Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 83
they come forth clad with a different body, furnished with
wings with which they fly in the air as in their heaven, and
celebrate marriages and lay eggs and provide posterity for
themselves.
[3] Besides these special instances all creatures in general that
fly in the air know the proper food for their nourishment, not
only what it is but where to find it; they know how to build
nests for themselves, one kind in one way and another kind in
another way; how to lay their eggs in the nests, how to sit upon
them, how to hatch their young and feed them, and to turn
them out of their home when they are able to shift for
themselves. They know, too, their enemies that they must
avoid and their friends with whom they may associate, and this
from early infancy; not to mention the wonders in the eggs
themselves, in which all things lie ready in their order for the
formation and nourishment of the chicks; besides numberless
other things.
[4] Who that thinks from any wisdom of reason will ever say
that these instincts are from any other source than the spiritual
world, which the natural serves in clothing what is from it with
a body, or in presenting in effect what is spiritual in the cause?
The beasts of the earth and the birds of the air are born into all
this knowledge, while man, who is far superior to them, is not;
for the reason that animals are in the order of their life, and
have not been able to destroy what is in them from the
spiritual world, because they have no rational faculty. Man, on
the other hand, whose thought is from the spiritual world,
having perverted what is in him from that world by a life
contrary to order, which his rational faculty has favored, must
needs be born into mere ignorance and afterwards be led back
by Divine means into the order of heaven.
109. How the things in the vegetable kingdom correspond
can be seen from many instances, as that little seeds grow into
trees, put forth leaves, produce flowers, and then fruit, in
which again they deposit seed, these things taking place in
succession and existing together in an order so wonderful as to