children, as is manifest in the love of a mother towards her children. It is believed that the Lord, because He is to be adored, worshiped, and glorified, loves adoration, worship, and glory, for His own sake; but He loves them for man's sake, because man thereby comes into such a state, that the Divine can flow in and be perceived, for thereby man removes his proprium which prevents influx and reception: his proprium, which is the love of self, hardens his heart and shuts it. This is removed by the acknowledgment that from himself nothing is done but evil, and from the Lord nothing but good; hence comes a softening of the heart and humiliation, from which adoration and worship flow. Hence it follows, that the use which the Lord performs to Himself by man, is, that out of love He may be able to do good to man, and because this is His love, reception is the delight of his love. Let not any one therefore believe that the Lord is with those who only adore Him, but that He is with those who do His commandments, consequently who perform uses; with the latter He has His abode, but not with the former. See what was said above on this subject, n. 47, 48, 49.

336. THAT EVIL USES WERE NOT CREATED BY THE LORD, BUT THAT THEY ORIGINATED TOGETHER WITH HELL. All goods which exist in act are called uses, and all evils which exist in act are also called uses, but the latter are called evil uses, and the former good uses. Now as all goods are from the Lord, and all evils from hell, it follows, that no other than good uses were created by the Lord, and that evil uses originated from hell. By uses, which are treated of in particular in this article, we mean all things that appear on earth, as animals of all kinds and vegetables of all kinds; of both the latter and the former, those which furnish use to man are from the Lord, and those which do hurt to man are from hell. In like manner, by uses from the Lord we mean all things that perfect man's rational, and cause him to receive a spiritual principle from the Lord; but by evil uses, all things that destroy the rational principle, and prevent man from becoming spiritual. The things that do hurt to man are called uses, because they are of use to the wicked to do evil, and because they contribute to absorb malignities, and thus also as remedies. Use is applied in both senses, like love; for we speak of good love and evil love, and love calls all that use which is done by itself.

337. That good uses are from the Lord, and evil uses from hell, will be shown in this order :-I. What is meant by evil uses on earth. II. That all things that are evil uses are in hell, and all that are good uses in heaven. III. That there is a continual influx from the spiritual into the natural world. IV. That influx from hell operates those things that are evil uses in places where those things are that correspond. V. That the spiritual ultimate separated from its higher principle, operates this. VI. That there

are two forms on which operation takes place by influx, the vegetable and the animal form. VII. That both these forms receive the faculty of propagating their kind, and the means of propagation.

338. I. What is meant by evil uses on earth. Evil uses on earth mean all noxious things in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and also in the mineral kingdom. It would be tedious to enumerate all the noxious things in these kingdoms; for this would be to heap up names, which, without indication of the noxious effect that each kind produces, does not promote the use which this work intends. For the sake of science it is sufficient here to name some particulars. Such in the animal kingdom are poisonous serpents, scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, horned-owls, screech-owls, mice, locusts, frogs, spiders; also flies, drones, moths, lice, mites, in a word, those that consume grasses, leaves, fruits, seeds, meat, and drink, and are noxious to beasts and men. In the vegetable kingdom they are all malignant, virulent, and poisonous herbs, and pulse and shrubs of the same kind; in the mineral kingdom, all poisonous earths. These few particulars may show what is meant by evil uses on earth; evil uses are all things that are opposite to good uses, concerning which see the preceding article.

339. II. That all things that are evil uses are in hell, and all that are good uses in heaven. Before it can be seen that all evil uses that exist on earth are from hell, and not from the Lord, something must be premised concerning heaven and hell. Unless this be known, evil uses as well as good may be attributed to the Lord, and supposed to exist together from the creation, or they may be attributed to nature, and their origin to the sun of nature. A man cannot be delivered from these two errors, unless he knows, that nothing whatever exists in the natural world that does not derive its cause and origin from the spiritual world, and that the good is from the Lord, and the evil from the devil, that is, from hell. By the spiritual world is meant both heaven and hell. In heaven appear all those things that are good uses (mentioned in the preceding article); in hell, all that are evil uses (mentioned above, n. 338, where they are enumerated); wild beasts of all kinds, as serpents, scorpions, dragons, crocodiles, tigers, wolves, foxes, swine, owls of different kinds, bats, rats and mice, frogs, locusts, spiders, and noxious insects of many kinds; hemlock and aconite, and all kinds of poison, as well in herbs as in earths; in a word, all things that do hurt and kill men: such things in the hells appear to the life, just like those on the earth and in it. It is said that they appear there, but still they are not there as on earth, for they are mere correspondences of the lusts that spring from evil loves, and present themselves before others in such forms. Since there are such things in the hells, therefore they also abound in foul smells, cadaverous, stercoraceous, urinous, and putrid, with which the diabolical spirits there are delighted, as animals are

delighted with rank-smelling things. Hence it may appear, that similar things in the natural world did not derive their origin from the Lord, and were not created from the beginning, and did not originate from nature by her sun, but that they are from hell: that they are not from nature by her sun is evident, because what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and not vice versa: and that they are not from the Lord is also evident, because hell is not from Him, and therefore nothing in hell that corresponds to the evils of its inhabitants.

