred yards from the main body of theherd.

Of the rhoodebok, Mr. Wood quotes from Capt.Drayson:

It is very amusing to watch the habits of thiswary buck when it scents danger in the bush. Itsmovements become most cautious; lifting its legswith high but very slow action, it appears to bewalking on tiptoe among the briers and under-wood, its ears moving in all directions, and itsnose pointed upwind, or towards the suspectedlocality. If it hears a sudden snapping of abranch, or any other suspicious sound, it standsstill like a statue, the foot which is elevatedremains so, and the animal scarce shows a sign oflife for near a minute. It then moves slowlyonwards with the same cautious step, hoping thusto escape detection.

The chamois of Switzerland are, perhaps, as shyof man as any antelopes. Of some that were


domesticated as far as possible, it is related thatthey were “particularly inquisitive and curious,prying into everything”; and, what is probably ina greater or less degree characteristic of the fam-ily, “they would never suffer themselves to betouched; a finger not having yet reached them.They would admit of the hand being softlybrought near their persons, but, immediately as itarrived within an inch of their head or body, theywould vault, suddenly and lightly, from the prof-fered contamination.”

Most of these characteristics are common toantelopes and deer. “There is scarcely any ani-mal,” Mr. Wood says, “so watchful as the femaledeer. It is comparatively easy to deceive the stagwho leads the herd, but to evade the eyes andears of the hinds is a very different business, andtaxes all the resources of a practiced hunter”(Natural History). The desire to escape observa-tion shows itself almost as soon as the fawn isborn. “Mr. St. John relates that he once saw avery young red deer, not more than an hour old,standing by its mother, and receiving hercaresses. As soon as the watchful parent caughtsight of the stranger, she raised her forefoot, andadministered a gentle tap to her offspring, whichimmediately laid itself flat upon the ground, andcrouched close to the earth, as if endeavoring to


delude the supposed enemy into an idea that itwas nothing more than a block of stone.”

Both antelopes and deer chew the cud anddivide the hoof. They therefore were among theanimals permitted for food, and correspond tosome sort of kind and pleasant affections, notstimulating to the understanding merely, butencouraging to the heart. These affections areakin to the mutual love, charity, and helpfulnessrepresented by sheep, goats, and oxen; but theylove their own sweet will, and choose to showtheir graceful gentleness only in their own way,in entire freedom. The animals live in the forestsand uncultivated plains, which represent the nat-ural mind either unsubdued or in a state of rest.The Lord said to His disciples, “Come ye your-selves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile”;and the desert or uncultivated place representsthe state of rest. The animals, therefore, areforms of impulses, gentle, kindly, attractive, andfreedom-loving, made natural either by inherit-ance or by habit. The most graceful and attrac-tive of them come and go almost like thethoughts, nearly intangible because of their shy-ness. Others are more sober and substantial; butnone bend themselves to the steady work of life.

Such affections from inheritance abound inyouth of both sexes, and produce light, graceful,


shy manners in girls, polite, courteous behaviorin young men, and the pleasant, quick-wittedgambols of both—innocent and entertaining, bututterly averse to labor or method. They are dis-tinguished from the wild-ass affections thatbelong to the same age, in that they are not rude,critical, and contemptuous of others, but are gen-tle and affectionate, and desirous of pleasing.

Such affection made natural from a spiritualorigin is thus described: In the lamentation ofDavid over Saul and Jonathan, he says, “Thegazelle of Israel is slain upon thy high places;how are the mighty fallen! . . . How are themighty fallen in the midst of the battle! OJonathan, slain in thine high places. I am dis-tressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; verypleasant hast thou been to me; thy love to mewas wonderful, passing the love of women”(2 Samuel 1:19, 25, 26).

It seems to be Jonathan who is called thegazelle of Israel; for the same expression, “slainupon thine high places,” is applied to him only.And his representation must be natural delight inthe protection of the Lord, through the truth.Saul represents the natural reason to which thekingdom of the mind is first entrusted, andwhich is dethroned because it decides for itselfinstead of patiently discerning and obeying the


truth from the Lord. Yet from this understanding,even through its disappointments, is begotten thetruth that wisdom of life is from the Lord alone,and a happy trustfulness in having it so. This isrepresented by the light-hearted, generousJonathan, whose very name means “the gift ofJehovah.” But not to Jonathan was the kingdomgiven; for not his was the patient application ofthe truth to life, which was represented byDavid. “He stripped himself of the robe that wasupon him, and gave it to David, and his gar-ments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and tohis girdle.” He knew that in doing this he wasgiving him the kingdom; and he meant it, andasked nothing for himself but that David shouldbe kind to his children (1 Samuel 20:15).

With characteristic solitariness and trustful-ness, attended only by his armor bearer, heattacked a strong garrison of the Philistines, say-ing, “It may be that the Lord will work for us; forthere is no restraint to the Lord to save by manyor by few” (1 Samuel 14:6). And afterwards,when he innocently brought upon himself hisfather’s curse by tasting of the forbidden honeyas he passed, so attractive was his generous chiv-alry to the people, that they rescued him fromdeath, and took upon themselves the curse.There was dutifulness also with his romantic


affection; for when his beloved friend was perse-cuted and fled, Jonathan turned faithfully back tohis father, and for him fought valiantly, and withhim laid down his life upon Mt. Gilboa.

The same Hebrew word that means a“gazelle” is often translated “beauty,” and some-times “glory”; probably because the gazelle wasso marked a type of beauty. In these cases it rep-resents the gracefulness of affections that havebecome easy and natural.

But natural good affection is not always fromthe Lord, sometimes being insincere and interi-orly selfish; and such affection is meant by thechased gazelle (or roe) in Isaiah. “Therefore Iwill shake the heavens, and the earth shallremove out of its place, in the wrath of the Lordof Hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger. Andit shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep thatno man taketh up” (Isaiah 13:13, 14), speakingof the judgment, in which merely external andhypocritical forms of goodness will be dis-persed.

The horns of antelopes are permanent, andare composed of fibrous, hairy horn, like thoseof our domestic animals. They represent theknowledge which these affections possess of thedelightfulness and propriety of their free


impulses, which they use in self-defense, andsometimes in friendly rivalry.

The horns of deer are very different in formand material; the animals are generally some-what larger in size, inhabit more northerlyhomes, and possess more variable tempers; someof them also, as the reindeer, are so far domesti-cated as to be of service to owners who will fol-low them in their necessary migrations. Theirhorns are thus described by Mr. Wood:

The horns of deer belong only to the male ani-mals, are composed of solid, bony substances,and are shed and renewed annually during thelife of the animal. The process by which thehorns are developed, die, and are shed, is a verycurious one. . . . In the beginning of the month ofMarch the stag is lurking in the sequestered spotsof his forest home, harmless as his mate and astimorous. Soon a pair of prominences make theirappearance on his forehead, covered with a vel-vety skin. In a few days these little prominenceshave attained some length, and give the first indi-cation of their true form. Grasp one of these inthe hand, and it will be found burning hot to thetouch; for the blood runs fiercely through the vel-vety skin, depositing at every touch a minute por-tion of bony matter. More and more rapidly growthe horns, the carotid arteries enlarging in orderto supply a sufficiency of nourishment, and in the


short period of ten weeks the enormous mass ofbony matter has been completed. Such a processis almost, if not entirely, without a parallel in thehistory of the animal kingdom. When the hornshave reached their due development, the bonyrings at their bases, through which the arteriespass, begin to thicken, and by gradually filling upthe holes, compress the blood vessels, and ulti-mately obliterate them. The velvet now havingno more nourishment, loses its vitality, and issoon rubbed off in shreds against tree trunks,branches, or any inanimate objects. The hornsfall off in February, and in a very short timebegin to be renewed. These ornaments are veryvariable at the different periods of the animal’slife, the age of the stag being well indicated bythe number of “tines” upon his horns. (NaturalHistory “Deer”)

Of the moose, or elk, he writes:It is as wary as any of the deer tribe, beingalarmed by the slightest sound or the faintestscent that gives warning of an enemy. . . . Gener-ally the elk avoids the presence of man, but insome seasons of the year he becomes seized witha violent excitement that finds vent in fightingwith every living creature that may cross hispath. His weapons are his horn and forefeet, thelatter being used with such terrible effect that asingle blow is sufficient to slay a wolf on thespot. (Natural History)


The reindeer in its wild state is a migratoryanimal, making annual journeys from the woodsto the hills, and back again, according to theseason. . . . Even in the domesticated state, thereindeer is obliged to continue its migrations, sothat the owners of the tame herds are perforceobliged to become partakers in the annual pil-grimages. (Natural History)

The wapiti, or Carolina stag, lives in herds ofvariable numbers, some herds containing onlyten or twenty members, while others are foundnumbering three or four hundred. These herdsare always under the command of one old andexperienced buck, who exercises the strictest dis-cipline over his subjects, and exacts implicit andinstantaneous obedience. When he halts, thewhole herd suddenly stops; and when he moveson, the herd follows his example. . . . This posi-tion of dignity is not easily assumed, and isalways won by dint of sheer strength and cour-age, the post being held against all competitors atthe point of the horn. The combats that take placebetween the males are of a singularly fierce char-acter, and often end in the death of the weakercompetitor. An instance is known where a pair ofthese animals have perished, . . . their horns hav-ing been inextricably locked together. (NaturalHistory)

Of the Virginian deer, or carjacou:


The male is a most pugnacious animal, andengages in deadly contests with those of his ownsex. . . . In these conflicts one of the combatantsis not infrequently killed on the spot, and thereare many instances of the death of both parties inconsequence of the horns interlocking withineach other, and so binding the two opponents in acommon fate. To find these locked horns is not avery uncommon occurrence, and in one instancethree pair of horns were found thus entangledtogether, the skulls and skeletons lying as proofsof the deadly nature of the strife. It is in Octoberand November that the buck becomes so combat-ive, and in a very few weeks he has lost all hissleek condition, shed his horns, and retired to thewelcome shelter of the forest. (Natural History)

In the parting blessing which Jacob pronouncedupon his sons, he said, “Naphtali is a hind letloose, speaking words of elegance.” Naphtalisignifies strugglings, or, spiritually, temptations.And, as Swedenborg remarks, “Liberation froma state of temptations is compared to a hind letloose, because the hind is a forest animal, lovingliberty more than others, to which the naturalalso is similar, for this loves to be in the delightof its affections, hence, in freedom, for what isof affection is free” (Arcana Coelestia #6413).He also says that these words describe “the stateafter temptation as to the spontaneous eloquence


which results from perception” (Arcana Coeles-tia #9413, 3929).

Perhaps the gentle, free affections which deerrepresent differ from those signified by ante-lopes in this, that their gentleness, freedom, andbeauty are the result of trials and temptations.The periodically irritable, contentious, moodystates of deer are likenesses of states of tempta-tion, which are followed by times of humilityand shyness, and then by new confidence, happi-ness, and freedom, the right to which is defendedby branching antlers, not of truth perceived andknown concerning itself, like the horns of ante-lopes, but of the very substance of its bones,from the facts of its own life, to which every newround of experience adds a new array.

These at length become the means by which itcontends for superiority and precedence, andthen in conscious weakness it lays them down,and retires in mortification.

The fleet and confident steps of affection thathas become free and natural are thus describedin the Word: “He maketh my feet like hinds’,and setteth me upon my high places” (Psalm18:34). “The Lord Jehovih is my strength; Hemaketh my feet like hinds’, and maketh me towalk upon my high places” (Habakkuk 3:19).


Again, it is written concerning the effect ofthe coming of the Lord, “Then shall the lameman leap as a hart” (Isaiah 35:6), referring tothose who from ignorance or from lack of goodlove find the way of good life painful and diffi-cult, but, as it were, leap with confident strengthand pleasure when good love from the Lordbecomes natural to them.

And once more we read, “As the hart pantethafter the water brooks, so panteth my soul afterThee, O God” (Psalm 42:2), where the feverishdesire of the soul in time of temptation, for cool-ing and consoling truth, is compared to the thirstof the hart, which in the dry season must makelong journeys to the lessening streams.

THE LION

Buffon gives us a description of the lion, which,if somewhat enthusiastic, contains so genuine anappreciation of his good qualities that we cannotafford to lose it. He says:

History tells us of lions attached to triumphalcars, of lions conducted to war or led to thechase, and which, faithful to their master,employed their strength and courage only againsttheir enemies. It is certain that the lion, takenyoung and brought up among domestic animals,easily accustoms himself to live and even to playinnocently with them; that he is gentle towardshis masters, and even caressing, especially, whileyoung; and that, if his natural ferocity reappearssometimes, he rarely turns it against those whohave done him good. As his movements are veryimpetuous, and his appetites very vehement, wemust not suppose that the impressions of educa-tion can always balance them. There is danger inallowing him to suffer too long from hunger, orin tormenting him without purpose. Not only ishe irritated at ill treatment, but he remembers it,and seems to meditate vengeance, as he also pre-

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serves the grateful memory of benefits. I couldcite a great number of facts, in which I confessthat I have found some exaggeration, but which,nevertheless, are sufficiently well founded toprove at least, taken together, that his anger isnoble, his courage magnanimous, his natureimpressible. He has been seen often to disdainsmall enemies, to despise their insults, and topardon their offensive liberties. He has beenseen, led into captivity, to be wearied with hiscondition without becoming irritable, to assume,on the contrary, gentle habits, to obey his master,to caress the hand that feeds it, sometimes to givelife to the animals that had been thrown to himfor prey, and, as if attached to them by his gener-ous act, to continue afterwards the same protec-tion to them, to live peaceably with them, givethem a part of his subsistence, sometimes evenallow them to carry it off altogether, and rathersuffer hunger than lose the fruit of his first kinddeed.

It can also be said that the lion is not cruel,since he is so only from necessity; that hedestroys only as much as he consumes; and thatas soon as he is fed he is entirely peaceful; whilethe tiger, the wolf, and so many animals of infe-rior kinds, such as the fox, the martin, the pole-cat, the ferret, etc. put to death for the merepleasure of killing, and in their many massacres


seem rather to wish to satisfy their rage than theirhunger.

Buffon also remarks upon the perfect symmetryof the lion, his form being the most perfectexpression of effective power and the noblenessof his species—not akin to any other species, norrunning into them by imperceptible degrees. Hespeaks of the strong odor of the lion; of his roar,which resembles thunder; of his short, reiterated,terrible cries of anger, in uttering which “hebeats his sides with his tail, beats the groundwith it, he erects his mane, moves the skin of hisface, stirs his great eyebrows, shows threateningteeth, and puts out a tongue armed with points sohard that it is sufficient to flay the skin, and cutinto the flesh, without the help of either teeth ornails.”

A French officer in Africa gives the followingaccount of African lions:

The panther tears and mutilates the body, evenafter all life has fled, but does not devour it. Ingeneral he kills for the pleasure of killing, andeven when attacking a flock or herd he vents hissavage fury on many before deciding to eat one.The lion, on the contrary, springs upon his victimand at once devours it, or, dragging it to a pre-ferred dining spot, quietly makes his repast, northinks of troubling the rest of the flock untilrenewed appetite leads him to satisfy hunger in

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the same way. If during the repast he sees a manapproach, and is not ravenous, he gets up andwalks away slowly—one may say solemnly; orsometimes not even deigning this, he raises hismajestic head, looks at the intruder, and by ahalf-friendly growl, warns him that he will notstand being troubled when at dinner. A pedes-trian finding himself in this position does well towithdraw slowly, for, should he become fright-ened and run, the lion is quite capable of feelinga desire to overtake him, and in that case will.Even in that case, if the man has presence ofmind sufficient to understand the danger, and dothe only thing remaining to be done, he may stillescape safe and sound; for the lion seems often-est actuated by a half-playful, friendly sentiment,and so he does not lose his respect for man—sel-dom troubles him. Oftentimes he joins andpasses the pedestrian, and when at a good dis-tance, crouches across his path, watching hisapproach. If the man has the unfortunate idea ofturning to run away, he is lost; but if he comes onquietly, neither faster nor slower than his usualpace, looking his enemy steadily in the face, andshowing no signs of fear, he has every chance toescape. The lion will growl, wag his tail in rathera terrifying way, but, allowing the man to passbefore him, get up, and, as though admitting tohimself that he had honestly lost the game, goquietly back to his lair.


A lion rarely attacks women, and I once wit-nessed a scene which will go further than thelongest explanation toward illustrating this. Itwas a hot, sultry day in July. I was returning froma little expedition on the frontiers of Tunis, andas I had some matters to settle with tribes in theenvirons of la Calle, I left my troops to return toConstantine, and, followed only by two spahis,turned my steps toward la Calle. Having startedjust before day, we arrived about four o’clock inthe afternoon at the ford of the little river de laMafrag. Our horses, as well as we ourselves,were sadly in want of food and drink, and westopped to refresh ourselves at a little inn kept bya European, and situated on a low mound two orthree hundred yards from the ford. Whilst wait-ing for my frugal repast I unbuckled my sword,laid by my pistols, and, stretched out comfort-ably in the shade, idly watched a band of Arabwomen washing clothes in the river. All at once Iwas startled by cries proceeding from the oppo-site side of a sand heap bordering the river, andhalf a dozen women came rushing into the midstof their peaceable companions, dragging theminto the shallow water, and behind them a mag-nificent lion, his tail proudly in air, and his great,brown eyes looking caressingly from one to theother. Paying no attention to their retreat into theriver, he followed them there, rubbing himself upagainst them, not seeming to mind in the least

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their cries or terrified gesticulations, and when hehad had enough of it, he took a long drink of therunning water, and, turning, majestically walkedaway into the mountains from whence he hadcome.

I will recall another souvenir of this sameexpedition which will prove to you the harmlessnature of an unattacked lion.

One day, after a rather serious skirmish againstthe revolted tribes, I led my two battalions ofinfantry to a little river situated two miles fromthe fort where we were stationed, in order toallow them to bathe and clean their arms. As ameasure of prudence I allowed but half the mento disarm and enter the river at a time, theremaining battalion being on the qui vive, readyfor defense. As there was no need for haste, Iallowed the men what time they liked for bathingand cleaning, and night, which falls so suddenlyin Africa, surprised us on our return at a fewmoments’ march from the fort. I was suddenlyalarmed by the report of a gun, whose sound,being very different from any in use amongst theArabs, spoke plainly of having been fired by oneof my own men, and I at once brought my col-umn to a halt, and galloped off in the directionfrom whence the single report had come. At ashort distance I met a soldier recently arrived inAfrica, who had been detained behind his com-rades, and who in hastening up, hoping to arrive


before the doors were closed for the night,excused himself timidly for being late and hav-ing fired at last at a troublesome calf or cow,which had barred his passage and seemed deter-mined to keep him from joining his regiment. Heassured me he had done all he could to get rid ofhim, pushing him with the butt end of his gun,etc., but to no purpose, and at last had beenobliged to fire at him so close that he had rolledinstantly dead at his feet. Suspecting the truth, Ireassured the man, and, as night was completelyupon us, rejoined my troops and entered the fort.On the following morning I dispatched the cul-prit with a dozen men to bring back the murderedanimal, and let me decide whether a calf was tobe paid for, or a reward to be given to the slayerof a lion; and, as I had rightly imagined, the latterproved to be the case, and our unconscious heroreceived from the government sixty francsreward for the finest lion killed that year.

From Mr. Wood, we gather some further inter-esting details:

A full-grown lion can not only knock downand kill, but can carry away in its mouth an ordi-nary ox; and one of these terrible animals hasbeen known to pick up a heifer in its mouth, andto leap over a wide ditch, still carrying its bur-den.

The lion seems to be a very incarnation ofstrength; and, even when dead, gives as vivid an

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idea of concentrated power as when it was living.And when the skin is stripped from the body, thetremendous muscular development never fails tocreate a sensation of awe. The muscles of thelimbs, themselves so hard as to blunt the keenedged knives employed by a dissector, are envel-oped in their glittering sheaths, playing uponeach other like well-oiled machinery, and termi-nating in tendons seemingly strong as steel, andnearly as impervious to the knife. Not until theskin is removed can anyone form conception ofthe enormously powerful muscles of the neck,which enable the lion to lift the weighty preywhich it kills, and convey it to a place of safety.

Although usually unwilling to attack an armedman, it is one of the most courageous animals inexistence when it is driven to fight, and if itsanger is excited it cares little for the number ofits foes, or the weapons with which they arearmed. Even the dreaded firearms lose their ter-rors to an angry lion; while a lioness, who fearsfor the safety of her young, is simply the mostterrible animal in existence.

The roar of the lion is another of the character-istics for which it is celebrated. There is no beastthat can produce a sound that could for a momentbe mistaken for the roar of the lion. The lion hasa habit of stooping his head towards the groundwhen he roars, so that the terrible sound rollsalong like thunder, and reverberates in many an


echo in the far distance. Owing to this curioushabit the roar can be heard at a very great dis-tance, but its locality is rendered uncertain, and itis often difficult to be quite sure whether the lionis to the right or the left of the hearer. (Bible Ani-mals)

It is this peculiarity of the roar that makes ithelpful in catching prey; for at the fearful soundall animals are frightened, and, not distinguish-ing the direction of it, especially if it be near,they run towards every quarter, even into thejaws of the waiting lion himself.1

As we see the lion thus portrayed, we arestruck with admiration at his noble courage—amounting in his native condition to absolutefearlessness—at the intense earnestness of hisaffections, as expressed, by his voice of thunder,and shown by the fury of the lioness in defend-ing her young; and at his almost irresistiblepower.

As animals are forms of human affections, thelion represents the most ardent, the most power-ful, and the most courageous of them all. Exactlywhat this affection is appears plainly in theApocalypse.

1. Natural History.

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At the time immediately preceding the LastJudgment, the World of Spirits and the Churchon earth were possessed by men who professedto believe in the Lord and to be His elect, whotaught doctrines, and confirmed them from theWord and by much reasoning, which permittedthem to continue in selfish and wicked liveseven in the name of religion, and who by thesemeans so obscured the truth concerning the spir-itual states of men that it was impossible toknow them. The universal obscurity of this truthwas prophetically represented to John by the“book written within and on the back side,sealed with seven seals.” The grief of all wholoved the Lord, because of this confusion, wasrepresented by John’s weeping “because no manwas found worthy to open and to read the book,neither to look thereon.” And it is added, “Oneof the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold,the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose theseven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in themidst of the throne and of the four beasts, and inthe midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it hadbeen slain. . . . And he came and took the bookout of the right hand of Him that sat upon thethrone” (Revelation 5). The Lion here, who isalso the Lamb, represents the power and courage


of the Lord in His Divine Humanity to teach theabsolute truth of human life, despite the fierceopposition of Scribes and Pharisees, and all theirecclesiastical successors.1

The zeal of the Lord to save men from eviland falsity is further represented in the Apoca-lypse by a mighty angel who came down fromheaven, “clothed with a cloud; and a rainbowwas upon his head and his face was as it were thesun, and his feet as pillars of fire; . . . and he sethis right foot upon the sea, and his left foot onthe earth, and cried with a loud voice as when alion roareth.”

