Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/667

Rh neighbour. Some of those that exist in inferior nature, as they are visible to the eyes, may be adduced in illustration. Brute animals are impelled to action no otherwise than by the loves, and the affections of them, into which they were created, and afterwards are born; for every animal is carried whither its affection and love draws. And because it is so they are also in all the knowledges that in any wise pertain to that love. For from a love emulative of conjugial love they know how to copulate, — beasts in one way, and birds in another; birds know how to build their nests, how to lay their eggs, and to sit on them, how to hatch their young, and how to nourish them, — and this without any instruction, merely from a love emulative of conjugial love, and from love towards their offspring; which Loves have all these knowledges connected with them. In like manner they know with what kinds of food to feed themselves, and how to obtain it. And what is more, bees know how to gather food from flowers of various kinds; and also to collect the wax of which they make their cells, wherein they first deposit their offspring, and then lay up food; they also know how to provide for themselves against the winter; not to mention very many other things. All these knowledges are included in their loves, and dwell therein, from their first origin. They are born into these knowledges, because they are in the order of their nature, into which they were created; and then they are moved to action by the general influx from the spiritual world. If man were in the order into which he was created, that is in love towards the neighbour, and in love to the Lord, — for these loves are proper to man, — he above all animals would be born, not only into knowledges, but also into all spiritual truths and celestial goods, and thus into all wisdom and intelligence. For he is capable of thinking about the Lord, and of being conjoined to Him by love; and so of being elevated to what is Divine and eternal, which brute animals are incapable of. Thus man would then be governed by no other than the general influx from the Lord through the spiritual world. But because he is not born into order but in a state of opposition to his order, therefore he is born into ignorance of all things; and because this is so it is provided that he may afterwards be re-born, and thus come into so much of intelligence and wisdom as from freedom he receives of good, and by good of truth. (A C. n. 6323.)

The Influx into the World of Nature.

There is a continual influx from the spiritual world into the natural. He who does not know that there is a spiritual world,