Thus the lion, in relation to the Lord, is animage of the absolute fearlessness and invinciblestrength with which He stands by us, to teach thetruth and to protect us from evil. We have only totrust Him, and we must be safe.

But as the Lord’s love for men is the mostpowerful influence operating upon them, whenthey receive it and respond to it, it becomes inthem their most intense affection. “The lion hathroared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovahhath spoken; who can but prophesy?” describesthe effect of the Divine Love inspiring affection

1. Apocalypse Revealed #265.

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and clear perception of truth in the men whoreceive that Love.

By the tribe of Judah were represented thosewho are in love to the Lord. And in the blessingof Judah by his father Israel, the strength andrepose of this love is described by the words,“He bowed himself, he couched as a lion, and asan old lion; who shall stir him up?” The sense ofthe Lord’s love in them gives them also a senseof irresistible power. As Swedenborg says,“They who are in celestial good,” which is thegood of love to the Lord from the Lord, “neverfight, but are safe by good; for where they comethe evil flee away, for the evil cannot enduretheir presence; these are they who are signifiedby an old lion” (Arcana Coelestia #6369).

So in the passage, “The young lions roar aftertheir prey, and seek their food from God,” Swe-denborg says, by the lions are meant the angelsof heaven; and by their roaring after their prey, isdescribed the desire of the angels in states ofobscurity for renewed love and wisdom from theLord; by “the sun ariseth, they gather themselvestogether, and lay them down in their dwellings,”is meant their return into a heavenly state oftranquility and peace.1



The angels are called young lions, and theLord a Lion; and yet I suppose that no beast ofprey appears in the heavens; but it may appearfrom the heavens in the world of spirits; for it isas a Protector from evil that the Lord is thus rep-resented.1 The obscurity of the angels, in which,like young lions, they seek their food from God,is caused by the encroachments of their own pro-prium; and when they recognize it, and look tothe Lord for deliverance, they feel His power inthem like that of a lion; and He gives them theardent desire for good as of young lions.

As a fierce and terrible lion the Lord appearsto the wicked, because their loves are like fierceanimals, and He who opposes them seems tothem like themselves, only more fierce and pow-erful. Yet the Lion of the Lord’s presence mustbe noble and magnanimous, and their lionsfierce and relentless. Not from the Lord’s zeal tosave and protect do their lions spring; but fromtheir own lust of claiming to themselves, and rul-ing over all things. It is an intense and self-confi-dent love of dominion, which tolerates no rival,when excited fears no danger, and crushes every-one who will not submit to its control, preferringdeath itself to divided authority.

1. Arcana Coelestia #6441–43.

THE BEAR

Buffon states that the black bear, which is ourAmerican species, lives altogether upon fruits,vegetables, and roots, never eating flesh; andthat he is altogether mild and harmless.

Our New England farmers would modify thisstatement, so far as concerns the autumn season,and the mother with cubs. During the summer,the bears live in the woods, as Buffon says,shunning the abodes of man, and escaping fromhim so shyly that it is difficult for hunters to findthem at all. At this season they feed upon theleaves and tender twigs of trees, upon roots, antswhich they lap greedily out of the ant hills, thelarva of beetles, which they dig out of decayingstumps and logs, and very largely upon berries,of which they are extremely fond. But when ber-ries fail, in the autumn, the bears come down tothe orchards and corn fields, not infrequentlymaking havoc among the sheep also. Then theyare frequently seen, and are easily taken in traps.At all seasons, if one comes suddenly upon amother with cubs, he will find her fierce, brave,


and dangerous. “A bear bereaved of her whelps”is a Scripture symbol for desperate courage.

The brown bear of Europe and Asia, Buffondescribes as a fiercer animal, who attacks ratherthan avoids man, though finding his food and hishome among the mountains and in the forests.He proceeds:

The bear is not only wild, but solitary. He shunsall society by instinct. He removes from places towhich men have access. He finds himself at hisease only in the places which still belong toNature. An old cave among inaccessible rocks, ahollow formed by time in the trunk of an old tree,in the midst of a thick forest, serves him for ahome. He retires thither alone, passes a part ofthe winter there without provisions, withoutgoing out from it for several weeks. . . .

The mother takes the greatest care of her littleones. She makes for them a bed of moss andleaves in the bottom of her cave, and nourishesthem with milk until they can go out with her.She brings forth in winter, and her little onesbegin to follow her in the spring. The male andthe female never live together. They have theirseparate retreats, and often far apart. . . .

The bear has good powers of sight, of hearing,and of touch; although his eye is very small com-pared with the size of his body, his ears are short,his skin thick, and his hair plentifully tufted. He

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has an excellent sense of smell, perhaps moreexquisite than any other animal.

The same naturalist describes the anatomicalstructure of the bear, but the only point which wecan notice is that instead of walking upon thetoes, like most other quadrupeds, the bear layshis whole foot upon the ground, so that what iscommonly called the “hock joint” becomes inhim the heel. Mr. Wood writes:

As is the case with many animals, the Syrianbear changes its color as it grows older. When acub, it is of a darkish brown, which becomes alight brown as it approaches maturity. But, whenit has attained its full growth, it becomes creamcolored, and each succeeding year seems tolighten its coat, so that a very old bear is nearlyas white as its relative of the Arctic regions.(Bible Animals)

The bear is one of the omnivorous animals,and is able to feed on vegetable as well as animalsubstances, preferring the former when they canbe found. There is nothing that the bear likes bet-ter than strawberries and similar fruits, amongwhich it will revel throughout the whole fruitseason, daintily picking the ripest berries, andbecoming wonderfully fat by the constant ban-quet. Sometimes, when the fruits fail, it makesincursions among the cultivated grounds, and isnoted for the ravages which it makes among thechickpeas. But during the colder months in the


year the bear changes its diet, and becomes car-nivorous. Sometimes it contents itself with thevarious wild animals which it can secure, butsometimes it descends to the lower plains, andseizes upon the goats and sheep in theirpastures. . . . As the bear is not swift of foot, butrather clumsy in its movements, it cannot hope totake the nimbler animals in open chase. It prefersto lie in wait for them in the bushes, and to strikethem down with a sudden blow of its paw, a terri-ble weapon, which it can wield as effectively as alion uses its claws.

After speaking of the motherly instincts of mostanimals, he says:

Most terrible is the wrath of a creature whichpossesses, as is the case of the bear, the strongestmaternal affections, added to great size, tremen-dous weapons, and gigantic strength. . . . Whenthe bear fights, it delivers rapid strokes with itsarmed paw, tearing away everything that itstrikes. A blow from a bear’s paw has been sev-eral times known to strip the entire skin, togetherwith the hair, from a man’s head, and, whenfighting with dogs, to tear its enemies open as ifeach claw were a chisel. (Bible Animals)

An anecdote, which seems to me highly charac-teristic, is related of a pet bear attached to a Brit-ish regiment. The bear:

. . . was promoted to the office of sentinel overthe property contained in a baggage wagon.

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Unfortunately, the poor animal’s sense of justicewas so acute that it executed its responsibleoffice with too much zeal. On one occasion a sol-dier had gone to the wagon, with the intention ofrobbing it of some of the property containedtherein, and quietly inserted his arm under thecoverings. His intended depredation was, how-ever, soon checked by the teeth of the watchfulbear, which bit his arm with such severity thatthe limb was rendered useless for the rest of theman’s life. Some little time after this occurrence,a child belonging to the regiment made a similarattempt upon the wagon, and was killed by thebear in its anxiety to fulfill the trust that had beencommitted to its charge” (Natural History).

In consequence of its too severe and literal faith-fulness, the poor beast had to be shot.

In addition to these accounts, it should bementioned that the bear, when taken young andkindly treated, becomes quite tame, and is teach-able; that he is playful, enjoys rough fun—youngbears taking great pleasure in tumbling oneanother over in the snow—and is extravagantlyfond of honey, which he eats eagerly, comb,young bees, and all, caring little for the stings ofthe old ones (Natural History).

The human affection which corresponds tothis description is a more or less vehement loveof literalness. It is an affection that loves to carry


out a command to the letter with a grim, humor-ous enjoyment in seeing it hit in unexpectedways. It loves to buffet with precepts and texts,admitting of no explanation that does not exactlycoincide with the letter. Though rough and surly,as well as humorous, it may do good service totruth and right by insisting upon full compliancewith literal truth; or, on the other hand, becauseof its want of intelligence concerning spiritualthings, it may insist ferociously upon the literalfulfillment of precepts which it does not under-stand, even to the destruction of much good,gentle life.

For example, there have been many who in agood spirit have insisted upon a literal and exactobservance of the commandments in regard tothe Sabbath and false speaking, refusing to per-mit any work on the Sabbath, however useful,and requiring the plainest speaking of truth, nomatter how inappropriate. They quote the sever-est texts concerning those who do otherwise, andstrike formidable blows with them. In properplaces they may thus do good service. I haveheard, also, the texts with regard to the destruc-tion of the world, and a final last day, used tocrush every hope of continued happy life in thespiritual world after death. Numerous likeinstances will occur to everyone familiar with

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theological discussions about faith, baptism, cre-ation, redemption, and other subjects.1

An astonishing degree of strength and vehe-mence flows into such literal discussions, which,when known, one is not inclined to rouse care-lessly. But the people who love the fallacies thusdefended are usually silent, retiring, and solitary,shy of spiritual truth, especially when it explainsthe Scriptures. At this they take angry alarm, andquickly become furious, as if in defense of theirlife. Their dogmas strengthened with texts, theybrandish furiously, like claw-armed paws, andstrike blows which are certainly formidable. Instates of inactivity they keep those dogmas con-stantly in mind, thinking them over and overunintelligently, as bears suck their paws.

That bears lay the whole of their great foot onthe ground, and dig in the ground for much oftheir food, represents a clinging to externalthings; their extravagant fondness for honey cor-responds to love for the pleasantness of naturalknowledge. Swedenborg says:

By a bear are signified those who read the Word,and do not understand it, whereby they involvethemselves in fallacies. That these are signified

1. See an enumeration of many such fallacies, signified bythe feet of the bear, in Apocalypse Explained #781.


by bears was clear to me from the bears which Isaw in the spiritual world, and from such [spirits]there as were clad in bearskins, who had all readthe Word indeed, but without seeing any doctri-nal truth in it; also who had confirmed theappearances of truth therein, and thus wereinvolved in fallacies. In that world there appearbears that are hurtful, and bears that are harm-less, and some that are white; but they are distin-guished by their heads, those which are harmlesshave heads like calves or sheep.” (ApocalypseRe-vealed #573; also Conjugial Love #78)

Those with heads like calves would represent thepower of literal truth from innocent desire toknow what is useful; and those with sheep’sheads represent the power of such truth gov-erned by mutual love. In Apocalypse Explainedhe says:

That a bear signifies power from the naturalsense of the Word, as well with the upright as thewicked, may appear from the following pas-sages: “When Elisha went up to Bethel, as hewas going in the way, there came little childrenout of the city and mocked him, and said to him,Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head!And he looked back upon them, and saw them,and cursed them in the name of Jehovah; andthere came two she-bears out of the wood, andtare in pieces forty-two children of them”(2 Kings 2:23, 24). . . . That this was not done by

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Elisha from immoderate anger and without justcause, may be evident from this consideration,that he could not be so cruel to little children foronly saying, Go up, thou bald head. It was indeeda reproach against the prophet, but not a suffi-cient cause for them to be torn in pieces by bears.But this took place because Elisha representedthe Lord as to the Word, thus the Word which isfrom the Lord; by bald head was signified theWord deprived of its natural sense, which is thesense of the letter; by the bears out of the wood issignified the power derived from the natural andliteral sense of the Word, as was said above; andby those children were signified those who blas-pheme the Word on account of its literal sensebeing such as it is. (Apocalypse Explained #781)

Their destruction, therefore, represents the lossof spiritual life in those who despise the letter ofthe Word; and their condemnation by the letteritself.

David, keeping his father’s flock, slew thelion and the bear that attacked the flock, andgave this to Saul as proof that he should be ableto overcome the Philistine. And it was so,because the lion was a representative of the loveof rule by interior falsities, and the bear of a sim-ilar love acting through literal fallacies; and thePhilistine represents those who teach faith and


not goodness, and seek power through bothmeans.

Turning from these evil things, it is pleasantto read that when the Lord’s kingdom shall beestablished upon the earth, “The cow and thebear shall feed; their young ones shall lie downtogether”; which signifies that the power of theliteral sense of the Word will not be abused self-ishly, but will be used wholly in companionshipwith neighborly kindness. It is also said that“The lion shall eat straw like the ox”; meaningthat the love of rule will no longer destroy spiri-tual life by its dreadful falsities, but will love andprotect the innocent thought and life of mutualhelpfulness.

THE WOLF

Buffon remarks the external resemblancebetween the wolf and the dog; but points out thegreat differences in their characters, and theirmutual antipathy. He says further:

Even the wild dog has not a fierce nature; he iseasily tamed, attaches himself, and remains faith-ful to his master. The wolf, taken young,becomes tame, but not in the least attached.Nature is stronger than education. He recovers,with age, his ferocious character, and returns assoon as he can to his wild state. Dogs, even theroughest, seek the company of other animals;they are led naturally to follow and accompanythem; and it is by instinct only, not by education,that they know how to guard the flocks. Thewolf, on the contrary, is the enemy of all society;he does not even keep company with those of hisown species. When many of them are seentogether, it is not a peaceful company; it is a war-like band, which is formed noisily, with frightfulhowls, and which indicates a plan to attack somelarge animal like a stag, an ox, or to get rid ofsome formidable mastiff. As soon as their mili-


tary expedition is over they separate and return insilence to their solitude. . . .

The wolf has great strength, especially in theforward parts of the body, in the muscles of theneck and jaw. He carries a sheep in his mouthwithout letting it touch the ground, and at thesame time runs faster than the shepherds, so thatonly the dogs can overtake him and make himrelease his prey. He bites cruelly, and alwayswith the more madness the less he is resisted; forhe is cautious with animals who can defendthemselves. . . .

The wolf, though ferocious, is timid. When hefalls into a snare, he is frightened so greatly andso long that he may be killed without defendinghimself, or taken captive without resistance. Onecan put a collar on him, chain him, muzzle him,and afterwards lead Him wherever he chooses,without his daring to show the least sign of angeror even of discontent. The wolf has very goodsenses—eyes, ears, and especially smell. Heoften scents further than he can see. The odor ofcarnage attracts him more than a league; hescents living animals from afar, and even chasesthem a long time before he brings them withinsight. . . .

I have brought up and fed several at home.While they are young, that is to say, in their firstand second years, they are tolerably docile, andeven fawning, and if they are well fed they will

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not attack poultry nor other animals. But at eigh-teen months or two years, they return to their nat-ural disposition, and must be chained to preventtheir running away and doing mischief. I had onewhich, brought up in entire liberty in the poultryyard with the hens for eighteen or nineteenmonths, had never attacked them; but, for a firsttrial, he killed them all in one night, without eat-ing any; another, which, having broken his chainat about the age of two years, ran away after hav-ing killed a dog with which it was familiar.

With really sagacious discrimination of evilfrom good, if also with some extravagance, Buf-fon sums up the character of the wolf thus:

There is nothing good in this animal but his skin;of this are made coarse furs which are warm anddurable. His flesh is so bad that it repels all ani-mals. Only a wolf will voluntarily eat wolf. . . .Disagreeable in every respect, with mean air,savage look, frightful voice, insupportable odor,perverse nature, ferocious manners, he is odious;noxious while living, useless after death.

In the Bible Animals, Mr. Wood gives someadditional particulars of interest:

Individually, the wolf is rather a timid animal. Itwill avoid a man rather than meet him. It prefersto steal upon its prey, and take it unawares, ratherthan to seize it openly and boldly. It is ever suspi-cious of treachery, and is always imagining that atrap is laid for it. Even the shallow device of a


few yards of rope trailing from any object, or astrip of cloth fluttering in the breeze, is quite suf-ficient to keep the wolf at bay for a considerabletime. This fact is well known to hunters, who areaccustomed to secure the body of a slain deer bysimply tying a strip of cloth to its horn. If takenin a trap of any kind, or even if it fancies itself inan enclosure from which it can find no egress, itloses all courage, and will submit to be killedwithout offering the least resistance. It will occa-sionally endeavor to effect its escape by feigningdeath, and has more than once been known tosucceed in this device.

But collectively, the wolf is one of the mostdangerous animals that can be found. Herdingtogether in droves, when pressed by hunger, thewolves will openly hunt prey, performing thistask as perfectly as a pack of trained hounds. Fullof wiles themselves, they are craftily wise inanticipating the wiles of the animals which theypursue; and, even in full chase, while the body ofthe pack is following on the footsteps of the fly-ing animal, one or two are detached on theflanks, so as to cut it off if it should attempt toescape by doubling on its pursuers.

There is no animal which a herd of wolves willnot attack, and very few which they will not ulti-mately secure. Strength avails nothing againstthe numbers of these savage foes, which give nomoment of rest, but incessantly assail their antag-

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onist, dashing by instinct at those parts of thebody which can be least protected, and laceratingwith their peculiar short, snapping bite. Shouldseveral of their number be killed or disabled, itmakes no difference to the wolves, except that aminute or two are wasted in devouring their slainor wounded brethren, and they only return to theattack the more excited by the taste of blood.Swiftness of foot avails nothing against the tire-less perseverance of the wolves, who press on intheir peculiar, long, slinging gallop, and in theend are sure to tire out the swifter footed but lessenduring animal that flees before them. Thestately buffalo is conquered by the ceaselessassaults of the wolves; the bear has been forcedto succumb to them, and the fleet-footed stagfinds his swift limbs powerless to escape the pur-suing band, and his branching horns unable toresist their furious onset when once they over-take him.

Who are spiritually wolves the Lord Himselfshows quite plainly in the words, “Beware offalse prophets, who come to you in sheep’sclothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew7:15, 16). That is, they are those who, in regardto things of the Church, teach not the ways of theLord and of good life, but doctrines that make


people depend upon them, and contribute to theirgreatness. Swedenborg says of them:

They are those who teach falsities as if they weretruths, and who in appearance live morally, butwho, when they are left to themselves, think ofnothing but themselves and the world, and studyto deprive others of their truths. (ApocalypseExplained #195)

For all genuine truths of religion lead to theLord; but falsities are invented to lead to menand to excuse evil. Therefore those in thechurches who devise laws and doctrines whichthey declare to be necessary to salvation, butwhich do not lead men to the Lord and the Word,but make them dependent on them, are raveningwolves.1 The ecclesiastical history of the papalhierarchy, and especially of the Society of Jesu-its, which has been its chief instrument of perse-cution and oppression, bears on every pageaccounts of the wiles and cruelties of spiritualwolves, usually wearing in their approaches theraiment of sheep. The perseverance and persis-tence of their attacks on those who had propertyor power, their combinations and mutual supportin their attacks, the relentlessness and destruc-tive fury with which they turn upon one of their

1. The Last Judgment #58, 59.

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own order who fails to support them, are asfreely portrayed in the history of that Churchgovernment as in the natural history of wolvesthemselves.

Wolfishness appears in the history of otherbranches of the Church, though less conspicu-ously; it is not uncommon also in secular affairs,especially in military or business combinationsfor the purpose of plunder. It is a selfishness thatis greedy of every kind of advantage, especiallyfrom those who are trustful and unsuspecting.Sly and treacherous itself, it suspects treacheryeverywhere. It combines with others only in pur-suing some common advantage; and is as readyto profit by their downfall as by that of theirprey.

In the Word wolves are generally mentionedas the special enemies of sheep and lambs, inwhich sense they represent those leaders of theChurch who turn to themselves, for their ownadvantage, the innocent dependent affectionsthat belong to the Lord alone.

In the prophecies of the establishment of theLord’s kingdom, it is said, “The wolf shall dwellwith the lamb” (Isaiah 11:6). “The wolf and thelamb shall feed together” (Isaiah 65:25). Bywhich is not meant that wolves will change theirnature either naturally or spiritually; but that the


presence of the Lord will be so strongly felt thatthere will be no power to turn away from Himthose who love Him.1

At the time of the Lord’s teaching, the leadersof the Jewish Church, Scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites, devouring widows’ houses, and for apretense making long prayers, had turned allthings of their religion to their own selfish ser-vice, as has since been done in Christian Rome.The Lord, therefore, said to the apostles whomHe sent forth, “Behold, I send you forth as lambsamong wolves” (Luke 10:3). He also likenedthose who taught the truth only when it con-duced to their worldly prosperity, forsaking theircharge or their truthful teaching at the menace ofselfish leaders, to “hirelings,” who flee whenthey see the wolf coming.

The Lord was the good Shepherd, and gaveHis life for the sheep. He fearlessly taught thetruth which led the people away from theirformer leaders to the Divine Spirit in Himself.The Pharisees declared that He cast out devils byBeelzebub. To them He was only a fiercer wolfthan themselves. Because of this appearance ofthe Lord and of those who teach from Him inresisting the selfishness of wolfish men, in the


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prophetic blessing which Jacob pronouncedupon his sons, he said of Benjamin, who repre-sents such explanation of spiritual truth as leadsto an interior knowledge of the Lord, “Benjaminshall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shalldevour the prey, and at night he shall divide thespoil” (Genesis 49:27).1


THE LEOPARD

Of the leopard we read in the Bible Animals:Its color is tawny, variegated with rich blackspots, and it is a fierce and voracious animal,almost equally dreaded by man and beast. . . .

To deer and antelopes it is a terrible enemy;and, in spite of their active limbs, seldom fails inobtaining its prey. Swift as is the leopard, andwonderful its spring, it has not the enduringspeed of the deer or antelope. . . . Instinctivelyknowing its inferiority in the race, the leopardsupplies by cunning the want of enduring speed.

It conceals itself in some spot whence it cansee far around without being seen, and thencesurveys the country. A tree is the usual spotselected for this purpose, and the leopard, afterclimbing the trunk by means of its curved talons,settles itself in the fork of the branches, so that itsbody is hidden by the boughs, and only its headis shown between them. With such scrupulouscare does it conceal itself, that none but a prac-ticed hunter can discover it, while anyone who isunaccustomed to the woods cannot see the ani-mal even when the tree is pointed out to him.

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As soon as the leopard sees the deer feeding ata distance, he slips down the tree, and stealthilyglides off in their direction. He has many diffi-culties to overcome, because the deer are amongthe most watchful of animals, and if the leopardwere to approach to the windward, they wouldscent him while he was yet a mile away fromthem. If he were to show himself but for onemoment in the open ground, he would be seen,and if he were but to shake a branch or snap a drytwig, he would be heard. So he is obliged toapproach them against the wind, to keep himselfunder cover, and yet to glide so carefully alongthat the heavy foliage of the underwood shall notbe shaken, and the dry sticks and leaves, whichstrew the ground, shall not be broken. He hasalso to escape the observation of certain birdsand beasts which inhabit the woods, and whichwould certainly set up their alarm cry as soon asthey saw him, and so give warning to the warydeer, which can perfectly understand a cry ofalarm, from whatever animal it may happen toproceed.

Still, he proceeds steadily on his course, glid-ing from one covert to another, and oftenexpending several hours before he can proceedfor a mile. By degrees he contrives to come toler-ably close to them, and generally manages toconceal himself in some spot towards which thedeer are gradually feeding their way. As soon as


they are near enough he collects himself for aspring, just as a cat does when she leaps on abird, and dashes towards the deer in a series ofmighty bounds. For a moment or two they arestartled and paralyzed with fear at the suddenappearance of their enemy, and thus give himtime to get among them. Singling out some par-ticular animal, he leaps upon it, strikes it downwith one blow of his paw, and then, couching onthe fallen animal, he tears open its throat, andlaps the flowing blood. . . .

As an instance of the cunning which seemsinnate in the leopard, I may mention that when-ever it takes up its abode near a village, it doesnot meddle with the flocks and herds of its neigh-bors, but prefers to go to some other village at adistance for food, thus remaining unsuspectedalmost at the very doors of the houses.

In general, it does not willingly attack man-kind, and at all events seems rather to fear thepresence of a full-grown man. But whenwounded or irritated, all sense of fear is lost in anoverpowering rush of fury, and it then becomesas terrible a foe as the lion himself. It is not solarge nor so strong, but it is more agile andquicker in its movements; and when it is seizedwith one of these paroxysms of anger, the eyecan scarcely follow it as it darts here and there,striking with lightning rapidity, and dashing atany foe within reach. Its whole shape seems to be

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transformed, and absolutely to swell with anger;its eyes flash with fiery luster, its ears are thrownback on the head, and it continually utters alter-nate snarls and yells of rage. It is hardly possibleto recognize the graceful, lithe, glossy creature,whose walk is so noiseless, and whose everymovement is so easy, in the furious, passion-swollen animal that flies at every foe with blindfury, and pours out sounds so fierce and menac-ing that few men, however well armed, will careto face it.

As is the case with most of the cat tribe, theleopard is an excellent climber, and can ascendtrees and traverse their boughs without the leastdifficulty. It is so fond of trees, that it is seldomto be seen except in a well-wooded district. Itsfavorite residence is a forest where there isplenty of underwood, at least six or seven feet inheight, among which trees are sparingly inter-spersed. When crouched in this cover it is practi-cally invisible, even though its body may bewithin arm’s length of a passenger. The spottedbody harmonizes so perfectly with the brokenlights and deep shadows of the foliage, that evena practiced hunter will not enter a covert insearch of a leopard unless he is accompanied bydogs. The instinct which teaches the leopard tochoose such localities is truly wonderful, andmay be compared with that of the tiger, whichcares little for underwood, but haunts the grass


jungles, where the long, narrow blades harmo-nize with the stripes which decorate its body.

In regard to the passage, “The wolf shall dwellwith the lamb, and the leopard shall lie downwith the kid, and the calf and the young lion andthe fatling together, and a little child shall leadthem” (Isaiah 11:6), Mr. Wood remarks:

Herein the Prophet speaks as from accurateknowledge of the habits of the three predaceousanimals. The wolf, as a rule, devastates thesheepfolds; the leopard will steal upon and carryoff the straggling goat or kid, because it can fol-low them upon the precipices where no wolfwould dare to tread; while the lion, being thestrongest and most daring of the three, attacks theherds, and carries away to its lair the oxen whichneither leopard nor wolf could move.

One other observation by Captain Drayson isworthy to be quoted; in speaking of a leopardthat had been caught in a trap, he says:

I visited him the morning after his capture, andwas received with the most villainous grins andlooks. He could not endure being stared at, andtried every plan to hide his eyes so that he neednot see his persecutor. When every other planfailed, he would pretend to be looking at somedistant object, as though he did not notice hisenemy close to him. When I gazed steadily athim, he could not keep up this acting for longerthan a minute, when he would suddenly turn and

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rush at me, until he dashed himself against thebars, and found that he was powerless to revengehimself. (Wood’s Natural History)

The fierce lust of appropriating to oneself, whichis thus represented, does not obtain its ends byvehement strength which crushes opposition,like a spiritual lion, nor by open, clumsy, forc-ible literalness, like a bear, nor yet by combinedattack, as does the wolf; but by deceitful appear-ances and sudden attack of quick reasonings.

The leopard loves to see, but not to be seen.He wishes to appear to be only the natural lightsand shadows of the forest, and not an animal atall, until its prey is within certain reach. By themingled play of light and shadow, the beauty ofthe light appears by contrast; and so, in the mind,the beauty of spiritual light appears by contrastwith obscurity. But the black spots which theleopard scatters in his sunshine are not thechance obscurities of ignorance, but maliciouslyinterspersed falsities, which yet pass with its vic-tims for mere obscurity—for things not wellexplained and distinctly seen, but still inno-cent—they are also made inconspicuous by thebrightness of the truth connected with it. It is thepurpose of the leopard that no animal shouldappear to be under the spotted skin, that is, spiri-tually, that not a trace of evil desire should be


suspected under those falsities, until its end isgained. Nothing could enrage it more than to bedistinctly seen.

That such deceivers appear in society weknow. In regard to their work in the Church,Swedenborg says:

A leopard signifies reasonings which are discor-dant, and yet appear to be true, because a leopardis distinguished by its skin being variegated withspots, from which variegation it appears notunbeautiful; but whereas it is a fierce and insidi-ous animal, and above all others swift to seize itsprey, and whereas they also are such who areskilful in reasoning expertly to confirm thedogma concerning the separation of faith fromgood works, and this by reasonings from the nat-ural man, which, notwithstanding their discor-dance with truths, they make to appear as if theycohered therewith, therefore, ‘the Beast’ [whichsignified such reasonings] appeared as to itsbody like a leopard. . . . But this shall be illus-trated by an example: Who may not be broughtto believe that faith alone is the one only meansof salvation, when it is grounded in the argumentthat man cannot of himself do good which isgood in itself? For it appears to everyone at firstsight as a necessary consequence, and thus ascohering with truth; and in this case it is not per-ceived to be reasoning from the natural man con-firming the separation of faith from good works

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[and really springing from the lust of doing evil],while the person who is persuaded by this rea-soning begins to think that he has no need toattend to his life, because he has faith. (Apoca-lypse Explained #780)

Such falsities appearing as truth in obscurity, arethe means of deception to such lusts, and theycan no more give them up than a leopard canchange his spots; which is meant by the words,“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leop-ard his spots? Then may ye also do good whohave been taught to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23).

The multiplication and destructiveness ofsuch deceitful lusts at the end of the Church isthus described: “The lion out of the forest hassmitten the great ones of Jerusalem, the wolf ofthe plains shall devastate them; the leopard iswatching against their cities; everyone who goesout shall be torn in pieces” (Jeremiah 5:6).

And, on the other hand, the perfect safety ofinnocent desire for truth, in the light of theLord’s Presence, at His Coming, is signified by“The leopard shall lie down with the kid” (Isaiah11:6).1

1. See also Apocalypse Revealed #572, Conjugial Love#78, 79.

THE DOG

The dogs of Oriental towns are so unlike theirmore fortunate European relatives, that they canhardly be recognized as belonging to the samespecies. In those lands the traveler finds thatthere is none of the wonderful variety which sodistinguishes the dog of Europe. . . .

As he traverses the streets, he finds that all thedogs are alike, and that all are gaunt, hungry, halfstarved, savage, and cowardly, more like wolvesthan dogs, and quite as ready as wolves to attackwhen they fancy they can do so with safety. Theyprowl about the streets in great numbers, living,as they best can, on any scraps of food that theymay happen to find. They have no particularmasters, and no particular homes. Charitable per-sons will sometimes feed them, but will nevermake companions of them, feeling that the verycontact of a dog would be a pollution. They arecertainly useful animals, because they act asscavengers, and will eat almost any animal sub-stance that comes in their way. (Bible Animals)

The author of “A Month in Constantinople” thusdescribes his first night:

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The whole city rang with one vast riot. Downbelow me, at Tophané—over about Stamboul—far away at Scutari—the whole sixty thousanddogs that are said to overrun Constantinopleappeared engaged in the most active extermina-tion of each other, without a moment’s cessation.The yelping, howling, barking, growling, andsnarling were all merged into one uniform andcontinuous even sound, as the noise of frogsbecomes when heard at a distance. For hoursthere was no lull. I went to sleep, and wokeagain, and still, with my windows open, I heardthe same tumult going on; nor was it until day-break that anything like tranquility was restored.

Yet several writers agree that these savage cursare still dogs in that essential characteristic—thedesire to attach themselves to a master. Mr. Tris-tram encamped, with his party, outside the wallsof Jerusalem, near a Turkish guard house. Hewrites:

So near the soldiers, we could sleep in security,and had no occasion to be on the watch againstpilferers during the daytime. Indeed, the guardhouse provided us unasked with an invaluableand vigilant sentry, who was never relieved, norever quitted the post of duty. The poor Turkishconscript, like every other soldier in the world, isfond of pets, and in front of the grim turret thatserved for a guard house was a collection of oldorange boxes and crates, thickly peopled by a


garrison of dogs of low degree, whose attach-ment to the spot was certainly not purchased bythe loaves and fishes which fell to their lot. Oneof the party must indeed have had hard times, forshe had a family of no less than five dependenton her exertions and on the superfluities of thesentries’ mess. With a sagacity almost more thancanine, the poor gaunt creature had scarcely seenour tents pitched before she came over with allher litter, and deposited them in front of our tent.At once she scanned the features of every mem-ber of our encampment, and introduced herself toour notice. During the week of our stay, shenever quitted her post, nor attempted any depre-dations on the kitchen tent, which might have ledto her banishment. Night and day she proved afaithful and vigilant sentry, permitting nostranger, human or canine, European or Oriental,to approach the tents without permission, butkeeping on the most familiar terms with our-selves and our servants. On the morning of ourdeparture, no sooner had she seen our campstruck than she conveyed her puppies back totheir old quarters in the orange box, and noentreaties or bribes could induce her to accom-pany us. On three subsequent visits to Jerusalem,this same dog acted in a similar way, though nolonger embarrassed by family cares, and wouldon no account permit any strange dog, nor even

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her companions at the guard house, to approachwithin the tent ropes. (Land of Israel p. 175, 176)

It would be easy to fill volumes with anecdotesof the traits of dogs. There are innumerableaccounts of the zeal and sagacity of Newfound-land dogs in rescuing lives from the water; of asimilar instinct in the dogs of St. Bernard forfinding and protecting travelers lost in the snow;of the peculiar ability and faithfulness displayedby shepherd dogs in guiding and protecting thesheep; of drovers’ dogs which will conduct theirflock or herd long distances alone, and will evendrive them through other flocks or herds withoutallowing an individual to stray, or a singlestranger to mingle with their own;1 and not a fewinstances are recorded of dogs whose attachmentto their masters was so great that when thesedied, the dogs also refused the means of life. It issuperfluous to describe at great length qualitiesthat are so well known to all; it only remains forus to generalize them, and point out the essentialcharacteristics in them all.

Mr. Wood’s observations on this point are ofinterest. He says:

The leading characteristic of a dog’s nature isthat he must have a master, or at all events a mis-

1. Natural History.


tress; and just in proportion as he is free fromhuman control, does he become less dog-like andmore wolf-like. In fact, familiar intercourse withmankind is an essential part of a dog’s true char-acter, and the animal seems to be so well awareof this fact, that he will always contrive to find amaster of some sort, and will endure a life ofcruel treatment at the hands of a brutal ownerrather than have no master at all. (Bible Animals)

Hamerton, also, with some facetiousness andextravagance, but with very clear insight intonatural character, says:

Thousands of dogs, whole generations of them,have known man in no other character than thatof a merciless commander, punishing the slight-est error without pity, yet bestowing no reward.There are countries where the dogs are never fed,where they are left to pick up a bare existenceamongst the vilest refuge, and where they walklike gaunt images of famine, living skeletons,gnawing dry sticks in the wintry moonlight,doing Nature’s scavenger work like rats. Yet inevery one of these miserable creatures beats thenoble canine heart—that heart whose depths ofdevotion have never yet been sounded to the bot-tom; that heart which forgets all our cruelty, butnot the smallest evidence of our kindness. Ifthese poor animals had not been made to love us,what excellent reasons they would have had forhating us! Their love has not been developed by

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care and culture, like the nourishing ears ofwheat; but it rises like warm, natural springs,where man has done nothing either to obtainthem or to deserve them. . . .

We know ourselves to be such lamentablyimperfect characters, that we long for an affec-tion altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven hasaccorded this to us in the uncritical canine attach-ment. Women love in us their own exalted ideals,and to live up to the ideal standard is sometimesrather more than we are altogether able to man-age; children in their teens find out how clumsyand ignorant we are, and do not quite unreserv-edly respect us; but our dogs adore us without asuspicion of our shortcomings. (Chapters on Ani-mals)

It is said that every dog is an aristocrat,because rich men’s dogs cannot endure beggarsand their rags, and are civil only to well-dressedvisitors. But the truth is that, from sympathy forhis master, the dog always sees humanity verymuch from his master’s point of view. The poorman’s dog does not dislike the poor. I may gomuch farther than this, and venture to assert thata dog who has lived with you for years will makethe same distinction between your visitors thatyou make yourself inwardly, notwithstanding theapparent uniformity of your outward politeness.My dog is very civil to people I like, but he is


savage to those I dislike, whatever the tailor mayhave done to lend them external charms. (Ibid.)

Whatever we may think of the nobleness of thecharacter thus described, there is no doubting thetruth that the dog is an embodiment of personalaffection, undiscriminating, devoted. There is,indeed, a difference in the quality of dogs; someof them learn good things easily, and are reluc-tant to do harm; and others can with difficulty berestrained from cruelty. But where they attachthemselves they worship good and evil indiffer-ently; and all love wanton uncleanness. Theaffection of which they are representatives lovesthe faults with the virtues, often with a specialfondness for selfish peculiarities of thought andtemper. It is an affection which makes one com-placent with himself as he is, but is not at allencouraging to improvement.

In the Scriptures dogs are usually spoken ofas vile; but in their best sense are used as repre-sentatives of kindly, natural affection, which isindiscriminate because ignorant of truth, yetsometimes is desirous of instruction. The dogsthat licked the sores of Lazarus, lying at the richman’s gate, have such a meaning. Swedenborginterprets the rich man as meaning the learnedamong the Jews, who were rich in knowledge ofthe Word; the poor man, as the simple among

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them who looked up to the learned for instruc-tion, as Lazarus desired to be fed with thecrumbs which fell from the rich man’s table; andthe dogs doing their best in their poor way tohelp him, as those out of the church who hadmore kindliness than those within it, though theydid not know good from evil.1

Also when the Syrophenician womanbesought the Lord to cast out the devil from herdaughter, He replied, “It is not meet to take thechildren’s bread and cast it to dogs”; to whichshe answered, in her humility, “Truth, Lord; yetthe dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from theirmasters’ table” (Matthew 15), thus turning therepresentative to its good sense, by acknowledg-ing that they were in evil, but expressing a desireto be helped and instructed.2 Likewise, in asense not bad, Swedenborg says that dogs sig-nify “the lowest in the Church, who prate muchof such things as are of the Church, but under-stand little” (Arcana Coelestia #7784); in whichsense it seems to be used in the passage, “Thatthy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine ene-mies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same”(Psalm 68:24). Such persons may be very faith-ful to the things they have been taught, very

1. Arcana Coelestia #9231.2. See also Apocalypse Explained #455.


watchful and suspicious of everything that doesnot exactly agree with it, even of familiar thingsdressed in different clothes.1

Ignoble dogs, because of their greediness andquarrelsomeness, and their unclean and wantonways, represent those whose personal attach-ment is simply for the sake of indulgence ofappetite and for sensual enjoyment. Of theseSwedenborg says:

By dogs in general are signified those who are inall kinds of lusts and indulge them, particularlythey who are in pleasures merely corporeal, espe-cially the pleasures of eating and drinking, inwhich alone they take delight. (ApocalypseRevealed #952)

In this sense it is said, “Give not that which isholy unto the dogs”; for holy things ought not tobe used for self-indulgence. And in the Revela-tion we read, in the same meaning, “Without aredogs and sorcerers and whoremongers” (Revela-tion 22:15). From such appetites readily springsthe desire to destroy the purer truth whichrestrains them; and such desire is meant by dogsin the passage, “They compassed me about likedogs; deliver my darling from the power of thedog” (Psalm 22:17, 21).

1. That there are good dogs, see Spiritual Diary #4853.

THE FOX AND THE JACKAL

The Hebrew word used in the Bible for fox:. . . . undoubtedly includes the jackal as well.Indeed, in most of the passages where it occurs,the jackal, rather than the fox, is intended. . . .The two animals are commonly confounded, orspoken of together, by the natives of Syria,though they are perfectly aware of theirdistinctness. . . .

The character and habits of the eastern fox inno way differ from those so well known in othercountries; but, from necessity probably, they areless exclusively carnivorous than in England. . . .The fondness of the fox for grapes is well knownin the East; but not less so that of the jackal,which, going in packs, often commits great dev-astation in the vineyards. . . . One great differ-ence between the jackal and the fox is that theformer hunts in packs, while the latter prowlssingly for his prey, which he takes by stratagem.(Tristram, in Natural History of the Bible)

The crafty, pilfering, cruel nature of the fox ismade familiar by a thousand anecdotes to be


found in every library. Mr. Wood gives the fol-lowing account of his odor:

A very powerful scent is poured forth from thefox in consequence of some glands which areplaced near the root of the tail, and furnish theodorous secretion. . . . It is by this scent that thehounds are able to follow the footsteps of a fly-ing fox, and to run it down by their superiorspeed and endurance. The fox, indeed, seems tobe aware that its pursuers are guided in theirchase by this odor, and puts in practice everyexpedient that its fertile brain can produce inorder to break the continuity of the scent, or tooverpower it by the presence of other odors,which are more powerful, though not moreagreeable. A hunted fox will make the mostextraordinary leaps in order to break the line ofscent, and throw the hounds on a false track. Itwill run for a considerable distance in a straightline, return upon its own track, and then make apowerful spring to one side, so as to induce thedogs to run forward while it quietly steals away.It will take every opportunity of perfuming, orrather of scenting, itself with any odorous sub-stance with which it can meet, in the hope ofmaking the hounds believe that they have mis-taken their quarry. In fine, there are a thousandwiles which this crafty animal employs, andwhich are related by everyone who has watcheda fox or hunted it. (Natural History)

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The jackal is an essentially nocturnal and gre-garious animal. During the whole of the day thejackals lie concealed in their holes or hidingplaces, which are usually cavities in the rocks, intombs or among ruins. At nightfall they issuefrom their dens, and form themselves into packs,often consisting of several hundred individuals,and prowl about in search of food. Carrion ofvarious kinds forms their chief subsistence, andthey perform in the country much the same taskas is fulfilled by the dogs in the cities. If any ani-mal should be killed, or even severely wounded,the jackals are sure to find it out and to devour itbefore the daybreak. (Bible Animals)

The audacity of the jackal is as notable as hiscunning. He will wait at the very door, biding histime patiently until it is opened and he may slinkin through the aperture. Pigs, lambs, kids, andpoultry fall victims to his insatiate appetite, andhe has been known to steal the sleeping puppiesfrom the side of their mother withoutdetection. . . . Always ready to take advantage ofevery favorable opportunity, the jackal is a sadparasite, and hangs upon the skirts of the largercarnivores as they roam the country for prey, inthe hope of securing some share of the creatureswhich they destroy or wound. . . . When the tigerhas killed some large animal, such as a buffalo,which he cannot consume at one time, the jackalscollect round the carcass at a respectful distance,


and wait patiently until the tiger moves off andthey can venture to approach. As soon as thetiger moves away, the jackals rush from all direc-tions, carousing upon the slaughtered buffalo,and each anxious to eat as much as it can containin the shortest time. (Natural History)

The common perception of men sees in the foxan emblem of craftiness, especially in gettingpossession of property. In Oriental stories, thejackal holds a similar place, as the representativeof cunning and quick command of resources. Inthe fables of the East, animals are often put forhuman attributes, and are represented as speak-ing and carrying on the plot of the story with asort of human intelligence. And among them thejackal is always the one to contrive plans, and toextricate the party from difficulties.

But foxes and jackals are night animals;therefore the intelligence which they representdoes not love spiritual light, but the light of theworld, which by itself is spiritual obscurity. Theyare also cruel beasts of prey; which indicates thatthey represent selfish affections, which wouldprey upon others, and not do them good. Theyseem to be embodiments of sly, selfish artifice inobtaining property. Human foxes love trickyways, and chuckle over the proceeds of some


sharp maneuver, loving them more than anyamount of honest gains.

The difference between the fox and the jackalseems to be that the jackal is more social, usuallyliving in the neighborhood of others, and preyingupon slain or wounded and feeble animals incompany, while the fox is more solitary, moresuspicious, more secret.

The men who herd together for plunder, tak-ing advantage of troubled times, of the conflictsof greater men, and of everyone’s weakness ornecessity, are jackals; but the slyer man, wholays his own plans in silence, trusts no one, andbelieves that he can outwit them all, is a fox.

Mean thieves they all are; and I think there isan odor of meanness about them which is readilyperceived, and which they cannot get rid of; butwhich the possessors try to obscure by an air offamiliarity with worse wickedness which theyassume to have met; thus, as it were, coveringtheir own with a stronger scent. In every largecommunity there must be many bone-strewnholes of foxes and jackals, which honest peopleseldom see until they fall into trouble.

Speaking spiritually, this enjoyment of one’sown tricky prudence, as a means of getting thebetter of others, is the opposite of a modest loveof spiritual intelligence as a means of doing


good.1 It is not pleasant to think of a pervertedmeaning to so good a fruit as grapes; but as winecan be used to produce drunkenness, so cangrapes as food for foxes. In their right use theycorrespond to the pleasant truth of neighborlylife, such as true charity loves; but foxes’ grapesare a knowledge of men and of the ways of life,as a means of getting selfish advantages.

That pride in their own prudence such asfoxes represent was common among the Jews,but that the truth of charity had no place in them,is meant by the Lord’s saying, “Foxes haveholes, . . . but the Son of man hath not where tolay His head.”

The Lord also called Herod a fox; no doubtdescribing with perfect truth his essential char-acter.

The foxes with which Samson avenged him-self upon the Philistines for taking his wife andgiving her to his companion were probably jack-als. Three hundred of them Samson caught, “andtook firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put afirebrand in the midst between two tails. Andwhen he had set the brands on fire, he let themgo into the standing corn of the Philistines, andburnt up both the shocks, and also the standing

1. Divine Providence #311; True Christian Religion 134.


corn, with the vineyards and olives.” Samson, asa Nazarite, represents the literal sense of theWord in power to expose and subdue evil. ThePhilistines represent those who allow themselvesall pleasant evils of life, believing that they aresaved by their faith. The Philistine bride of Sam-son represents a pretended affection for the gen-uine truth of the Word; her being given toanother signifies that their pretended affectionfor truth is, after all, only for the means of con-firming their falsity and excusing their evil; andSamson prophetically showed them that the nat-ural consequence of their duplicity was the kin-dling of evil fires by which every good and truething among them would be destroyed.

In a like sense David says, “Those that seekmy soul to destroy it, shall go into the lowerparts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword;they shall be a portion for jackals” (Psalm 63:9,10); referring literally to the clearing of a battle-field by the jackals; and spiritually to the utterdestruction of those who hate the Lord and Histruth, by their own perverse and deceitful rea-sonings.

SWINE

An unwise effort, as it seems to me, is made bysome indiscriminate admirers of Nature, to layall that is unclean in the habits of the hog to theinterference of man. They say that in the wildstate he is cleaner, and lives upon nuts and roots,and therefore is not repulsive. Still, the factsremain that, even wild, he does love to wallow infilth and mire, and that, as we know him, nothingthat has a particle of nutriment in it is too filthyfor him to eat. I will not dwell upon his disagree-able character, as in a general way it is suffi-ciently familiar to everybody. The domestic hogis a form of the greedy love of appropriatingevery good thing to oneself, and, secondarily, ofdefiling what cannot be appropriated. It is not alove of delicacies, and of refined self-indul-gence; but of greedy, indiscriminate appropria-tion and possession, for no possible use.

The love may apply itself to food, or toriches, or to knowledge, or anything else that isgood; its essence is the same in all its differentforms.

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Swedenborg says that swine correspond tosordid avarice. And he explains that:

The lust of gain and avarice has in it that it notonly wishes to possess the whole world, but also,for the sake of gain, to plunder everyone, yea, tokill, and it likewise would kill for a trifle, if thelaws did not prevent it. And, moreover, in thegold and silver which such a man possesses, heregards himself as the greatest in power, howeverotherwise he may appear to do in external form.Hence it is evident that in avarice there is notonly the love of the world, but also self-love,and, indeed, the most filthy self-love. For, withthe sordidly avaricious, elation of mind, or pride,is not so conspicuous outwardly, for this some-times does not care about wealth for the sake ofshow; neither is it that kind of self-love whichusually is connected with pleasures; for theyhave little concern about the body and its foodand clothing; but it is a love altogether earthly,having nothing for its end but money, in which itbelieves itself, not in act but in ability, above all.Hence it may be evident that in avarice there is alove of self the lowest and the vilest of all;wherefore in the other life the avaricious appearto themselves to be among swine; and they are,beyond all others, contrary to all good whatever.(Arcana Coelestia #4751)

The love of wealth for the sake of power hasbeen a not uncommon form of avarice among


the Jews, who have made its greedy, cruel, self-ish nature well known to all readers. Anotherform of their avarice will be mentioned hereaf-ter. For the reason that swine correspond to theirnational evil, to eat swine’s flesh was a form oftransgression which their backsliding was veryliable to take, and it is mentioned throughout theBible as a not uncommon, though abominable,sin.

The filth in which swine love to wallow, andto trample good things, indicates their secondarycorrespondence with a lust of defiling goodnessand truth. Therefore Swedenborg also says thatswine correspond to “filthy loves such as are inthe hells of adulterers” (Apocalypse Explained#1044).

THE WILD BOAR

The wild boar is, in some respects, so differentfrom his domesticated brother, that he requiresseparate attention.

Woods and reed beds are always the habitationsof the wild boar, . . . which seems to prefer thereed bed to the wood, probably because it canfind plenty of mud, in which it wallows, after thefashion of its kind. There is no doubt whateverthat the “Beast of the Reeds” (Psalm 68:30) issimply a poetical phrase for the wild boar.

If there should be any cultivated ground in theneighborhood, the boar is sure to sally out, anddo enormous damage to the crops. It is perhapsmore dreaded in the vineyards than in any otherground, as it not only devours the grapes, buttears down and destroys the vines, tramplingthem underfoot, and destroying a hundredfold asmuch as it eats. . . . We can well imagine thedamage that would be done to a vineyard even bythe domesticated swine, but the wild boar is infi-nitely more destructive. It is of very great size,often resembling a donkey rather than a boar, andis swift and active beyond conception. The wild


boar is scarcely recognizable as the very nearrelation of the domestic species. It runs with suchspeed that a high-bred horse finds some diffi-culty in overtaking it, while an indifferent steedwould be left hopelessly behind. Even on levelground the hunter has hard work to overtake it;and if it can get upon broken or hilly ground, nohorse can catch it. The wild boar can leap to aconsiderable distance, and can wheel and turnwhen at full speed, with an agility that makes it asingularly dangerous foe. Indeed, the inhabitantsof countries where the wild boar flourisheswould as soon face a lion as one of these ani-mals, the stroke of whose razor-like tusks ismade with lightning swiftness, and which is suf-ficient to rip up a horse, and cut a dog nearlyasunder. (Bible Animals)

When striking with these weapons, the boardoes not seem to make any great exertion ofstrength, but gives a kind of wriggle with hissnout as he passes his victim. In India, it is notuncommon for an infuriate wild boar to pursuesome unfortunate native, to overtake him as heflies, and, putting his snout between the poorman’s legs, to cut right and left with an almostimperceptible effort, and to pass on his course,leaving the wounded man helpless on the ground.(Natural History)

The fleetness and nimbleness of the wild boarsuggest much more active mental qualities than

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those of the domestic hog. His weapons ofdestruction, the tusks, by which he tears up vinesand shrubs, and strips the bark from trees, areenormously developed; and with them his loveof destroying, which now becomes the mostprominent characteristic; though the greedy loveof possession and the love of defilement are stillthere.

He is a representative of a quick, vigorousmind, wholly sensual, which believes itself toknow everything that is worth knowing, andslashes right and left at all good things which itdoes not want to use.

Such are especially those who stick in philo-sophical terms, from which they believe them-selves to be intellectually all-powerful. Theyattack and tear in pieces the terms in which inte-rior truth is stated, without in the least compre-hending the truth; as boars tear the bark from thevines.

Certain spirits who hated this philosophicaldestructiveness attacked Swedenborg because healso used some philosophical terms, such as sub-ject and predicate, and likened him to a wildboar. He explained that he used the terms only asexact expressions of spiritual thought; and con-tinued:


The abuse is that philosophers remain in terms,and dispute concerning them without coming toagreement. Hence all idea of the real thing per-ishes, and man’s understanding is so limited thatafterwards it knows nothing but terms. Thereforewhen they wish to comprehend things with theirterms, they collect nothing but such terms, andthus obscure the real thing, so that they canunderstand nothing at all; thus they darken theirnatural light. For on this account an unlearnedman has much more extensive ideas, and sees[more clearly] what is true, than a philosopher.Such a one remains in the mud like a pig. Such apig was represented to me as a wild boar, and hebecomes a wild beast in the woods; for he wan-ders like a wild beast among truths, which hetears in pieces and destroys. (Spiritual Diary#1604)

In the Psalms, the Church is described as to spir-itual truth as a vine brought out of Egypt, andplanted; and of such spiritual enemies as havebeen described, it is said, “The boar out of thewood doth waste it, and the wild beast of thefield doth devour it” (Psalm 80:13).

MICE

The other form of Jewish avarice which has beenreferred to (under “Swine”) is that representedby mice.1 It is a love of pilfering and hoarding,not so much for the sake of greatness and power,as for the sake of an indolent and luxurious life.There is in it an utter want of trust in Providence,which is replaced by trust in one’s own acquisi-tions. There is also an aversion to productiveindustry, and a disposition to beg and steal andhoard. I think we feel the same sort of shudder atthe idea of petty thieves around as we do at miceand rats.

This sort of avarice applies as well to knowl-edge as to property, and an idle love of readingfor the sake of possessing much knowledge isrepresented by mice.2

Also the love of sly indulgence of appetite,which we should be ashamed to have exposed;and, again, the pilfering of affection from others

1. Arcana Coelestia #938.2. Spiritual Diary #385.


by sly insinuations and flattery are forms of theavarice represented by mice.

Because this avarice is a common Jewishvice, therefore it is said of them, “They thatsanctify themselves . . . eating swine’s flesh andthe abomination and the mouse, shall be con-sumed together” (Isaiah 66:17).

When the Ark of the Testimony was taken bythe Philistines, and carried down to their country,wherever it went it caused plagues of emerodsand mice. The Philistines represent those whobelieve themselves saved by their faith, andfreed from the obligation to attend to their lives.The presence of the Ark represents the power ofthe truth of the Word to show their real quality.And the mice are the sly habits of self-indul-gence, thus exposed.

FROGS

Frogs are cold, slimy creatures, who, when theyare young, live in the water, and resemble ugly,useless little fishes. As they mature they learn tobreathe air, but still live mostly in the water,coming to the surface to breathe and croak. Inearly spring, which is their breeding season, theycroak almost incessantly, and are vile. They cor-respond to affections which grow up in an atmo-sphere of merely natural thought, which they donot love for any useful purpose, and when theymature, think about spiritual things only to denyand slander them. They deny the Divine Provi-dence, they deny that there is a heaven or a hell,and talk croakingly about getting all the goodyou can out of life as it goes.1

It was one of the plagues of Egypt that theirriver “brought forth frogs upon their land and inthe chambers of their kings” (Psalm 105:30). Bythose plagues were represented the evils thatcome upon those who are wholly natural; and



one of them is the swarming of such falsities asfrogs represent.

John saw “out of the mouth of the dragon,and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of themouth of the false prophet, three unclean spiritslike frogs” (Revelation 16:13). The dragon, thebeast, and the false prophet are they who teachthe doctrine of faith alone. These talk merelynaturally, denying spiritual truth; not, indeed, theparticulars mentioned above, but these—that ourLord is God with us; that heavenly life is to livefrom His good Love; that He conquered thehells, and now holds them subdued for those andin those who hate evil, and look to Him to savethem. These essential truths they deny, and rea-son discontentedly against them, from their loveof being let alone in their natural pleasures.

APES

Mimicry is the familiar characteristic of mon-keys and apes, even to the great gorillas, ofwhom it is said that “they watch the actions ofmen, and imitate them as nearly as possible.Like the ivory hunters, they pick up the fallentusks of elephants, but not knowing where todeposit them, they carry their burdens aboutuntil they themselves drop, and even die fromfatigue” (Natural History). Their very forms areburlesque imitations of human forms.

“Monkey tricks” and mimicry are well-known human attributes, and the love of these isthe monkey in us.

In regard to spiritual things, there is a deeperkind of monkey character. Man becomes trulyman, in the image and likeness of God, by learn-ing from God, and living what he learns. Butman is an ape, and no man, when he assumes theforms and the words of Christian worship inprayer and preaching and profession, but doesnot know the Lord in his heart nor love Him nor


live from Him; in which case he is only a gro-tesque, perverse counterfeit of a man.1

The apes which Solomon imported, with goldand silver, ivory and peacocks, were representa-tives of externals of worship, or of humanity,which with the Israelites were without internals.2

1. Apocalypse Revealed #839.2. Apocalypse Explained #514.

SERPENTS

The first characteristic of serpents is that theirwhole body is foot. It lies upon the ground, andis their instrument of progression.

They throw themselves rapidly forward bycoils of their body; but they have also a remark-able power of gliding along without coils, andwithout any other perceptible means of locomo-tion. This movement is dependent on:

. . . the mobility of the ribs, which are pushedforward in succession, and drawn back again, soas to catch against any inequality of the ground.This power is increased by the structure of thescales. Those of the upper part of the body,which are not used for locomotion, are shapedsomething like the scales of a fish; but those ofthe lower part of the body, which come in contactwith the ground, are broad belts, each overlap-ping the other, and each connected with one pairof ribs. When, therefore, the serpent pushes for-ward the ribs, the edges of the scaly belts willcatch against the slightest projection, and areable to give a very powerful impetus to the body.It is scarcely possible to drag a snake backwards


over rough ground; while on a smooth surface,such as glass, the serpent would be totally unableto proceed. (Bible Animals)

This gliding motion is as if the animal wereintent with his whole mind upon keeping out ofsight, and attaining his ends without suspicion. Itis both offensive and defensive. By means of ithe creeps unheard and unsuspected close to theinsects, reptiles, or other small creatures whichare his food, and seizes his prey by a sudden dartof his tongue or head. And, on the other hand,when surprised by an intruder whom he fears, heglides away so noiselessly and with so littleappearance of movement, that an unpracticedeye will remain fixed upon the neighboring grassor sticks, and will only know that the snake isgone.

Describing the manner of handling venomoussnakes practiced by Mr. Waterton, Mr. Woodsays:

The nature of all serpents is rather peculiar. . . .They are extremely unwilling to move exceptwhere urged by the wants of nature, and will liecoiled up for many hours together when notpressed by hunger. Consequently, when touched,their feeling is evidently like that of a drowsyman, who only tries to shake off the object whichmay rouse him, and compose himself afresh tosleep. A quick and sudden movement would,

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however, alarm the reptile, which would strike inself-defense; and, sluggish as are its generalmovements, its stroke is delivered with suchlightning rapidity that it would be sure to inflictits fatal wound before it was seized. If, therefore,Mr. Waterton saw a serpent which he desired tocatch, he would creep very quietly up to it, andwith a gentle, slow movement place his fingersround its neck just behind the head. If it hap-pened to be coiled up in such a manner that hecould not get at its neck, he had only to touch itgently until it moved sufficiently for his purpose.When he had once placed his hand on the serpentit was in his power. He would then grasp it verylightly indeed, and raise it gently from theground, trusting that the reptile would be moreinclined to be carried quietly than to summon upsufficient energy to bite. Even if it were inclinedto use its fangs, it could not have done so as longas its captor’s fingers were round its neck. (BibleAnimals)

Some charmers of serpents display snakes withtheir fangs extracted; but others:

. . . handle with impunity the cobra or thecerastes with all its venomous apparatus in goodorder. The charmers are always provided withmusical instruments, of which a sort of flute witha loud shrill sound is the one which is mostlyused in the performances. Having ascertainedfrom slight marks which their practiced eyes eas-


ily discover, that a serpent is hidden in somecrevice, the charmer plays upon his flute, and ina short time the snake is sure to make its appear-ance.

As soon as it is fairly out, the man seizes it bythe end of the tail, and holds it up in the air atarm’s length. In this position it is helpless, hav-ing no leverage, and merely wriggles about infruitless struggles to escape. Having allowed it toexhaust its strength by its efforts, the man lowersit into a basket, where it is only too glad to find arefuge, and closes the lid. After awhile he raisesthe lid and begins to play the flute. The serpenttries to glide out of the basket; but, as soon as itdoes so, the lid is shut down again and in a veryshort time the reptile finds that escape is impossi-ble, and, as long as it hears the sound of the flute,only raises its head in the air, supporting itself onthe lower part of its tail, and continues to waveits head from side to side. . . . The rapidity withwhich a cobra learns this lesson is extraordinary,the charmers being as willing to show their mas-tery over newly caught serpents as over thosewhich have been long in their possession. . . .The allusion to the “deaf adder [probably cobra]that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken tothe voice of charmers, charming never so wisely”(Psalm 58:4, 5), needs a little explanation. Somespecies of serpent are more susceptible to soundthan others, the cobra being the most sensitive of

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all the tribe. Any of these which are compara-tively insensible to the charmer’s efforts may beconsidered as ‘deaf adders.’ But there has beenfrom time immemorial a belief in the East thatsome individual serpents are very obstinate andself-willed, refusing to hear the sound of theflute, or the magic song of the charmer, andpressing one ear into the dust, while they stop theother with the tail.”

After quoting various comments upon thisbelief, Mr. Wood adds:

It may be as well to remark, . . . that snakes haveno external ears, and that therefore the notion ofthe serpent stopping its ears is, zoologically, asimple absurdity.

The asp of our English Bible is identified withtolerable certainty with the cobra. The adder, inthe expression, “Dan shall be a serpent by theway, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’sheels, so that his rider shall fall backward,”seems to be the cerastes, or horned snake. Of thislittle snake Tristram writes:

Its habit is usually to coil itself on the sand,where it basks in the impress of a camel’s foot,and thence suddenly to dart out on any passinganimal. So great is the terror which its sightinspires in horses, that I have known mine, whenI was riding in the Sahara, suddenly start andrear, trembling and perspiring in every limb, and


no persuasions would induce him to proceed. Iwas quite unable to account for his terror, until Inoticed a cerastes coiled up in a depression twoor three paces in front, with its basilisk eyessteadily fixed on us, and no doubt preparing for aspring, as the horse passed. (Natural History ofthe Bible)

Swedenborg says:All beasts signify affections, . . . and serpentssignify the affections of the sensual man, by rea-son of their creeping on the belly upon theground in like manner as the sensual principle ofman; for this is in the lowest place, and as it werecreeps upon the ground under all otherprinciples. . . . The evil . . . who are in the hells,are mostly sensual, and many of them subtle;wherefore when they are viewed from the lightof heaven, they appear as serpents of variouskinds and hence it is that the devil is called a ser-pent. (Apocalypse Explained #581)

By sensual affection is not meant the power ofperceiving through the senses, nor thoughts fromsuch perception; but the love of sensual pleasure,to which these perceptions and thoughts minis-ter. The men of ancient days at first had interiorperceptions of love and wisdom from heaven,and attended chiefly to these and to the pleasantthings of the world as representatives of them.But after awhile they began to think of the plea-

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sures of external sensations separate from spiri-tual perceptions—they listened to the Serpent,who was more subtle than any wild beast of thefield which the Lord God had made; and, judg-ing of good and evil by his advice, they losteverything heavenly.

“In old time, they were called serpents,” Swe-denborg says, “who trusted to things of sensemore than to things revealed” (Arcana Coelestia#196; also #195).

The poison of serpents is the subtle persua-sion of the love of sensual pleasure, by which ittorpifies our spiritual perceptions, and deliversus up to spiritual death. The senses are notequally dangerous in this way. The affections ofsight and hearing sometimes beguile us; theaffections of taste and touch do so continually.And they always act like serpents. The affectionsfor the pleasant things of these senses insinuatethemselves so cautiously, and present such plau-sible appearances of use or necessity, that we donot perceive them at all until we have gone toofar. Then, perhaps, we wake with a shock to findthe serpent taking possession of us. By the poi-son of these serpents more than by any othercauses the spirit of man is deadened, closed tothe perception of spiritual truth, and hardened tothe delights of heavenly loves. And when these


things of interior life are destroyed, the man isall serpent—cold, sluggish, stupid—keen andcruel only when some appetite is excited.

The serpent in the way, biting the horse’sheels so that his rider shall fall backward,denotes reasonings from appearances and exter-nally pleasant things by which the understandingof spiritual truth is taken away.1

But the love of sensual pleasure is not alwaysevil. In the earliest times it was simply an exter-nal delight subservient to and completing heav-enly delights; and so it becomes again as menare regenerated. To quote once more from Swe-denborg:

In as much as by serpents are signified sensualthings, which are the ultimates of the naturalman, and these are not evil except with those per-sons who are evil . . . by . . . serpents not poison-ous . . . are signified in the Word sensual thingsnot evil, or, as applied to persons, sensual mennot evil. (Apocalypse Explained #714)

By the serpent, among the most ancient peo-ple, who were celestial men, was signified cir-cumspection, and in like manner the sensual, bywhich they exercised circumspection lest theyshould be injured by evil; which is evident fromthe words of the Lord to His disciples, “Behold, I


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send you forth as sheep into the midst of wolves;be ye therefore prudent as serpents, and harmlessas doves” (Matthew 10:16). So also by the bra-zen serpent which was set up in the wilderness,by which was signified the sensual of the Lord,who alone is the celestial man, and alone is cir-cumspect and provident for all; wherefore allwho looked upon it were preserved. (ArcanaCoelestia #197)

The Lord glorified His whole human, even to thesenses and the sensual affections. He made themdivine in Him, and perfectly subservient to Hislove and wisdom. And He has power to subdueexcited sensual affections in us. If we bring themat once to Him, they subside, and the spirit ishealed. This is represented by the elevation ofthe brazen serpent, and the healing of all whomthe serpents had bitten, who looked upon it.

The charming of serpents by music seems torepresent the subjection of pleasures of sense tospiritual affections. “The deaf adder that stop-peth her ear, which will not hearken to the voiceof charmers charming never so wisely,” is thepersistent love of such pleasure, which will notattend to words of wisdom, or tones of spiritualaffection.1 Possibly the serpents most easilycharmed in this manner have relation to the



sense of hearing, which may exert a most ener-vating influence upon the spirit, but may withcomparative ease be made to serve noble affec-tions.

It would be an interesting inquiry whetherthere are also serpents charmed by bright colors,since the eye is even more readily made the ser-vant of intelligence.

In a good sense, the harmless serpents repre-sent the watchfulness of the senses lest the bodysuffer injury.

In a deeper sense, the watchful caution andnoiseless retreat of the harmless serpents imagethe useful circumspection which we ought toexercise in dealing with others—as, for instance,in presenting truth to them, lest we subject thetruth to abuse or misunderstanding, advancingour views cautiously, and when we perceive thatthey will not be received, withdrawing them ifpossible without observation. The senses arethen all on the watch for tones, looks, or toucheswhich agree or disagree; and so guide and pro-tect our advance and retreat. This sensitivenesswe call “tact.”

BIRDS

A distinguishing characteristic of birds is thatthe arms—which in mammalia generally servefor support upon the ground or on trees, also forweapons of offense and defense, in man forwork, and in all for expressing most effectivelythe power of the animal—are transformed intowings, the chief use of which is to support theirpossessor in the air, whence he commands anextensive view, and to bear him with extremerapidity from place to place. Another peculiarityof birds is the sharpness of their sight, and thewonderful quickness with which it is accommo-dated to objects at various distances.

Their other organs of sense are not remark-ably developed. The touch cannot be delicatethrough a coat of feathers; the tasting papilla ofthe tongue are few; the olfactory nerves aresmall in most birds; and even the ears, thoughquick and delicate within certain limits, do notattain a high development, either externally orinternally. The sensitive power of birds is con-centrated in the eyes, which are very large, and


marvelously quick to discern objects near orremote.

The creature whose chief powers are those ofrising into the air, of penetrating vision, and ofrapid flight, is a representative of the human fac-ulty of rising in thought out of the commonstates of life, of obtaining clear ideas of statesquite remote, and entering into them with intel-lectual delight.

It is a faculty unlike that represented by thebeasts of burden, in that it does not attempt tointroduce our affections, knowledge, and lifeinto the states observed; but merely to obtain adistinct idea of them, with, perhaps, some tasteof their productions. After obtaining such anidea, we may make the effort to transport our-selves into the new state of life, which is com-paratively a slow, toilsome process; or we maydesire to bring into our lives, as they are, somenew element of which we have obtained an idea;and this also is a process involving mental labor.This is a kind of work which birds do not do,except in the small degree which is representedby their carrying seeds and small fruits, andsometimes larger prey, to their nests. But goodspiritual birds have a very exquisite pleasure inseeing in the light of heaven, and thinking in theair of heaven, cared for and blessed by the Lord.

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The feathers of such birds represent what isgood and beautiful in spiritual thought. For gar-ments represent that which is right and becom-ing to him who is clothed. The wool of sheeprepresents the reverent and affectionate mannersof those who are in love to the Lord and mutuallove; the hair of goats represents the truths ofcharity expressed by those who are in neighborlylove from principle. And the feathers of birdsdescribe the grace and delight of thinking.

The wings of birds, by which they take holdof the air and climb, are the power of feeling thereality and the support of spiritual truth andheavenly influences. The influence of good spir-its and angels is about everyone, and a divineinfluence from the Lord. The mere presence ofthese does not raise the mind into the region ofheavenly thought. But if one acknowledges theirreality, and, trusting to their support, endeavorsto think truly of heaven and of the Lord inheaven, he immediately begins to float. There-fore the experiences of the reality and supportingpower of angels’ thought and affection are thepinions of the wings. If these are extensive, andtheir conscious hold of such supporting influ-ence is strong, the mind spreads its wings andsoars in easy sweeps. If they are slight and weak,the mind is obliged constantly to reassure itself


of the reality of spiritual things, and takes onlyshort and labored flights.

Under their wings birds gather their young forsafety, saying in effect that tender affections forspiritual thought are justified and protected bythe experience and power of others in spiritualthinking. Under their wings they protect theirown heads as they sleep, shielding their lives bytheir knowledge and experience of heavenlyinfluences. They are made as forms of trust inthe protection of heaven; even in the egg thebirdlings grow with their heads under theirwings.

There is a remarkable difference betweenbirds and the mammalia as to the mode of repro-duction. The birds lay eggs containing all thematerials from which the young are formed, andsit upon them and care for them, giving themclosest attention until the development is com-plete. In mammalia the egg is retained by themother, and grows gradually, with compara-tively little attention, from the daily life of themother, until the young are ready for separatelife. The birds are forms of affection for think-ing, and even their young immediately becomeobjects of thought and absorbing attention. Themammalia are forms of affection for living; andtheir young become similar forms not by

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thoughtful attention, but by being a part of theirparents’ living, till they are completely devel-oped.

EAGLES

The birds of prey, as they are commonly called,are divided into three families: vultures, falcons(including eagles, hawks, and kites), and owls.

The vultures are distinguished by the shape ofthe beak, which is of moderate size, nearlystraight above, curved suddenly and rounded atthe tip, and without any ‘teeth’ in the uppermandible. . . . In the greater number of speciesthe head and upper part of the neck are nearlynaked, and the eyes are unshaded by the featheryridge which overhangs these organs in the eagles.As a general rule, the vultures feed on dead car-rion, and are therefore most beneficial to thecountries which they inhabit. When pressed byhunger, however, they will make inroads uponthe flocks and herds. (Wood’s Natural History)

The eagle family, like the vultures, seek theirfood by daylight, and are therefore grouped withthem as the diurnal birds of prey.

All the falconidæ possess powerful hookedbeaks, not running straight for some distance,and then suddenly curved, as in the vultures, butnearly always bent in a curve from the very base.

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The head and neck are covered with plumage,and above the eyes the feathers are so thick andprojecting that they form a kind of roof or shade,under which the eye is situated and effectuallysheltered from the bright rays of the noontidesun.

The whole of the falconidæ are eminentlydestructive birds, gaining their subsistencechiefly by the chase, seldom feeding on carrionexcept when pressed by hunger, or when thedead animal has only recently been killed. Hereinthey form a complete contrast to the vultures,whose usual food is putrefying carrion, and freshmeat the exception. Destructive though they maybe, they are by no means cruel, neither do theyinflict needless pain on the object of theirpursuit. . . . Although they deprive any birds andbeasts of life, they effect their purpose with a sin-gle blow, sweeping down upon the doomed crea-ture with such lightning velocity, and striking itso fiercely with the death dealing talons, that inthe generality of instances the victim must beunconscious even of danger, and be suddenlykilled while busily engaged in its ordinary pur-suits, without suffering the terrors of anticipa-tion, or even a single pang of bodily pain. . . .When the eagle perceives a bird on the wing, themere shock caused by the stroke of the eagle’sbody is almost invariably sufficient to causedeath; and the bird, should it be a large one, such


as a swan, for example, falls dead upon the earthwithout even a wound. Smaller birds are carriedoff in the talons of their pursuers, and are killedby the grip of their tremendous claws; the eaglein no case making use of its beak for the purposeof killing its prey. If the bird carries off a lamb ora hare, it grasps the body firmly with its claws,and then, by a sudden exertion of its wonderfulstrength, drives the sharp talons deep into thevitals of its prey, and does not loosen its graspuntil the breath of life has fled, and all movementhas ceased.

The eagles are all monogamous, keepingthemselves to a single mate, and living togetherin perfect harmony through their lives. Should,however, one of them die, or be killed, the survi-vor is not long left in a state of widowhood, butvanishes from the spot for a few days, and thenreturns with a new mate. . . . It is a rather remark-able fact that, whereas the vultures feed theiryoung by disgorging the food which they havetaken into their crops, the eagles carry the prey totheir nests, and there tear it to pieces, and feedthe eaglets with the morsels.

A golden eagle had been captured in Scotland,and, being very tame, always accompanied thefamily to which it belonged in all theirjourneys. . . . Like other tame eagles, . . . shewould persist in killing cats if they came withinreach, although her ordinary food was fowls, rab-

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bits, and similar articles of diet. On one occasion,a sickly, pining chicken . . . was given to theeagle. The royal bird, however, refused to eat it,but seemed to be struck with pity at its miserablestate, and took it under her protection. She evenmade it sit under her wing, which she extendedas a shield; and once, when a man unkindlyendeavored to take her protégée away, sheattacked him fiercely, injuring his leg severely,and drove him fairly off her premises.

Owing to the expanse of the wings, and thegreat power of the muscles, the flight of this birdis peculiarly bold, striking, and graceful. Itsweeps through the air in a succession of spiralcurves, rising with every spire, and making noperceptible motion with its wings until it hasattained an altitude at which it is hardly visible.From that post of vantage the eagle marks theground below, and sweeps down with lightningrapidity upon bird or beast that may happen totake its fancy.

Tristram quotes Sir H. Davy’s account of a pairof golden eagles teaching their young to fly:

I once saw a very interesting sight above thecrags of Ben Nevis. Two parent eagles wereteaching their offspring, two young birds, themaneuvers of flight. They began by rising fromthe top of the mountain, in the eye of the sun. Itwas about midday, and bright for the climate.They at first made small circles, and the young


birds imitated them. They paused on their wings,waiting until they had made their flight, and thentook a second and larger gyration, always risingtowards the sun, and enlarging their circle offlight so as to make a gradually ascending spiral.The young ones still and slowly followed, appar-ently flying better as they mounted; and theycontinued this sublime exercise, always rising,till they became mere points in the air, and theyoung ones were lost, and afterwards their par-ents, to our aching sight.

Of the bald eagle it is related by many writersthat when he compels the fish hawk to let go itsprey, he pursues the falling fish so rapidly as tocatch it before it reaches the water.

The full speed of the peregrine falcon, Mr.Wood says, “has been computed at a hundredand fifty miles per hour.”

Mr. Wood and Mr. Tristram agree that thegriffon vulture is the bird, or one of the birds,whose name is rendered “The Eagle” in our ver-sion of the Scriptures. Mr. Tristram says of it:

There can be no doubt of the identity of theHebrew nesher with the Arabic nissr, the nameinvariably applied not to any eagle, strictly so-called, but to the griffon (gyps fulvus) of natural-ists, commonly known as the griffon vulture, orgreat vulture. It is unfortunate that in our lan-guage we have but one word, “vulture,” applied

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alike to the noble griffon, and to the very useful,but very despicable scavenger, “Pharaoh’s hen,”as Europeans in the East call the Egyptianvulture. . . .

We shall see, as we examine some of the pas-sages where the nesher is spoken of, that thedescription is applicable to the griffon alone; andso far from the griffon vulture conveying the ideaof a repulsive bird to the Oriental mind, it hasbeen universally adopted as the type of the lordlyand the noble. . . . In Micah 1:16 we read, ‘Makethee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children;enlarge thy baldness as the eagle,’ where thesimilitude can only be taken from the griffon vul-ture, which has the neck and head bald and cov-ered with down, a character which no eagleshares with it. . . . “Constant reference is made inScripture to its feeding on the slain, and on deadflesh. Although this is a habit it shares with theeagle, yet no eagles congregate like the griffon;and while the latter may be seen by hundreds, theless conspicuous eagles are only to be counted bya few individuals here and there.” In the expres-sion, ‘Wheresoever the carcass is, there will theeagles be gathered together’ (Matthew 24:28),the griffons undoubtedly are meant, and possiblyeagles also.

The beak of the griffon is hooked and of greatpower, but its claws and feet are much weaker


than those of the eagle, and are not adapted forkilling prey. (Natural History of the Bible)

The vulture was one of the chief emblems ofEgyptian power, its outspread wings continuallyrecurring on the grand monuments andtemples. . . .

Strangely enough, in their second captivity, theJews met with the same emblem among theAssyrians. For example, their god Nisroch,whom we find mentioned as specially wor-shipped by Sennacherib, was a vulture-headeddeity, bearing not only the head of the bird, butalso its wings. The vast wings of the vulture wereused by the Assyrians as types of divine power,and were therefore added, not only to human fig-ures, but to those of beasts. The human-headedand vulture-winged bulls of Nineveh, with whichwe are now so familiar, are good examples ofthis peculiar imagery. The name Nisroch, by theway, is evidently the same word as nesher, andbears even closer resemblance to the Arabicnissr. This bird was also the war standard ofAssyria, just as the eagle is that of France. (BibleAnimals)

Without attempting to decide positively as to themeaning of the Hebrew name, it seems to meprobable that it meant the griffons and also oth-ers of the larger and nobler birds of prey.Hebrew terms are commonly of general signifi-cance, and translators often err by limiting their

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meaning to particulars. Concerning these birdsas a whole it may be said that of all living crea-tures they soar the highest, they have the mostpenetrating and comprehensive sight, and theythemselves follow their sight the most quickly.

If an idea of the omniscience and omnipres-ence of God were to be presented to us underany natural form, it could be no other than that ofthe eagle. These divine attributes were repre-sented to John as a flying eagle (Revelation 4:7),of which Swedenborg says:

That by this is signified the appearance in ulti-mates of the Divine Watchfulness and Provi-dence, as to intelligence and circumspection inevery direction, is manifest from the significationof an eagle, as denoting intelligence; in this casethe Divine Intelligence of the Watchfulness andprovidence of the Lord. An eagle signifies intelli-gence, because intelligence is in the light ofheaven, and an eagle flies on high to be so, and tolook about on every side. . . . In a good sense, thebirds of heaven signify intellectual and rationalpowers; and the eagle above all others because itnot only flies high, but possesses a most acutesight. (Apocalypse Explained #281; see alsoApocalypse Revealed #244)

In a human sense, therefore, eagles represent theaffections for thinking which penetrate the mostinteriorly and see the furthest; their special


delight it is to rise, and to lead their spiritualchildren to rise, towards the Lord, and to seethings in the direct light in which He sees them.“A man who draws wisdom from God,” Swe-denborg writes, “is like a bird flying on high; helooks about upon all things which are in gardens,woods, and farms, and flies to those which are ofuse to him” (True Christian Religion #69; seealso Arcana Coelestia #8764).

There are many kinds of atmospheres—somewhich are heavenly, some earthly, and someinfernal. There are poisonous atmospheres, inwhich no one can think what is true and good,but only what conduces to some selfish indul-gence or acquisition. There are moral atmo-spheres, in which everyone thinks naturally whatis becoming, orderly, and useful. There are spiri-tual atmospheres, in which it is easy to thinkwhat is from the Lord, and spiritually good andright. To climb into heavenly atmospheres is tothink from heavenly order and heavenly truth, toperceive what heaven is, and to look upon allthings from an interior heavenly state. “To beborne on eagles’ wings,” Swedenborg says, “isto be raised on high even into heavenly light. Forthe ancients understood by the visible heaven theangelic heaven; the simple also believed that thehome of the angels was there; and also that on

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high, as being nearer to the sun and stars, therewas heavenly light itself. Hence it is that to beborne on eagles’ wings denotes to be raised onhigh into that light” (Arcana Coelestia #8764).This appearance is in the spiritual world entirelytrue. The homes of angels are there on high; andto rise towards them is to come into the light.

What is meant by the light, or illustration,which they receive who rise into the heaven oftheir minds, Swedenborg explains thus:

Every man, as to his thoughts and affections, isin the spiritual world, consequently he is there asto his spirit; for it is the spirit of man whichthinks and is affected. He who is made spiritualby regeneration from the Lord is, as to his spirit,in a heavenly society; but the natural man, or onewho is not regenerated, is, as to his spirit, in aninfernal society; with the latter, evils continuallyflow in from hell, and are also received withdelight; but with the former, good things continu-ally flow in from heaven, and are also received;and whereas good things flow into his affectionand by means of the affection into the thought, hehas thence illustration. This illustration is what isunderstood by the spiritual intelligence andpower of view which are signified by the wingsof the eagle, given to the woman, with which shefled into the wilderness. . . . Moreover, by theseis signified the understanding of truth; for all


who are of that church [signified by the woman]have the understanding enlightened, by virtuewhereof they are enabled to see truth from thelight of truth. (Apocalypse Explained #759)

The process by which the Lord raises man froma natural to a spiritual state, in which he thinksthe truth of heaven, and sees in the light ofheaven, is thus described in the Song of Moses:

The Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lotof His inheritance. He found him in a desert land,and in the waste howling wilderness. He led himabout, He instructed him, He kept him as theapple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad herwings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings;so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was nostrange god with him. (Deuteronomy 32:9–12)

Elevation into heavenly states by spiritual flyinghas been described, but there is also descentfrom the heavens to those who need help; andrapid change of place without much elevation,which corresponds to the power of quicklythinking or imagining remote things. Of suchmental sight and presence Swedenborg writes:

That by flying, in speaking of men, is signifiedobservation and simultaneous presence, isbecause sight is present with the object which itsees; that it appears remote or distant, is from theintermediate things which appear at the same

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time, and can be measured as to spaces. This maybe fully confirmed from those things which existin the spiritual world; there, spaces themselvesare appearances arising from the diversity ofaffections and thoughts thence; wherefore, whenany persons or things appear at a distance, and anangel or spirit desires from intense affection tomeet those who are there, or to examine thethings, he is immediately present. It is similarwith thought, which is the internal or spiritualsight of man: this looks at the things which it hadseen before, in itself without space, thus alto-gether as present. Hence it is that flying is predi-cated of the intellect and its intelligence, and thatby it is signified observation, looking about, andpresence. (Apocalypse Explained #282)

There are angels who have a special faculty ofclear sight and quick presence in distant places,for the sake of giving instruction from the Lordwhere it is needed. In one of his “Relations,”Swedenborg describes an angel who was seen byhim, “flying beneath the eastern heaven. . . . Hewas clad in a robe which flowed backwards ashe flew, and was girded with a belt of carbunclesand sapphires, which, as it were, flamed andshone; he flew downwards and alighted gentlyupon the earth” in the world of spirits. He cameto convoke an assembly of the wisest men fromChristendom, that they might declare what they


knew concerning heavenly joy and happiness;for it had been related in the society from whichthe angel descended that no one in the Christianworld knew what these things are. This informa-tion was found to be entirely correct; and afterthe angel had introduced various companies ofspirits into the enjoyments which they supposedto constitute heavenly happiness, and they hadfound how wearisome and unsatisfactory theywere, he selected ten men from the assembly andled them up “a certain hill, and thence up amountain, upon which was the heaven of thoseangels, which had before appeared to them at adistance like an expanse in the clouds.” Theywere prepared by the Lord to remain there threedays; and during that time they were instructedin many delightful things of angelic life and hap-piness.

But what is noticeable for our present purposeis that the ensign of that society, which, made ofgold and diamonds, was worn by the prince, was“an eagle brooding her young at the top of atree.” The marriage ensign also was “a youngeagle,” which was engraved upon a golden plateset around with diamonds, and worn by thebridegroom as a breastplate.

Now, no doubt, the intelligence with whichthese angels scrutinized the ignorance of the

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Christian world, and the good they did in gather-ing and instructing the representatives of it,belonged to their ordinary faculty and duty as aheavenly society; though their faculties mightusually be exercised in other directions. Likeeagles of heaven, they looked down upon thestate of the world; and, quickly descending, theygathered those who needed instruction, andselecting those who were most suitable for theirpurpose, they carried them to their mountainhome, probably with the resulting benefit ofmutual information.

The spirits from another earth in the starryheaven, Swedenborg describes as having rela-tion in the Greatest Man to keenness of vision.He adds:

On this account, they appear on high, and theyalso are remarkably keen-sighted. In conse-quence of their having such relation in the Great-est Man, which is heaven, and of their seeingclearly the things which are beneath, in discours-ing with them I compared them to eagles, whichfly aloft, and enjoy a clear and extensive view ofobjects beneath. But at this they expressed indig-nation, supposing I compared them to eagles asto rapaciousness, and thus that they were wicked;but I replied that I did not liken them to eagles asto rapaciousness, but as to quick-sightedness;adding that they who are like eagles as to rapa-


ciousness, are wicked, but that they who resem-ble them as to quick-sightedness only, are good.(Arcana Coelestia #9969, 9970)

In regard to the difference between vultures andeagles: the vultures are chiefly carrion feeders,and have little power of taking prey; the eaglesusually take their prey alive, and have the powerto kill it quickly and almost painlessly; the vul-tures feed their young on food which they dis-gorge; the eagles on the fresh meat which theybring in their claws; the vultures flock togetherin hungry crowds; the eagles are usually solitarywith their mates. That both feed upon flesh sig-nifies that the subjects of attention and thoughtof the intelligence which they typify are humanaffections. That vultures gorge themselves withsuch as is dead and putrefying, signifies that thepeculiar intelligence which they represent lovesto spy and think of affections in which there isno heavenly life, but which are redolent of evil;this also they disgorge to their young, not simplyas they saw it, but as they have thought it overand gloated upon it. The eagles’ love of takingtheir prey in life, and carrying it home as it is,represents, in the good sense, the affection forseeing good life as it is, and presenting it to thosewho need instruction, with simple truthfulness.

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I think that in every instance in the Bible inwhich the name “eagles” is applied to animalswhich are bald, or which flock to their prey—consequently to vultures—it is used in the evilsense.1 The signification of the solitary eaglesspoken of in the Bible is usually—perhapsalways—good. The Lord likens the Church,when its life is gone because there is no charityin it, to a carcass over which the vultures gathertogether, where “the vultures” represent thosewho enjoy seeing and thinking evil.

Sennacharib also, and the Assyrians andChaldeans, as worshippers of Nisroch, have thesame signification as vultures, though Assyria inother connections has sometimes a good signifi-cation.

1. See examples in Arcana Coelestia #3900, 3901.

DOVES

If there is in eagles something of the nobility oflions, doves are marked with the innocence andmutual love of lambs and sheep. Indeed, theywere accepted for certain sacrifices instead oflambs (Leviticus 12:8). They are without weap-ons of offense or defense, and can protect them-selves from danger only by the remarkableswiftness and endurance of their flight. They aretimid, and love the neighborhood and protectionof man, by whom they are easily tamed.

They love to live in companies, and to flytogether, “as a cloud, to their windows.”Immense flocks of them, darkening the sky formany miles in their flight, are known to ourwestern country. Of these flocks Wilson relates acurious fact illustrative of their resemblance tosheep. He says that when a hawk swoops upon apigeon in the flying cloud, the others in theneighborhood dive low in fear, quickly risingagain to rejoin their companions; and as otherscome up to the same place, though the hawk be

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gone, they drop also, thus preserving a wave inthe line till the last pigeon has passed.

The Arabs take a cruel advantage of theirready sympathy. They tie to a bough of a tree adove with his eyelids fastened together. Othershear his cries and flock about to help him, whenthey are easily knocked down or snared.

The faithfulness of doves to their mates dur-ing life is not peculiar to them, but I think thatthe extreme tenderness of their expressions oflove belongs to them alone. They stroke eachother with their bills, and kiss and coo as if theynever could express enough, and never would beweary. If one dies, it occasionally happens thatthe mate dies too from grief, though it morecommonly happens that after a time it is matedagain. They work together in building their nest,sit upon the eggs in turn, and alike care for theyoung. Their eggs are generally two at a time,usually a male and a female; and they may haveas many as nine broods in a year; so that theirlove for their young is perennial, instead ofbeing limited to a short season, as in most birds.They are very fond of their little ones, and have acurious means of preparing food for them, whichapproaches the milk glands of mammals. Duringthe time for feeding the young birds, the walls oftheir crops thicken and become rough with


glands, which secrete a milky fluid. This mixeswith the grains in the crop, reducing them to asoft pulp, with which they feed the little dovesaccording to their need.

The difference between love for the young indoves and the same in fierce birds and beasts isthat the fierce animals resent injury to theiryoung as injury to themselves, and are furiousand revengeful; but the doves only flutter anx-iously, and grieve and moan. Self-love isrevengeful; good love sorrows. The differencebetween the dove’s feeding her young with foodfrom her own crop, and the similar habit of vul-tures, is spiritually that the dove affectionteaches the truth with innocent love both for thetruth and for her little ones; and vultures teachevil with selfish exultation.

So plain is the representation of the dove thatit tells its own meaning; yet, for the sake of com-pleteness, we may acknowledge that as all birdsrepresent affections for ideas, and for thinkingfrom ideas, doves represent affections for theheavenly ideas that agree with innocent love tothe Lord and conjugial love.1

Swedenborg relates that one time he wasthinking deeply of the region of the mind in

1. Apocalypse Explained #282; Arcana Coelestia #10132.

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which conjugial love resides, and suddenly, inthe spiritual world, the mind was represented tohim as a palace with three stories, having openwindows in each story. And there appeared apair of swans which flew in by the lower win-dows, a pair of birds of paradise which enteredthrough the middle windows, and a pair of turtle-doves which flew in through the highest. Andthen an angel explained to him that the turtle-doves signified conjugial love in the highestregion of the mind, which is the plane of lovefrom the Lord with the wisdom of that love; andthat the birds of paradise and the swans repre-sented conjugial love on the lower planesrespectively. Again he says:

When I was meditating concerning conjugiallove, behold there appeared at a distance twonaked infants with baskets in their hands, andturtledoves flying around them; and when theywere seen nearer they appeared as if they werenaked, but handsomely adorned with garlands;chaplets of flowers decorated their heads, andwreaths of lilies and roses of a violet color, hang-ing obliquely from the shoulders to the loins,adorned their breasts; and round about them bothwas as it were a common band woven togetherfrom small leaves with olives interspersed. Butwhen they came up nearer they did not appear asinfants, nor naked, but in the first flower of age,


clad in robes and tunics of shining silk, in whichwere interwoven flowers most beautiful to thesight; and, when they were close to me, therebreathed forth from heaven through them a ver-nal heat, with a sweet odor, as from the earliestflowers in gardens and fields. (Conjugial Love#137)

They came to him from the inmost heaven asforms of conjugial love; all the things aboutthem were representatives of that love; andamong them the turtledoves represented thedelights of its innocent thoughts.

In the Scriptures, the destruction of the inno-cent goodness of the earliest men on earth by thefalsities of their selfish conceits is representedby a flood of waters destroying all life from theearth. And the first perception of the return ofgoodness from the Lord to the hearts of men isrepresented by the plucking of an olive leaf bythe dove. The olive leaf is such perception; andthe dove is delight in it from love for conjunc-tion with the Lord.

When Jesus was baptized by John, it isrelated that “He went up straightway out of thewater; and, lo, the heavens were opened untoHim, and He saw the Spirit of God descendinglike a dove, and lighting upon Him” (Matthew3:16). The baptism of the Lord represented the

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gradual process of separating from Him the evilsof His maternal humanity, and ordering His lifeaccording to the truth of the Word. After everysuch effort, by which the divine truth was estab-lished in Him, the Love of God descended uponHim like a dove, filling him with the delights ofthe union of goodness and truth, and with thelove of providing for the multiplication of suchdelights in men.

The wings of the dove are described by thepsalmist as “covered with silver,” from the char-ity of her flights of thought; and “her featherswith yellow gold,” from the celestial delights ofher love of thinking from the Lord.

SONG BIRDS

We have admired in the eagle the strong sweepswith which he climbs to the upper air, the pene-tration of his sight, and a general nobility ofcharacter. Not for these things do we love our lit-tle singing birds, nor yet for any power of work,but chiefly for what they say, and their mannerof saying it. Of all created things outside ofhumanity, these are the only ones which wevalue primarily for their voices and their vocalexpressions. They love to take short flights in theair; their sight is very quick, though of limitedrange compared with that of the eagle; they lovethe sunshine, the growing plants, with theirflowers and fruits and the busy insects amongthem; and in the time of spring and early sum-mer, for which they seem to exist through therest of the year, from the first dawn of the morn-ing till the last golden light fades from the sky,they continually express their delight by songs.There is immense variety in their tones, from thebusy chatter of the sparrows and the twitter ofthe swallows to the sweetly varied responses of

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the wood thrushes, as they answer one anotherfrom the distant treetops, giving assurance offriendly neighborhood and sympathy, far into theshades of the night.

The singing birds embody the love of conver-sation and vocal expression, so far as these relateto good human life. We find in their tones thecounterparts of human expressions of gladnessand affection, innocent converse and tender song.

If our conversation be wholly and thoroughlysincere; if our friendship be the sympathy ofspiritual love for truth and goodness; our love ofdoing good and giving pleasure unselfish; andour delights, from the heavenly sunshine of theLord’s presence—we shall have in the socialcommunication of such affection the correspon-dence of the songs of birds. Spiritual song birdsdo not love sustained thought and abstract truth;but they enjoy seeing everywhere the evidencesand illustrations of truth. Swedenborg says:

There are some persons who, as soon as theyhear the truth, perceive that it is truth; these arerepresented in the spiritual world as eagles.There are others who do not perceive truth, butconclude it from confirmations by appearances;and these are represented by singing birds. Thereare others who believe a thing to be true becauseit was asserted by a man of authority; these arerepresented by magpies. And also there are oth-


ers who are not willing, and then not able, to per-ceive truth, but only falsity; . . . the thoughts ofthese are represented by owls, and their speechby screech owls. (True Christian Religion #42)

It does not belong to our present work to distin-guish carefully the varieties of social affectionrepresented by the many song birds. They all areincluded under the common term tsippor, in theHebrew, and, with rare exceptions, are not men-tioned separately in the Bible. The principalexception occurs in the verse, “Even the sparrowhath found a house, and the swallow a nest forherself where she may lay her young, near thinealtars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and myGod” (Psalm 84:4).

“Sparrow” in this passage is tsippor, andmeans any singing, chirping bird. And the name“liberty,” as applied to a bird which builds in thetemple, can hardly mean any other than the swal-low, which lives on the wing, perpetually goingand coming, and cannot bear the least confine-ment. The Psalm from which these words aretaken is a song of desire from the captives inBabylon for return to their temple and their homesin Jerusalem. The song bird and the swallow cango, but they cannot; that is, their affection for thespiritual truth of the service of the Lord, and fornatural, free delight in His service, all center there

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as in their homes; but their own daily lives arestill in spiritual captivity to evil and falsity.1

With careful attention, those who are familiarwith birds will readily see their analogies. But,without attempting perfect accuracy, I may saythat among our common birds the one which wefamiliarly call the robin, industrious, domestic,loud-voiced, at home in the orchards and mow-ing fields, talks to me of the cares of house andfamily, and gives thanks for abundant supplies;his friend, the bluebird, not less domestic, butsofter and more varied in voice, and of more ele-gant plumage and form, tells of modest content,and of the pleasures of natural tastefulness in afrugal home. The merry, boastful bobolink, tum-bling his notes out promiscuously as he flies,reminds me of children just from school, andtells of the joys of recreation after labor.2 The

1. Apocalypse Explained #391.2. The bobolink dons his gay black and white plumage,comes to his summer home and bursts into song, quite latein the season—not until summer is fully established. Aftera very short season he silently resumes his sober robes andretires for a long winter. As a song bird, he probably ex-presses the joys of deliverance from temptations, of relieffrom suffering, as well as “recreation after labor.” It is sig-nificant in this connection, that in winter he is so fond ofrice as to take the name of “rice bird” in the South. The cor-respondence of rice is with duties done from obedience.


sweet minor song of the mountain sparrowbrings the restfulness of spiritual views of naturein solitude. And the several kinds of thrushes,living in the woods and by the waters, some withthe power of appreciating and imitating the notesof all other birds, and most of them having oftheir own sweeter and more varied songs thanany others, seem the very poets and singers ofour social world. They sing to me of the sweetestand most interior domestic affections and friend-ships.

All these, and many others, represent affec-tions which enjoy illustrations of truth and evi-dences of goodness; of these they talk and sing,innocently and with charity.

BIRDS OF BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE

It is rare that birds possessing pleasant voices aregifted also with beautiful feathers. The bluebirdsand canaries are, perhaps, the most notableexceptions. Upon this subject Mr. Woodremarks:

As a general rule, it is found that the most bril-liant songsters among the birds are attired in theplainest garb; and it may safely be predicted ofany peculiarly gorgeous bird, that power, quality,and sweetness of voice are in inverse ratio to itsbeauty of plumage.

He mentions the dazzling colors of sunbirds,hummingbirds, and some others, and says:

In all these creatures, the male possesses no realsong, the glorious beauty of the feathers compen-sating him and his mate for the absence of poeticutterance. Why this should be the case is a prob-lem which has long attracted the attention ofobservant men, and it seems to me that a keymay be found to its solution in the now acknowl-edged fact that sound and color run in parallellines through creation, and closely correspondwith each other in their several relations. . . . It


may be therefore that, on the one side, the birdwhich is possessed of a good voice and a plaindress pours forth his love and manifests his sym-pathetic emotions in gushing strains, which areaddressed to the ears of his mate; again, thebright-plumaged bird utters his voiceless song bythe vivid hues that flash from his glittering attire,the eye being the only medium through which hispartner, whose ears are not attuned to melody,could realize the fullness of his emotional utter-ance. (Natural History, p. 258)

It is a singular fact that among the brilliant birdsthere are several which love to adorn theirhomes and favorite haunts with lichens, brightfeathers, shells, white stones, or any other gailycolored materials that they can find. Perhapsthey are the only animals with a decided taste ofthis kind. It is interesting to discover the love ofexpression by color and form, here in the line ofbirds parallel to that in which we found the loveof musical expression.

The difference seems to answer perfectly tothat between the senses of sight and hearing.Songs, addressed to the ear, have more power tocommunicate affection; but forms and colors,addressed to the eye, impart ideas. The songs ofbirds are representatives of social communion ofglad, grateful, and affectionate thoughts. Their

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beautiful plumage is representative of true ideasof the nature and quality of spiritual affections.

We may express affection simply by words—chiefly by the tones of the words—and by songs;or we may express it by truthful description, andby tasteful decorations in colors and forms. Theexpression by sound has more power to excitestrong feeling; that by description and decora-tion shows more clearly its quality as to intelli-gence, refinement, and wisdom.

THE BIRD OF PARADISE

The most charming of the beautiful birds is thebird of paradise. There are several species quiteunlike one another in the disposition of theircharms, yet all eminent for the combined graceand richness of their plumage. The emerald birdof paradise is thus described:

The general color of the upper part of the body isrich chocolate brown, the whole of the frontbeing covered with velvet-like feathers of thedeepest green, at one moment sinking into black,and at another flashing forth with glitteringemerald. The upper part of the throat is brightgolden green, and the upper part of the neck adelicate yellow. The most wonderful part of thisbird’s plumage is the mass of loose floatingplumes that rises from the flanks, and extends ina most graceful manner far beyond the tail. Evenin the absolute quiet of a stuffed skin under aglass case, these plumes are full of an astonishingbeauty, their translucent golden white vaneletsproducing a most superb effect as they cross andrecross each other, forming every imaginableshade of white, gold, and orange, and then deep-

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ening towards their extremities into a soft, pur-plish red. There is a magnificently arrangedspecimen of this bird in the British Museum,placed in a separate case, and worthy of a sepa-rate journey merely for that one object.

But when the bird is living and healthy, no pencan describe the varied and changeful beautiesthat develop themselves at every moment; for thecreature seems to comprehend within its ownsingle form the united beauties of all other mem-bers of the feathered tribe.

Mr. Bennett describes the habits of an emeraldbird of paradise in captivity. He says:1

One of the best opportunities of seeing thissplendid bird in all its beauty of actions, as wellas display of plumage, is early in the morning,when he makes his toilet; the beautiful subalarplumage is then thrown out and cleared from anyspot that may sully its purity, by being passedgently through the bill; the short chocolate col-ored wings are extended to the utmost, and hekeeps them in a steady, flapping motion, as if inimitation of their use in flight, at the same timeraising up the delicate long feathers over theback, which are spread in a chaste and elegantmanner, floating like films in the air. In this posi-tion the bird would remain for a short time,

1. Bennett’s Wanderings, quoted in Wood’s Natural His-tory.


seemingly proud of its heavenly beauty, and inraptures of delight with its most enchanting self;it will then assume various attitudes, so as toregard its plumage in every direction.”

The bird took a bath regularly twice a day; butexcept for the bath would not descend to the bot-tom of its cage, for fear of soiling its feathers.

So proud is the creature of its elegant dress, thatit never permits a soil to remain upon it, and itmay frequently be seen spreading out its wingsand feathers, and regarding its splendid self inevery direction, to observe whether the whole ofits plumage is in an unsullied condition.

He was much pleased with the reflection of him-self in a mirror, regarding it kindly as anotherbeautiful bird, but without the slightest envy.

If he has no envy, I think it follows that he isnot vain; and, indeed, the whole descriptionseems to show that he considers himself chargedwith the delightful duty of preserving in goodorder, and presenting always to the best advan-tage the exquisite beauties entrusted to him. Heevidently corresponds to a love for presentingspiritual truth in all its gracefulness and good-ness in order that it may be loved and lived.Swedenborg remarks:

Some have thought what is spiritual to be like abird that flies above the air in the ether, wheresight does not reach; when yet it is like a bird of

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paradise that flies near the eye, and touches itspupil with his beautiful wings, and wishes to beseen. (Divine Love and Wisdom #374)

Into the middle windows of the palace whichrepresented the habitations of conjugial love inhuman minds flew a pair of birds of paradise,which, the angel said, represented the conjugiallove of “the love of truth with its intelligence”;that is, they represented the love of perceivingand presenting the beautiful truths of spirituallife, with the intelligent affection which receivesthem.

The angels of the silver age delight in thestudy of spiritual truth, and, what is remarkablylike the bird of paradise, they love the represen-tation of it in forms and colors. In the visit tothem, described in the work Conjugial Love,#76, Swedenborg relates that a rainbow was pre-sented “upon the wall, consisting of three colors,purple, blue, and white; and we saw how thepurple color passed the blue, and tinged thewhite with an azure color, and that this colorflowed back through the blue into the purple,and elevated the purple into a brightness as offlame”; and an angel, explaining, said: “The pur-ple color, from its correspondence, signifies theconjugial love of the wife, the white color theintelligence of the husband, the blue color the


beginning of conjugial love in the husband’s per-ception from the wife, and the azure color withwhich the whiteness was tinged, conjugial lovethen in the husband; this color flowing backthrough the blue into the purple, and elevating itinto a brightness as of flame, signifies the conju-gial love of the husband flowing back to thewife.”

This was one of many representations exhib-ited in that heaven in which the angels delighted.Such delight would be presented in form asnoble birds of beautiful plumage, varying in kindaccording to the wisdom especially loved.

Our love of beautiful forms and colors issometimes from a similar origin. If our tastewere quite sincere, that is, if we loved the thingswhich really touch our hearts, and if our heartswere full of affection for spiritual truth and char-ity, and our perceptions of these things wereclear, we should see that our hearts weretouched, and consequently that our taste wasdelighted with the things that correspond to ouraffections. As it is, our sincerest pleasure inbeauty is of this kind, though we perceive thecorrespondence obscurely or not at all.

THE PEACOCK

There must be a quite noble charity in the lovefor presenting spiritual truth, or its beautiful rep-resentatives, simply for the use of it, and withoutpersonal complacency. The natural love of beau-tiful display is altogether another thing. It is vainand capricious; and, if not sufficiently flattered,it becomes sulky and resentful. It is also jealousof rivals, and may be cruel. It does not produceits charms as a duty, and with a single view todoing good; but capriciously, and, in part, to winadmiration.

This love is embodied in the peacock, apolygamous, jealous creature, who sometimeswill graciously display his really beautifulplumes, sometimes will fold them and take themaway, deaf to persuasion; and, again, will persis-tently and earnestly press upon the attention ofcommon fowls his worn-out drapery, too shabbyfor polite society. Mr. Wood remarks:

In character, the peacock is as variable as othercreatures, some individuals being mild and good-tempered, while others are morose and jealous to


the extreme. One of these birds, living in thenorth of Ireland, was a curious mixture of crueltyand fun. He had four wives, but he killed them allsuccessively by pecking them to death, for whatcause no one could find out. Even his own chil-dren shared the same fate, until his owner put thepea fowl eggs under a sitting hen, and forced herto hatch the eggs and tend the young far out ofhis sight. (Natural History)

Similar complaints of their cruelty are notuncommon.

Peacocks were among Solomon’s importa-tions with the gold and silver, ivory and apes.And as his apes corresponded to the externals ofdoctrine and devotion which seemed human, yethad no human soul, because no spiritual thoughtin them, so the peacocks represented the love ofreligious ceremonial, with no care for the spiri-tual truth and charity which it ought to express.

THE OSTRICH

Another bird which, perhaps, should be men-tioned among those of remarkable plumage, isthe ostrich. It is a bird of the desert, with nopower of flying, the very looseness of structurefor which its wing and tail feathers are valueddepriving them of their hold on the air. Instead, itpossesses a power of running perhaps superior tothat of any other animal.

The ostrich is polygamous, and several hensdeposit their eggs in one place—a hole scrapedin the sand. The eggs are then covered over, andleft during the heat of the day; but in the colderregions at any rate, as in the Sahara, the birds sitregularly during the night, and until the sun hasfull power, the male also incubating. But theostrich lays an immense number of eggs, farmore than are ever hatched, and round the cov-ered eggs are to be found many dropped care-lessly, as if she forgot that the frost might crackthem, or the wild beast might break them. Butmost naturalists confirm the statement of thenatives, that the eggs on the surface are left inorder to afford sustenance to the newly hatched


chicks, which could not otherwise find food atfirst in these arid regions. (Tristram, Natural His-tory of the Bible)

Some of these peculiarities are well described inthe book of Job:

The wings of the ostrich exult; but are her pin-ions and feathers like the stork? Who leaveth hereggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust;and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, orthat the wild beast may break them. She is hard-ened against her young ones as if they were nothers; her labor is in vain without fear, becauseGod hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hathHe imparted to her understanding. What time shelifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horseand his rider. (Job 39:13–19)

The Arabs call the ostrich the “camel bird”;1 andthey also regard him as stupid, partly because,since it is usually safest for him to run towardsthe wind, towards the wind he will go, even if itbe also towards his enemies; and partly from hishabit of swallowing all sorts of indigestiblethings; no doubt they are acquainted with otherhabits of his which seem stupid.2

I think they name him well; and that he isamong birds very much what the camel is among

1. Bible Animals.2. Tristram.

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quadrupeds. That he cannot fly means that thereis nothing spiritual in the thought which he rep-resents; but the showiness of his wings indicatesa great appearance of spiritual principle in it. Hisdesert home, hard diet, and usual solitariness allbelong to the love of thinking such ascetic prin-ciples as spiritual camels love to live. The stupidpersistency with which he follows his rule, evenwhen inapplicable to the circumstances, is alsocamel-like. His usual representation in the Bibleseems to be a state of severe and gloomythought, deprived of all that is good and pleas-ant. “The daughter of my people is becomecruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness” (Lam-entations 4:3). “I will even make a way in thewilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast ofthe field shall honor me, the dragons and theostriches” (Isaiah 43:19, 20). In several otherplaces they are mentioned similarly, as signs ofvastation.

THE STORK

In the passage quoted from the book of Job, thewings of the ostrich are contrasted with those ofthe stork.

There is a marked contrast between them,ostrich wings being composed of showy plumesuseless for flight, and the wings of the storkbeing long and firm, adapted to flights both highand prolonged. But the contrast meant by theancient writer is between the characters of thebirds, especially in regard to their affection fortheir young. This also is exhibited in the struc-ture of the wings; for the light plumage of theostrich has no capacity and expresses no desirefor protection of the little ones; to which moth-erly work the stork’s strong pinions are as wellsuited as for flight.

The Hebrew name for the stork is “kindness.”It is a slightly modified form of the word whichoccurs in such expressions as “Shew kindness tothy servant”; “Have mercy upon me, O God,according to thy lovingkindness.” The Romanscalled it the “pious bird” (pia avis), from its duti-

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fulness both to its young, and, as they believed,to its parents also. Mr. Wood says:

The stork is noted for being a peculiarly kind andloving parent to its young, in that point fullydeserving of its Hebrew name, though its lovemanifests itself towards the young, and nottowards the parent.

Tristram relates that he:. . . was once in a camp near an old ruined towerin the plains of Zana, south of the Atlas, where apair of storks had their nest. The four youngmight often be seen from a little distance, survey-ing the prospect from their lonely height, butwhenever any of the human party happened tostroll near the tower, one of the old storks, invisi-ble before, would instantly appear, and, lightingon the nest, put its feet gently on the necks of allthe young, so as to hold them down out of sighttill the stranger had passed, snapping its billmeanwhile, and assuming a grotesque air ofindifference and unconsciousness of there beinganything under its charge. (Dictionary of theBible)

It should be mentioned further that the stork is amigratory bird, in its journeyings flying veryhigh, in large flocks, and returning with remark-able certainty to its old haunts; and that its longlegs are made for wading in shallow pools andstreams, in which it catches the fish, eels, frogs,


and other small creatures which naturally consti-tute its food. We may safely see in the stork theaffection for observing and thinking carefully oflittle children, for understanding the ways ofeducation, and providing for them suitable natu-ral information. It does not seem to represent avery interior affection, but one which is veryfaithful to duty.

The passages in the Bible where it is men-tioned refer to the natural habits of the bird, butdo not very fully illustrate its meaning. “Wherethe birds make their nests; as for the stork, the firtrees are her house” (Psalm 104:17). “Yea, thestork in the heaven knoweth her appointedtimes; and the turtle and the crane and the swal-low observe the time of their coming; but mypeople know not the judgment of the Lord” (Jer-emiah 8:7).

THE COCK AND HEN

Our common domestic fowls, with small powersof flight, but busy all day scratching and search-ing the ground for seeds, insects, and scraps ofeverything that has nutriment in it, represent alove of collecting all sorts of knowledge service-able to good natural life. They never stray farfrom their own house or barn, which represents asubservience to uses. They lay up the nourish-ment they obtain in a generous supply of eggs,the first use of which is the multiplication oftheir kind; but another, not second in impor-tance, is to furnish food to man. The meat in theeggs corresponds to knowledge which has beendigested and prepared to nourish other similaraffections for knowledge, and to serve for use tospiritual thought.

The calf has also been called a love of knowl-edge; but his love is for knowing the thingswhich will make him useful to society. Thefowls, spiritually understood, love knowledge ofthe same kind; but they serve by knowledgeitself, not by affection or work.


Their early crowing is from pleasure in thecoming light by which knowledge may begained; their fighting is from conceit of knowl-edge; the motherly carefulness of hens is fromdelight in ministering to desires for knowledge.

The Lord said to Peter, “Before the cockcrow, thou shalt deny me thrice”; predicting theutter lack of faith in Him before the dawn of Hissecond coming. This coming is heralded by anew pleasure in the pursuit of useful knowledge,of which we see an amazing increase in everydirection; and that increase is for the service ofspiritual thought and life when the sun ariseth.He also said to Jerusalem, “How often would Ihave gathered thy children together, even as ahen doth gather her chickens under her wings;and ye would not.” They would not, becausethey had no desire for the knowledge of usefullife.

PARTRIDGES AND QUAILS

Partridges and quails are closely akin to ourdomestic fowls, being scratchers, and livingupon the ground; but they are wild, and lovetheir freedom. They represent a kindred love ofknowledge, but natural, and for the sake ofknowing, without regard to useful ends. There-fore it is said in the Bible, “As the partridge sit-teth upon eggs and hatcheth them not, so he thatgetteth riches, and not by right, shall leave themin the midst of his days, and at his end shall be afool” (Jeremiah 17:11). Swedenborg explainsthat the partridge here means “those who pro-cure to themselves knowledges without anyother use . . . than that they may know them”(Apocalypse Explained #236). Yet partridges areamong the birds useful for food; the stores whichthey collect are serviceable, though this is nopart of their intention.

Of quails, we read in the Bible that during thejourney of the Israelites through the wildernessof Sinai, though the Lord fed them with mannafrom heaven, they complained and wept, saying:


“Who shall give us flesh to eat? We rememberthe fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; thecucumbers and the melons, the leeks and theonions and the garlic; but now our soul is driedaway; there is nothing at all besides this mannabefore our eyes.” . . .

And there went forth a wind from the Lord,and brought quails from the sea, and let them fallby the camp, as it were a day’s journey on thisside, and as it were a day’s journey on the otherside, round about the camp, and as it were twocubits high above the face of the earth. And thepeople stood up all that day, and all that night,and all the next day, and they gathered the quails.(Numbers 11:4, 5, 31, 32)

The manna which the people despised representsthe delight of being taught by the Lord. Thequails which they desired represent the desire forthe natural pleasure of learning for themselves; adesire which, in conflict with the duty of beingled by the Lord, was evil, and brought a plague;but which is good in its right place, in time ofrest and recreation.

It seems to me that as the common fowls are,in the line of birds, correlative with the kineamong quadrupeds, so the partridges and quails,which are their wild and natural relatives, arecorrelative with the deer and antelopes: the par-tridges with the deer, because they are more

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lonely, and endure the northern winters; thequails with antelopes, because they are smaller,more social, and usually migratory. The knowl-edge which spiritual partridges love is certainlya knowledge of the winters as well as the sum-mers of life; but the quails, as a rule, seek that ofperpetual summer.

THE OWL

There are few groups of birds which are sodecidedly marked as the owls, and so easy of rec-ognition. The round, puffy head, the little hookedbeak just appearing from the downy plumagewith which it is surrounded, the large, soft, blink-ing eyes, and the curious disk of feathers whichradiate from the eye and form a funnel-shapeddepression, are such characteristic distinctions,that an owl, even of the least owl-like aspect, canat once be detected and referred to its properplace in the animal kingdom. There is a singularresemblance between the face of an owl and thatof a cat, which is the more notable as both thesecreatures have much the same kind of habits, liveon the same prey, and are evidently representa-tives of the same idea in their different classes.The owl, in fact, is a winged cat, just as the cat isa furred owl. These birds are, almost without anexception, nocturnal in their habits, and are fittedfor their peculiar life by a most wonderfullyadapted form and structure. The eyes are made soas to take in every ray of light, and are so sensi-tive to its influence that they are unable to endure

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the glare of daylight, being formed expressly forthe dim light of evening or earliest dawn. Anordinary owl of almost any species, whenbrought into the full light of day, becomes quitebewildered with the unwonted glare, and sitsblinking uncomfortably, in a pitiable manner,seemingly as distressed as a human being onwhose undefended eyes the meridian sun is shin-ing. (Wood’s Natural History)

The common food of owls consists of mice, bats,other small animals, and insects. There are manyspecies of owls, some not larger than jays, andothers appearing in full plumage as large aseagles.

Mr. Wilson states that the great owls not infre-quently engage in combat with the eagle himself,and that they often come off victorious. Thesepowerful and voracious birds . . . occasionallykill the fawns of the stag, roebuck, and reindeer.(Quoted in Natural History)

Mr. Wood quotes from “a correspondent” thefollowing account of a horned owlet:

The horned owlet has a peculiarly catlike expres-sion of face; and this, I think, was the chiefattraction possessed by a downy, grayish whiteball, that was thrust into my lap by one of myboy friends, who at the same time announced itsname and nature.

With great delight I proceeded to introducehim to my other bird pets, but the intense excite-


ment caused by his presence compelled me toremove him with all speed. The small birds wereall afraid of him; but the jackdaw and magpieboth charged poor “Blinker” at once. It thenstruck me that the catlike face and nocturnalmousing habits of the creature indicated the deepsecret of its nature, and, if so, that it would havemore sympathy with the feline establishmentthan with that of the birds. Acting upon thisimpression, I at once conveyed him to pussy’scloset, and introduced him to its occupants;namely, Mrs. Fanny and her blind kitten. Pussyregarded him at first with very suspicious looks;but the poor bird, feeling pleased with the dimlight and pussy’s soft, warm coat, soon nestledup to her. This act of confidence on Blinker’spart appeared to affect Fanny favorably, and sheat once purred him a welcome. From this timethey were fast friends, and many mice did shegood-naturedly provide for Blinker in commonwith her own kitten.

The barn owl, he writes:. . . is a terrible foe to mice, especially to thecommon field mouse, great numbers of whichare killed daily by a single pair of owls whenthey are bringing up their young family. . . . Oneof these owls, belonging to a friend, . . . was aconfirmed murderer of bats and small birds, aswell as mice. . . . Six to eight small birds wereoften counted when its hole was explored in the

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early morning, and once the owl had poked four-teen bats into it. . . . So fiercely does this birdstrike, that I knew an instance where a dog wasblinded by the stroke of a barn owl’s claws. Theowl was a tame one, and the dog—a stranger—went up to inspect the bird. As the dogapproached the owl, the bird rolled quietly overon its back, and when the dog put his head to theprostrate bird, it struck so sharply with its clawsthat it destroyed both the eyes of the poor animal,which had to be killed on account of the injury.

Of the great owl, Mr. Tristram writes:It is a large and noble looking bird, nearly twofeet long. . . . It inhabits ruins and caves all overthe Holy Land. We found it in tombs in Carmel,in the robbers’ caves near Gennesaret, in the her-mit caves above Jericho, among the ruined citiesof southern Judah, and in the desert wadys nearBeersheba, among the temples of Rabbath-Ammon; in fact, everywhere where man hasbeen and is not. (Natural History of the Bible)

This fierce, darkness-loving bird represents amind quick and keen in its powers of thinking,yet hating the light of truth, and active only infalse and delusive light. Swedenborg says:

They who have confirmed themselves in faithseparated from charity . . . are not in possessionof any truths, but merely of falsities. But the fal-sities of their faith do not indeed appear beforethem as darkness, that is, as falsities, but they


appear to them as if they were lucid, that is, as ifthey were truths, after they have confirmed them-selves in them; but nevertheless, while they areviewed from the light of heaven, which discoversall things, they appear dark; for which reason,when the light of heaven flows into their dens inhell, the darkness is such that they cannot see oneanother; on which account every hell is closed soas not to leave a crevice open, and then they arein their own light; the reason that they do notappear to themselves to be in darkness, but in thelight, although they are in falsities, is becausetheir falsities after confirmation appear to themas truths; hence comes their light, but it is thelight of infatuation, such as is the light of theconfirmation of what is false. This light corre-sponds to that to which owls and bats owe theirsight, to whom darkness is light, and light dark-ness; yea, to whom the sun itself is thick dark-ness; eyes like these have they after death, who,during their abode in the world, confirmed them-selves in falsities to such a degree as to see fal-sity as truth and truth as falsity. (ApocalypseRevealed #695; see also Apocalypse Revealed#566, Arcana Coelestia #4967, 866)

The desolate places and ruins which owls love toinhabit represent states from which the life ofcharity has disappeared. The Christian Church,at its end, was a ruined city, deserted by everygood spiritual affection. The light of truth also

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was gone from it; for in both the Catholic andthe Protestant Churches the Lord was denied.Catholic leaders taught that He had given allpower to Peter, and through him to the popes,reserving none to Himself; and Protestants thatHe was one of three Gods; that the Father alonewas to be worshipped; and that salvation wasgiven to all who believed in the sacrifice of theSon as atonement for their sins. When men whohave confirmed such doctrines are told that theLord is the only God; that He removes the desirefor evil from those who repent and do His com-mandments, and then gives them His own lovefor good; when they are thus led into clear heav-enly sunlight, they can only blink, and hurry asfast as possible into the dark, talking about thepenalty of the violation of law, the Lord as bear-ing the penalty for us all, and making it possiblefor a just God to forgive all who believe in thatvicarious atonement. In this dark light they aresharp, quick, and eager for prey, and some arereally powerful. The mice which they especiallyhunt for and easily capture are the loves for sly,selfish indulgence, which are afraid to showthemselves openly, but are readily caught by theidea that the quality of the life makes no differ-ence—faith alone, or the Pope alone, being nec-essary to salvation.


The bats, which seem to be equally desiredfor prey, are similar to mice, except that they arewinged. They correspond to loves for thinkingsimilar false principles, with delight in the evilpleasures to which they lead. Having wings andpowers of flight, they are somewhat like birds,and represent quick thought and confirmationsof falsity; but their real heart is love for the evilpleasures taught or excused by the falsity.

Since the representation of owls is as hasbeen described, when the psalmist says, “I amlike an owl of the desert” (Psalm 102:6), hedescribes a state of inability to see the truth, or inwhich falsity appears as truth. The prophet Isa-iah says of a church from which truth and charityhave departed, “The owl also and the raven shalldwell in it. . . . There shall the great owl makeher nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under hershadow” (Isaiah 34:11, 15).

The same prophet, speaking of the coming ofthe Lord, says, “In that day a man shall cast hisidols of silver and his idols of gold, which theymade each one for himself to worship, to themoles and to the bats” (Isaiah 2:20); because theidols of silver and gold represent the fictitiousgood, or the pleasant evil of false principles, inwhich spiritual moles and bats delight.

THE RAVEN

Associated with the owl, as an inhabitant ofwaste places, is the raven; under which term, nodoubt, are included all birds of the raven family.

Perhaps it will never be a settled questionwhether our crows and their kindred rooks domore good as insect and carrion eaters, or harmby devouring little birds and pulling up the corn.If regarded as helpers, they are very blunderingand indiscriminate helpers; if as enemies, theyare clumsy, not malignant, and not very harmful.

The raven proper is a much larger bird, nowscarce in our country except in the forests. Mr.Tristram says of him:

The carnivorous propensities of the raven, andespecially its habit of attacking weak or sicklyanimals, and of always commencing by pickingout their eyes, is alluded to in Proverbs 30:17:“The eye that mocketh at his father, anddespiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of thevalley shall pick it out.” We have more than onceseen the ravens thus attack a newly dropped kid.(Natural History of the Bible)


Mr. Wood adds:Like all feeders on carrion, it is wonderfullyquick in detecting a dead or dying animal, andrivals the vulture itself in the sharpness of itsvision. If anyone who is passing over a part ofthe country where ravens still survive shouldwish to see one of the birds, he has only to lie flaton the ground, and keep his eyes nearly shut, soas only to see through the lashes. Should there bea raven within many miles, it is sure to discoverthe apparently dead body, and to alight at nogreat distance, walking round and round, with itspeculiar sidelong gait, and, if it be not checked intime, will make a dash at the eye of the prostrateindividual, and probably blind him for life. Thishabit of pecking at the eye is inherent in all thecrow tribe. (Bible Animals)

With little beauty in their blue-black coats andno music in their voices, they present to usimages of those who are ignorant and supersti-tious, not knowing very clearly the differencebetween good and evil, but loving to think andchatter about spiritual things from appearances,seeing in them signs and omens. The Scandina-vians called the raven “the bird of Odin”; theancient Greeks also drew auguries from hisdoings, supposed to reveal his intuitions offuture events. Swedenborg says they signify“natural men, who, concerning divine truths, are

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in darkest lumen from fallacies, in which havebeen many of the gentiles” (ApocalypseExplained #650).

In the Scriptures, the raven stands sometimesfor those who hold tenaciously to the falsities ofignorance, and sometimes simply for the denselyignorant gentiles, who yet are cared for by God,and may afterwards be instructed. In the formersense, it is said that when the waters of the floodbegan to subside, Noah “sent forth a raven,which went forth to and fro until the waters weredried up from off the earth” (Genesis 8:7); signi-fying that after the falsities which destroyed themost ancient Church began to diminish, the fal-lacies of ignorance still caused confusion.1 In thesame sense it is said of Edom, “The owl also andthe raven shall dwell in it” (Isaiah 34:11).

In the better sense, it is related that when Eli-jah fled from Ahab, “he went and dwelt by thebrook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And theravens brought him bread and flesh in the morn-ing, and bread and flesh in the evening; and hedrank of the brook” (1 Kings 17:5, 6). By Elijahis represented the literal precepts of the Word;his persecution by Ahab represents the hatred ofthose precepts by those who are in the evil



delights of self-love; and his maintenance, underthe providence of the Lord, by the ravens, repre-sents the preservation of such precepts by thosewho were in simple gentile ignorance.

In the passage, “He giveth to the beast hisfood, and to the young ravens which cry” (Psalm147:9), they are meant who are in fallacies ofignorance, and desire instruction. Again, theLord says, “Consider the ravens; for they neithersow nor reap; which neither have storehouse norbarn; and God feedeth them” (Luke 12:24). Theravens are here put for the “fowls of the heav-ens,” which signify affections for thinking truth,which do not labor for the production of it, nei-ther lay it up. Of these the ravens represent themost ignorant. Yet even for them provision ismade by the Lord of some knowledge of religionand morality, by traditions and derivations fromothers, by which a capacity for heaven may beformed in them.

FISHES

Like birds of a grosser atmosphere, fishes swimin the sea. They have eyes which are typical ofdullness, rude ears, adapted only to the coarsestdiscrimination of sounds; for wings they havefins, and their feathers are horny scales. They areexceedingly prolific; but when they have depos-ited their eggs in suitable places they rarely takefurther thought for their young. They are mostlycarnivorous and voracious, feeding upon insects,mollusks, little fishes, and any living creatureswhich they can swallow.

The water in which fishes live is a representa-tive of a natural atmosphere of thought relatingto the world and to practical life in it. The air,called in ancient languages by the same name asthe spirit, corresponds to truth concerning spiri-tual life, the spiritual states of men, the spiritualworld, and the Lord; but water, in its best sense,as the water of baptism, represents truth bywhich the practical life is cleansed—truth whichdistinguishes between right and wrong in act.Such truth applied more generally, yet rightly,


becomes the truth of what is practicable orimpracticable, possible or impossible; it is anatmosphere of physical truth concerning theworld with all its products and phenomena.Applied unjustly, it is an atmosphere of merelynatural thought which extinguishes or drownsaffections for thinking and living spiritually.

The fishes which swim in this mental sea areaffections for thinking naturally.1 The goodamong them love scientific knowledge becauseof its truth and for the sake of its use; the badlove their own natural intelligence and intellec-tual aggrandizement. The insects upon whichthey live are affections for the impressions orexperience of the senses, which are the naturalfood for the love of knowledge; and it is as inev-itable that broader scientific minds should com-prehend the lesser, and absorb the results of theirlabors, as that great fishes should swallow thesmall.

It was commanded the children of Israel thatthey should eat of the fishes which had fins andscales; but that all other animals living in thewater should be unclean to them.2 With their finsfishes take hold of the water, and support, bal-

1. Apocalypse Explained #513.2. Leviticus 11:9–12.

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ance, and guide themselves in it. Fins represent,therefore, the hold of the mind upon naturaltruth, with the power and the love of thinking init. They have this faculty, represented by fins,who are able to sustain themselves in naturalthought, in a position to see clearly whetherideas of natural things are true or not.

Scales are the clothing of fishes; and assheep’s clothing represents the expressions ofinnocence and neighborly love which character-ize the followers of the Lord, so the scales offishes represent the expressions of love for truthand of respect for the usefulness of it, professedby honest seekers for truth in every departmentof natural knowledge.

Among the affections for physical truth, thoseare serviceable to spiritual life, and are food forthe spiritual man, which have power to thinktruth clearly, and which also love truth for thegood it may do. They are fishes which have finsand scales.

Besides these spiritual fishes, there are manyothers of strong natural intelligence but no lovefor use, which accumulate knowledge to no pur-pose, and are of no service to spiritual life.Scaleless creatures they are, some of them fierceand predaceous, and some, perhaps, harmless.And, again, there are those which profess the


strongest regard for the usefulness of truth, andyet have no perception of what is true, but ratherstir up the mud like crocodiles, in the obscurityof which they seize their innocent prey. Scalesthey have of the hardest; but not the slightestlove for sustaining themselves in clear water.

Innumerable other creatures there are in thewater, infusoria, crustacea, mollusks, corre-sponding to mere physical aptitude for impres-sions and observations, or to bodily states ofactivity or repose, of hunger or satisfaction,quite apart from the states and desires of themind. These are not in themselves food to thespiritual mind, but they are to affections forphysical knowledge.

And besides these there are whales, warm-blooded, air-breathing, affectionate; rangingfrom sea to sea, and consuming immense quanti-ties of small marine creatures. They representaffections for generalizing knowledge, them-selves breathing the atmosphere of spiritual truthand believing in the divine Creator; which rangewith comprehensive zeal from one departmentof natural truth to another, finding everywhereevidences of divine origin and purpose.

Such generous affections are represented bythe whales of the fifth day of creation;1 and

1. Genesis 1:20–23.

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innocent loves for learning natural truth of everykind, for the sake of its practical usefulness, arerepresented by the fishes.

A state of the world in which there is no spiri-tual life from charity, and consequently no livinginterest in even natural truth, is meant by theturning the waters of Egypt to blood, so that allthe fish of the river died.1 Quite similar is themeaning of the following verses from Ezekiel:

Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king ofEgypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst ofhis rivers, which hath said, “My river is mineown, and I have made myself.” But I will puthooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thyrivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bringthee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all thefish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. AndI will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, theeand all the fish of thy rivers; thou shalt fall uponthe open fields; thou shalt not be broughttogether, nor gathered; I have given thee for meatto the beasts of the field and to the fowls of theheaven. (Ezekiel 29:3–5)

The word for “dragon” here is the same as thattranslated “whale” elsewhere. It is a generalword for great water animals. Here the creatureis said to have “scales,” and to live in the Nile,

1. Exodus 7.


and can scarcely be any other animal than thecrocodile. It represents a monstrous selfish doc-trine, such as the infallibility of the Pope, whichcompels all lovers of knowledge to adhere to itfor the sake of salvation; but which, with all itsadherents, will be left in the waste places of his-tory when the presence of the living God shall befelt among men.

The increase of affection for knowledge, andthe renewed vitality which will be imparted to itby the influence of clearer truth concerning theLord and heaven and the life which leads toheaven—an increase and renewal which areamong the brightest signs of the coming of theLord in our generation—are thus graphicallypredicted by the same prophet:

Afterward he brought me again unto the door ofthe house; and behold waters issued out fromunder the threshold of the house eastward. . . .Then said he unto me, These waters issue outtowards the east country, and go down into thedesert, and go into the sea; which being broughtforth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. Andit shall come to pass, that everything that liveth,which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shallcome, shall live; and there shall be a very greatmultitude of fish, because these waters shallcome thither; for they shall be healed; and every-thing shall live whither the river cometh. And it

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shall come to pass, that the fishers shall standupon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; theyshall be a place to spread forth nets; their fishshall be according to their kinds, as the fish of thegreat sea, exceeding many. (Ezekiel 47:1, 8–10)

In the gospels, fish and fishermen are often men-tioned as signifying affection for natural truthand men who possess such affection. The Lordlikens the kingdom of heaven to “a net that wascast into the sea, and gathered of every kind;which, when it was full, they drew to shore, andsat down, and gathered the good into vessels, butcast the bad away” (Matthew 13:47, 48); and bythe good fish He means men who have sincerelyloved natural truth for the sake of doing good;who, when they die, will be ready to receivespiritual instruction in the kingdom of heaven.

In essentially the same meaning, the discipleswere said to fish for men, when they drew intothe Church those who before had known onlynatural truth. But in their former occupation asfishermen, supplying fish to consumers, theyrepresent those who love to acquire natural truth,and then, as it were gathering the fish from theseas of their own minds, teach such truth to oth-ers.

In this sense Swedenborg likens himself tothe Lord’s disciples, saying that he was a spiri-


tual fisherman, whose delight it was to learn andteach science, until the Lord called him to teachspiritual truth. And it is not unreasonable to hopethat many sincere lovers of science will becomeequally sincere and candid teachers of the truthof heaven, when once the Lord calls andinstructs them.

OYSTERS

Low things are not necessarily bad; whether theyare good or bad depends much upon their propersubordination and proportion. The love of eatingand the love of sleeping are low; if excessive,they are bad; but if just strong enough to assist inrecreating higher faculties, they are good anduseful.

The popular expression, “lazy as an oyster,”probably comes pretty near to the human qualitywhich the oyster represents. In excess we call it“laziness”; in moderation it may be a goodenjoyment in repose. When undisturbed, an oys-ter is certainly a picture of repose itself. It has nopower to change its place, and not the slightestdesire to do so. Its shell stands partly open, heldby the elasticity of its hinge. The water whichbrings air to its gills and particles of food to itsstomach is indeed helped in its circulation by cil-iary motions, of which the animal probably isentirely unconscious, and by slight movementsof its mantle. It produces young, it is said, at therate of two or three millions in a year, during the


months of May to August inclusive—a prodi-gious swarm of helpless little desires to lie still,which for a few days are busy finding a place tobe quiet in, and then never move again, nor wantto. Of these the parent has at first perhaps a faintparental fondness; but she does scarcely any-thing more for them than to secrete a little limyfluid which hardens on the little ones into therudiments of a shell.

The shell is to an oyster the most importantthing in the world. It is home, protection, andopportunity for repose. The one great musclewhich an oyster has is the muscle which closesthe shell. This corresponds to a desire to preventintrusion; and the shell itself to the laws andfacts which justify rest and seclusion.

It is easy to see in all this a description ofsome morbid states of mind—when the love ofseclusion is excessive—and of some healthfulstates. Our common country and seashore rest-ing places might fairly be called “oyster beds,”on which people lie about enjoying their rest,and catching at the most trifling entertainmentsto keep them alive. But there is a deeper andnobler meaning, at least to some oysters, thanthis. Pearls are found in oysters; and they aremade of the substance of the inner shell. When agrain of sand or other hard substance is intruded

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within the shell, and the animal is unable toexpel it, a secretion of shelly substance is depos-ited upon it, which at least shuts it out from irri-tating contact with the sensitive animal. And thisdeposit, which grows by successive layers, is thepearl. From the point of view of the living ani-mal, the surface of the pearl is the inside, and theintrusive material is shut out.

Of pearls are made the gates of the Holy City.The intruded materials which cause their forma-tion are the insinuations and suggestions of evilfrom hell, which induce states of temptation.The pearly substance by which these are shut outfrom the mind are the truths which forbid suchevils as sins against God, and brand them as ofthe devil and from the devil. Swedenborg callsthe gates of pearl “introductory truths”; but thetruths which introduce into the streets of theHoly City are truths which separate evil fromgood, and open the way to good life at the sametime that they shut out the evil. So the pearls ofour city of life are the truths we have lived whichforbid evils as sins; which truths are lovely wallsof protection to the good life within. The onepearl of great price, for which the merchant soldall that he had, and to which the kingdom ofheaven is likened, is the knowledge of salvationby the Lord, through His commandments.


The enjoyment of such protection and of therepose which it brings—not in the peacefulnessof the interior mind, but the restfulness of theexternal mind, next the body—is an oyster in itsbest sense.

INSECTS

Most insects pass through three stages of life:that of the caterpillar, worm, or maggot; that ofthe pupa, or chrysalis; and the winged state, likethat of flies, butterflies, moths, etc. There areexceptions to this general rule, some of whichwill be mentioned hereafter.

In the first state, the business of their life iseating. They are intent upon gathering, whilethey may, food from leaves, flowers, wool,putrefying substances or whatever the wormsmay live on, usually acquiring their full growthduring this period, and sometimes storing up allthe nourishment they will need in the rest oftheir lives.

The second is a period of more or less com-plete repose, usually in a cocoon or case, wherethe formation of wings and other organs of thefully developed insect is rapidly completed.

And thus the little creature is prepared toenter upon the third and final state, in which itlives in part upon the wing, feeding upon thenectar of flowers, or some other more delicate


food than it had known before, and laying itseggs, sometimes storing with them a consider-able supply of provisions for the future young.

We have seen in birds, with their quick sight,pleasant voices, or brilliant plumage, and theirhuman sympathy, images of our affections forthinking of human life, and of the spiritual ormoral principles relating to that life. The wingedinsects, likewise, love to fly in the air, yet not inlong flights, but from one near object to another,as their changing fancy happens to be attracted.They are forms of thinking, but of mere sensualimpressions and pleasures.

In their caterpillar or grub state, they areexpressions of desire for the knowledge orimpressions of sense from which they may think.The perfect insects represent delights in thinkingfrom appearances, and gathering the pleasures ofthem. And the chrysalis state represents theintermediate time of assimilation of the impres-sions acquired and development of the power ofenjoying them.

A little child, when first he sees a toy quitenew to him, or an unfamiliar face, is not immedi-ately delighted. He is for awhile intent uponobserving, examining, and becoming thoroughlyacquainted with it; and then, after a time ofrepose, in which perhaps the object or person is

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withdrawn or neglected, he will greet it with alaugh, and play with it familiarly. I once saw alarge company of poor children brought fromcrowded quarters in the city for a first play ingreen fields, among the spring flowers. Insteadof the constant expressions of delight which Iexpected from them, they exhibited an almostgreedy eagerness to see, examine, explore, andpossess; and they went home almost as seriouslyand silently as a swarm of caterpillars to theirnest. I presume, however, that if they hadreturned in a few days to the scenes alreadymade familiar, they would have manifested agreat deal of enjoyment, and probably they didfeel such enjoyment in thinking it over. Soalmost everybody, in a first visit to an unfamiliarcountry, as, for instance, to the mountains, fromthe desire to enjoy it, is at first eagerly intentupon becoming acquainted with it; many per-sons are much disappointed at their own want ofability to enjoy what they know to be so enjoy-able; but after the due steps of development arecompleted, their power of enjoyment opens itsbeautiful wings unexpectedly, like a butterflyfresh from his chrysalis case.

In regard to certain kinds of music or paint-ing, for which I had the highest respect, I haveseveral times felt such disappointment at my


lack of power of enjoyment, and have not under-stood that the power of appreciation must firstattain its full growth by diligent attention and theacquisition of knowledge; and that the capacityfor free enjoyment springs from this as the but-terfly from the caterpillar. Of course there mustexist the sincere interest in the subject, anddesire to appreciate it, like a butterfly’s egg, orno faculty of enjoying will be developed. But ifthese do exist, they are proof that the facultymay be formed by cultivation.

Worms, caterpillars, and the perfect insectsserve as food to birds, and also to serpents;because the knowledge of appearances to thesenses is food for spiritual thought, and also tothe love of sensual pleasure. We observe theworms and butterflies, and our love of observingand learning their ways is like a caterpillar; butthe spiritual thought to which we submit ourobservations is a bird that eats the caterpillar.

Our common name, “bookworm,” is rightlyapplied to one who devours books without car-ing for any other work or pleasure in life.

That the power of thinking, understanding,and enjoying the appearances presented to thesenses is represented by insects, is thus taught bySwedenborg:

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The animals which walk, and also those whichcreep, signify affections in each sense, thusgoods or evils, for these are of the affections; butthe animals which fly, and also the wingedinsects signify such things as are of the thoughtsin each sense, thus truths or falsities; for these areof the thoughts; . . . hence, winged insects signifylike things, but in the extremes of man. (ArcanaCoelestia #9331)

Again, he says:Flying things in the Word all signify things intel-lectual, and thence truths, and in the oppositesense falsities; but the flying things of the lowestkind, which are insects, signify truths, and in theopposite sense falsities, which are more obscure,as those which belong to the sensual; for those,unless they be illustrated by interior things, arealtogether in obscurity and darkness, being nextto the body, and thence next to terrestrial thingswhere heavenly things terminate, and areimmersed in thick darkness. (Arcana Coelestia#7441)

And once more:It is not the sensual principle of sight, hearing,smell, taste, and touch which is here meant, forthese things are proper to the body; but it is theultimate or lowest principle of thought and affec-tion, which is first opened with infants, andwhich is of such a nature that they do not thinkanything else, nor are affected with any other


objects than what make one with the sensesabove mentioned; for infants learn to think bymeans of the senses, and to be affected withobjects according to the things which havepleased the senses; wherefore, the first internalprinciple which is opened to them is the sensual,which is called the ultimate sensual principle ofman, and also corporeal sensual; but afterwards,as the infant advances in age, and becomes a boy,the sensual principle is opened more interiorly,from which he thinks naturally, and is alsoaffected naturally; at length, when he becomes ayouth and young man, his sensual principle isopened still more interiorly, from which hethinks rationally, and if he is in the good of char-ity and faith, spiritually, and also is affectedrationally and spiritually; this thought and affec-tion is what is called the rational and spiritualman, whereas the former is called the naturalman, and the first the sensual man. (ApocalypseExplained #548)

The appearances of life, of which the insects ofthe mind love to think, are of every kind, fromthe vilest and most cruel to the delightful loveli-ness of heaven itself. Happy thoughts of thebeautiful appearances of heaven, and of heav-enly life on earth, are represented by the beauti-ful butterflies and moths. Probably the variouskinds of heavenly life from which these lovely

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appearances spring could be traced by carefulattention in the characteristics of the butterflieswhich represent the thoughts of them.

Several of these, which perhaps should beranked as the noblest of the insect race, surroundthemselves, as they enter the chrysalis state, withcocoons of silk, from which all our supplies ofthat beautiful material are derived. When cater-pillars have attained their full growth, theyimmediately search for a suitable place for theircocoons, which they spin with impatient zeal,working night and day till they are completed;they then cast their caterpillar skins, and in astate of absolute helplessness, but equally abso-lute trust, they await their rebirth into theirheaven.

Such caterpillars correspond to a love fordescriptions of heaven, and of the lovely formsof the life that is from heaven. This love eagerlylearns these things from desire to see and enjoysuch loveliness. The silken thread with which itclothes itself in its helplessness is from theknowledge it has obtained of the objects of itslove, now expressed with trustful hope of beingenabled to enjoy them. The moths are delights inthe happy things of heaven, and the honey uponwhich they live is the pleasantness of truth in itsfirst promise of producing good fruit.


That a knowledge of the external lovelythings of heaven, with the hope of enjoyingthem, is represented by silk, is evident from theangels who came to Swedenborg as forms ofconjugial love: “They were clad in robes andtunics of shining silk, in which were inwovenflowers most beautiful to the sight” (ConjugialLove #137). And what they described to him wasnot the spiritual operation and delight of thatlove in the soul, but the warmth and light, thegardens and the fragrance of their heaven. Suchdescription, from their own knowledge and con-stant desire, was represented in their silken gar-ments; and the delights of it were still more fullyexpressed by the flowers inwoven in them.

“Truth from a spiritual origin,” Swedenborgsays, is represented by silk; and adds: “This sig-nification it derives from its splendor of light”(Apocalypse Explained #619, 1144). “By silk issignified mediate heavenly good and truth; goodfrom its softness, and truth from its shining”(Apocalypse Revealed #773).

In heaven, they who are in natural truth appearclothed in white, which appears white as if fromlinen; natural truth itself is also represented there,as if woven of finer threads of linen; thosethreads appear like silken threads, splendid,beautifully translucent, and soft, and the raiment

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of them likewise, if the truth which is so repre-sented is from good; but, on the contrary, thosethreads as of linen do not appear translucent, norsplendid, nor soft, but hard and brittle, and yetwhite, if the truth so represented be not fromgood. (Arcana Coelestia #6701)

THE LOCUST

The locust is quite a different insect from thosethat have been described. The changes throughwhich it passes are not those of worm, helplesschrysalis, and winged insect; it has its insect legsfrom the start, and only sheds its skin repeatedly,and by degrees acquires wings.1

As there are several species of locust, andseveral stages of their individual life, it is notsurprising to find them spoken of under differentnames. Some authorities regard the names ren-dered in our English Bible palmer worm, cankerworm, and caterpillar, beetle, locust, and baldlocust, as all belonging to members of this fam-ily.2 They play an important part in the imageryof the Bible, both as plagues by reason of theirnumbers and destructiveness, and as themselvesconstituting an article of food.

All the locusts are vegetable feeders, and dogreat harm wherever they happen to be plentiful,

1. Lubbock.2. Tristram and Wood; cf. Apocalypse Explained #543.

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their powerful jaws severing even the thick grassstems as if cut by scissors. But it is only whenthey invade a country that their real power is felt.They come flying with the wind in such vastmultitudes that the sky is darkened as if by thun-derclouds; and when they settle, every vestige ofgreen disappears off the face of the earth.

Mr. Gordon Cumming once saw a flight ofthese locusts. They flew about three hundred feetfrom the ground, and came on in thick, solidmasses, forming one unbroken cloud. On allsides nothing was to be seen but locusts. The airwas full of them, and the plain was covered withthem, and for more than an hour the insect armyflew past him. When the locusts settle, they eatwith such voracity that the sound caused by theirjaws cutting the leaves and grass can be heard ata great distance; and even the young locusts,which have no wings, and are graphically termedby the Dutch colonists of Southern Africa “voet-gangers,” or foot-goers, are little inferior inpower of jaw to the fully developed insect.

As long as they have a favorable wind, nothingstops the progress of the locusts. They press for-ward just like the vast herds of antelopes thatcover the plains of Africa, or the bison thatblacken the prairies of America, and the progressof even the wingless young is as irresistible asthat of the adult insects. Regiments of soldiershave in vain attempted to stop them. Trenches


have been dug across their path, only to be filledup in a few minutes with the advancing hosts,over whose bodies the millions of survivors con-tinued their march. When the trenches were filledwith water, the result was the same; and evenwhen fire was substituted for water, the flameswere quenched by the masses of locusts that fellinto them. When they come to a tree, they climbup it in swarms, and devour every particle of foli-age, not even sparing the bark of the smallerbranches. They ascend the walls of houses thatcome in the line of their march, swarming in atthe windows, and gnawing in their hunger thevery woodwork of the furniture.”

These insects are . . . eaten in all parts of theworld which they frequent, and in some placesform an important article of diet, thus compen-sating in some way for the amount of vegetablefood which they consume.

Herodotus, for example, when describing thevarious tribes of Libyans, mentions the use of thelocust as an article of diet. . . . “When they havecaught the insects” [he says] “they dry them inthe sun, reduce them to powder, and, sprinklingthem in milk, drink them.”

This is precisely the plan which is followed atthe present day by the Bosjesmans of SouthAfrica. To them the locusts are a blessing, andnot a plague. . . . When they see a cloud oflocusts in the distance, they light great fires, and

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heap plenty of green boughs upon them, so as tocreate a thick smoke. The locusts have no idea ofavoiding these smoke columns, but fly over thefires, and, stifled by the vapor, fall to the ground,where they are caught in vast numbers by theBosjesmans. When their captors have roastedand eaten as many as they can manage to devour,they dry the rest over the fires, pulverize thembetween two stones, and keep the meal for futureuse, mixing it with water, or, if they can get it,with milk.

In Palestine, locusts are eaten either roasted orboiled in salt and water; but, when preserved forfuture use, they are dried in the sun, their heads,wings, and legs picked off, and their bodiesground into dust. This dust has naturally a ratherbitter flavor, which is corrected by mixing it withcamel’s milk or honey, the latter being the favor-ite substance. (Wood’s Bible Animals)

The locust and grasshopper tribe, the most com-mon of our summer insects, loving to eat everygreen thing, represent the desire to see and knowwhat is going on, not from interest in the ends,but simply from curiosity to know every livingthought and plan of life. It is a desire universal inchildren, and hardly less general in adults.

The same desire directed to the Word loves toknow all the appearances and ways of lifedescribed in its letter. John the Baptist, therefore,


who represented the literal sense of the Word inits application to life, had for his meat locustsand wild honey; the locusts representing aknowledge of the letter of the Word, and thehoney the natural pleasure in such knowledge.1

In ancient times, when churches were representa-tive churches, all who were in ministries wereclothed according to their representations, andalso did eat according thereto. (ApocalypseExplained #543)

When the mind is good, and loves a charitable,upright life, then all this superficial knowledgeof life is serviceable as food for useful thought;but when a man loves only himself, and notgoodness of life, he sees and knows all thethoughts and plans of life about him only todespise and pervert them. The locusts in hismind are a plague which destroys every greenand living thing.

The plagues of Egypt represented the expo-sure of the evils that infested men before thecoming of the Lord. And one of those plagueswas a cloud of locusts that “covered the face ofthe whole earth, so that the land was darkened;and they did eat every herb of the land, and allthe fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and

1. Arcana Coelestia #9372, 7643.

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there remained not any green thing in the trees,or in the herbs of the field, through all the land ofEgypt” (Exodus 10:15), by which was repre-sented the destruction of every principle of goodlife in the Church, by those who intensely lovedtheir own selfish power and evil pleasures.

In like manner, the thoughts of those whofrom love of evil were in the doctrine of faithalone, concerning good life, were represented bylocusts that came out of the smoke of the bot-tomless pit, by which they entirely stupefiedtheir followers in regard to good spiritual life.

In a better sense, men, because they are in themost external appearances of the Lord’s uni-verse, are called locusts in comparison withHim. “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of theearth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass-hoppers” (Isaiah 40:22). And, again, in the sightof those who are persuaded of their own emi-nence, others appear even to themselves asgrasshoppers: “And there we saw the giants, thesons of Anak, which come of the giants; and wewere in our own sight as grasshoppers, and sowe were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33).1


BEES

Not for the green grass and foliage do the beescare, but for the fragrant flowers, into whichthey dive, like diviners of hidden treasure, forthe honey and pollen. Neither do spiritual beescare for a knowledge of the world with its theo-ries and principles so long as they are only theo-ries and principles; but as soon as they blossomwith the promise of usefulness, the bees hurry tothem, sure of finding in them their favoritesweetness.

The locusts care only to know—it makes notmuch difference what. The bees ask, “What is itfor? What is the use of it?” And in a knowledgeof the usefulness they find honey.

That honey is enjoyment, is because it is sweet;and every sweetness in the natural world corre-sponds to enjoyment and pleasantness in thespiritual. . . . Every truth, and especially truthsfrom good, have their enjoyment, but enjoymentfrom the affection of them, and thence the use.(Arcana Coelestia #5620)

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But bees have not only a love for the sweetnessof usefulness, but also a stinging contempt forwhat is useless or mischievous. They sting allintruders upon their busy lives; even the dronesof their own race they carry out from the hive,and sting to death.

Many human insects have the power to annoyus with impertinent suggestions or remarks, ofwhich we shall say more presently; but theyhave no power to sting unless there are appear-ances of evil or disgrace in our lives from whichthey can draw stinging inferences. The stings ofthe bees are charges of uselessness or intrusion.

Honey is frequently mentioned in the Bible;but bees rarely.

It is related of Samson, that after he had rent theyoung lion, and returned to take a wife from thenation of the Philistines, “he turned aside to seethe carcass of the lion; and, behold, there was aswarm of bees and honey in the carcass of thelion” (Judges 14:8, 9). By this was signified thedissipation of the faith separate from charity,which the Philistines represented; it was on thisaccount that the Philistines were called “theuncircumcised,” by which name is signified thatthey were without spiritual love and charity, andonly in natural love, which is the love of self andthe world; such faith inasmuch as it destroys thegood of charity, was represented by the young


lion which assaulted Samson with intent to tearhim in pieces; but Samson, because he was aNazarite, and by his Nazariteship represented theLord as to His ultimate natural, rent the lion inpieces, and afterwards found in his carcass aswarm of bees and honey, by which was signifiedthat after that faith is dissipated the good of char-ity succeeds in its place. (Apocalypse Explained#619)

This is the common signification of honey in theScriptures. Therefore it is said that “the judg-ments of Jehovah are sweeter than honey, andthe dropping of the honeycombs” (Psalm119:102, 103).

The land of Canaan is called “a land flowingwith milk and honey,” because it represents“heaven, where is the good of charity and truthof faith, and thence pleasantness and enjoyment”(Arcana Coelestia #6857).

Yet, because spiritual bees judge wholly fromappearances, and may mistake the appearance ofindustry and the promise of use for genuine use-fulness, honey also represents what appears likethe pleasure of use, but may be merely selfishelation. In this sense of selfish delight, it wasforbidden that any honey should be used in thesacrifices to the Lord.1

1. Leviticus 2:11; Apocalypse Explained #619.

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As the stings of bees in a good sense signifythe imputation of idleness and opposition topleasant work, by which the love of such pleas-antness defends itself, in the perverse sense theysignify such charges against those who object tomerely selfish pleasure. Bees are therefore men-tioned once as means by which genuine good-ness is destroyed, and selfish pleasuresubstituted. “And it shall come to pass in thatday, that Jehovah shall hiss for the fly that is inthe uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and forthe bee that is in the land of Assyria” (Isaiah7:18, 19).1

1. Apocalypse Explained #543; Arcana Coelestia #9331.

HORNETS

It has been said that the power to sting spirituallyis the power to bring home some accusations orinsinuations of evil or disgrace to our lives. Beessting in their way; but the imputation of worseevils to those exposed to the attack is repre-sented by the stings of wasps and hornets.

When the children of Israel were approachingthe land of Canaan, the Lord promised, as one ofthe means by which their safety would besecured, that He would send “the hornet” beforethem to drive out the nations which were there,signifying that their own false thoughts from evilloves would return to plague and condemnthem.1


FLIES

Flies buzz about for honey, sugar, sweet thingsgenerally, and any kind of filth. They also breedin manure, which represents the filthy thingsrejected from spiritual life. In the grub state theylove to learn such things; in the winged, to thinkthem. They are the annoying thoughts of self-indulgence and evil, which come unbidden, andeven though hated. Swedenborg says:

The “fly in the extremity of the rivers of Egypt”(Isaiah 7:18, 19) is the falsities in the extremes ofthe natural mind, thus which are in the sensualnearest the body. These are compared to such aninsect, because the things there are no other thanas insects flying in the air, and obscuring interiorthings, and also doing them harm. For, as to thegreater part, the things there are imaginations andfallacies. (Arcana Coelestia #7441)

Similar false suggestions from evil loves are rep-resented by the flies which were one of theplagues of Egypt.1

1. Ibid.

SPIDERS

Spiders we know chiefly as spinners of webs,sometimes with much apparent beauty, the pur-pose of which is to ensnare other insects whichthey may devour. By long threads of webs, also,spiders sail in the air sometimes considerabledistances.

In Swedenborg’s Diary is the followingaccount of men who appeared like spiders in thespiritual world:

There was seen a spider’s thread and web, whichreached up on high into the interior heaven; thisthread was drawn down, and there followedthence a diabolical spirit, who appeared beforeangelic sight like a great and horrid spider. . . .

It was then told and shown who those are;namely, that they are those who learn the arts ofraising themselves towards the interior heaven,which is done especially by the habit of enteringinto the feelings of others, and almost absorbingthem, even so far as to think as they do. Espe-cially do they learn truths of faith and learn toenter into the affection of truth, by holding thethoughts long in them, but this always with the

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intent to deceive, make sport of, and rule; thus itis full of cunning, deceit, and malice. By suchthings they insinuate themselves among theangels of heaven. . . .

The angels said that sometimes they areobserved, and that they sit in corners, and some-times appear and sometimes do not appear; andthat they cannot be removed before the time oftheir casting down has come. (Spiritual Diary#4735–37)

A spider appeared, dropping down fromheaven by a spider’s thread. The form and theslipping down were altogether like a spider. Atfirst it appeared small, and was able to let itselfdown by the thread, and also raise itself up; itwas borne to the right, and also there wished todraw itself up towards heaven; but he could not,because thus who and what he was was detected.Others said that he appeared to them as a man. Itwas said by angels that he was from the thirdheaven, and that such are they who have longbeen poisoners, or assassins, and practiced suchthings with cunning and deceit; but afterwardsseemed to repent, thinking of heaven, and alsobelieving, and externally practicing piety; these,when in this latter state, are elevated into heaven;but still their inner quality is there disclosed; fortheir interiors are more and more exposed; and sothey cast themselves down thence, and appearlike spiders. (Spiritual Diary #4889)


I have seen many, who appeared like spiderswhich let themselves down by threads, who werecast down from heaven. Their affections thusappeared. They were women who in speech, ges-tures, and appearance seemed pious and devout,but inwardly overflowed with adulteries, thefts,and every malice and deceit; thus their interiorswere full of poisons. (Spiritual Diary #5199)

“They weave the spider’s web,” is said of evilmen, who by treachery and craft seduce others inspiritual affairs. . . . Their treacherous falsitiesare signified by the spider’s web which they aresaid to weave. (Arcana Coelestia #581)

The web of the spider bears some resemblanceto the silkworm’s thread; and, representatively,they both are spun from knowledge of heaven orheavenly good. But the spider spins it from herabdomen, with no care for it but to catch thosewho can be deceived by it; while the silkwormspins lovingly from her mouth, from sinceredesire to become heavenly herself.

Flies are much like insect mice, in their lovefor pleasant frivolities; and the crafty spiders intheir beautiful webs, zealously condemning theflies for evils much lighter than their own fiercelusts, are not unlike insect cats.

SCORPIONS

The scorpions belong to the class Arachnida, andhave much the appearance of a small lobster,whence they were formerly classed with theCrustacea. Their palpi, or claws, are of the pro-portionate shape and size of those of the lobster,and are employed for seizing their prey, whichthey then dispatch by striking it with the power-ful curved claw at the end of their tail, whichsecretes an acrid poison. The tail is jointed and ofgreat length, and, in running, the animal holds itover its back in a threatening attitude, and in thisposition it always strikes with it, and thus inefforts to escape will sometimes strike its ownhead, and mortally wound itself.

Scorpions are carnivorous, feeding chiefly onbeetles and locusts. They swarm in every part ofPalestine, and are found in houses, in chinks ofwalls, among ruins, and under stones, whether indry or moist situations. . . .

The sting of the scorpion is very painful, muchmore so than that of the hornet, and our mule-teers were several times stung; but suction andthe application of ammonia and sweet oil


reduced the swelling and pain in two or threehours. I have known an instance of a man dyingfrom the effects of a scorpion sting, which hereceived in the throat when leaning against a wallin which the creature was secreted. (Tristram,Natural History of the Bible)

Swedenborg speaks of the scorpion as:. . . denoting a persuasive principle which is ofan infatuating and suffocating character. . . . Thenature and quality of the persuasive principle sig-nified by the scorpion,” he says, “are as yetscarcely known to anyone in the world, becauseit is the persuasive principle of the spirit of a sen-sual man, in which he is when he becomes aspirit, but not while he lives as a man in theworld. The reason is, that a man in the worldrarely speaks out what his spirit thinks andinmostly loves; for he is taught from infancy toconverse about such things as pertain to civil andmoral life, although his spirit, which thinks andwills inwardly, is differently inclined; the spiritof man, whilst it resides in the body, makes ashow of such things before the world, becauseotherwise he cannot receive favor, so as to obtainthe ends which his spirit aims at, which are prin-cipally honors and gains, and a name and fameon account of them. This is the reason that thenature and quality of the infatuating and suffo-cating persuasive principle which is signified bythe scorpion is not known in the world; such,

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however, is its nature with the spirits in whom itis operative, that it infuses itself into the soul andspirit of another, and lays asleep, and almostextinguishes, his rational and intellectual facul-ties, whence he cannot possibly know otherwisethan that what is spoken is the truth, although itshould be most false. (Apocalypse Explained#544)

Animals of the Bible-john Worcester

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Transcript of Animals of the Bible-john Worcester