340. III. That there is a continual influx from the spiritual into the natural world. He who knows not that there is a spiritual world, and that it is distinct from the natural world as prior from posterior, or the cause from the thing caused, cannot know any thing of this influx. This is the reason why those who have written concerning the origin of vegetables and animals, could not do otherwise than deduce it from nature; and if from God, then they supposed that God from the beginning endued nature with a power of producing such things: thus they did not know that nature is not endued with any power; for in herself she is dead, and no more contributes to produce the above things than the instrument to produce the work of the artist, which must be perpetually moved in order that it may act. The spiritual principle, which derives its origin from the sun where the Lord is, and proceeds to the ultimates of nature, produces the forms of vegetables and animals, and furnishes the wonderful things which exist in both, and gives them consistency by matters from the earth, to the end that those forms may be fixed and constant. Now as it is made known that there is a spiritual world, and that the spiritual principle is from the sun where the Lord is, and which is from the Lord, and that it impels nature to act, as what is living impels what is dead, also that there are things in that world similar to things in this, it may hence be seen that vegetables and animals existed no otherwise than through that world from the Lord, and that they perpetually exist through it; and therefore that there is a continual influx from the spiritual world into the natural. That this is the case, will be confirmed by many considerations in the following article. That noxious things are produced on earth by influx from hell, is from the same law of permission whereby evils themselves flow from thence into men; which law will be spoken of in the ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

341. IV. That influx from hell operates those things that are evil uses, in places where those things are that correspond. The things that correspond to evil uses, that is, to malignant herbs and noxious animals, are cadaverous, putrid, excrementitious and stercoraceous, rancid and urinous matters; wherefore in places where these are, such herbs and animalcules exist as are mentioned above; and in the torrid zones, like things of a larger size, as serpents, basilisks, crocodiles, scorpions, mice, and others.

Every one knows that marshes, stagnant ponds, dung, stinking earth, are full of such things; also that noxious insects fill the atmosphere like clouds, and noxious worms the earth like armies, and consume herbs to the very roots. I once observed in my garden, that in the space of an ell almost all the dust was turned into very small insects; for on being stirred with a stick they rose up like clouds. That cadaverous and stinking matters accord with those noxious and useless animalcules, and that they are homogeneous, is evident from experience alone: this may be manifestly seen from the cause, which is, that there are similar stenches and effluvia in the hells, where such animalcules also appear; wherefore those hells are named from thence, and some are called cadaverous, some stercoraceous, some urinous, and so on; but they are all covered, lest those exhalations should transpire from them. When they are opened a little, as when novitiate devils enter, they excite vomiting and heaviness of head, and such as are at the same time poisonous induce fainting; the dust itself there is also such, wherefore it is called damned dust. Hence it is evident, that where there are such stenches, there are such noxious things, because they correspond.

342. We shall now inquire whether such things exist from eggs translated thither, either by the air, or by rain, or by passages of waters, or whether they exist from the damps and stenches themselves in such places. That such noxious animalcules and insects as are mentioned above, are produced from eggs carried thither, or hid throughout the earth since the creation, is not supported by general experience, because worms exist in seeds, in nuts, in woods, in stones, yea from leaves; also upon plants, and in them, lice and moths, which accord with them; flies also appear in houses, fields, and woods, in summer, produced in great abundance not from any oviform matter; as is likewise the case with those animalcules that devour meadows and lawns, and in some hot places fill and infest the air, besides those which swim and fly invisible in stinking waters, sour wines, and pestilential air. These facts favour the opinion of those who say, that smells, effluvia, and exhalations themselves, rising from plants, earths, and ponds, also give origin to such animalcules. That afterwards, when they are produced, they are propagated either by eggs or spawn, does not disprove their immediate origin; because every animal, with its viscera, receives also organs of generation and means of propagation, of which below, n. 347. This is attested by the experience not before known, that there are also similar things in hell.

343. That the above-mentioned hells have not only communication, but also conjunction, with such things on earth, may be concluded from the fact, that the hells are not remote from men, but that they are about them, yea in those who are wicked; thus they are contiguous to the earth. A man as to his affections and

lusts and thoughts thence derived, and as to his actions which are good or evil uses derived from both, is in the midst either of angels of heaven or of spirits of hell; and as such things as are on earth are also in the heavens and hells, it follows that the influx from thence immediately produces such, when the temperature is favourable. All things which appear in the spiritual world, both in heaven and hell, are correspondences of affections and lusts, for they exist there according thereto; wherefore when affections and lusts, which in themselves are spiritual, meet with homogeneous or corresponding things on earth, there is a spiritual principle which furnishes a soul, and a material which furnishes a body: there is also in every thing spiritual an endeavour to clothe itself with a body. The hells are about men, and therefore contiguous to the earth, because the spiritual world is not in space, but where there is a corresponding affection.

344. I heard two presidents of the English Royal Society, Sir Hans Sloane and Martin Folkes, conversing together in the spiritual world concerning the existence of seeds and eggs, and concerning productions from them on earth: the former ascribed them to nature, insisting that nature was, from creation, endued with powers of producing such things by means of the sun's heat; the other said that that power is continually from God the Creator in nature. In order to determine the dispute, a beautiful bird was exhibited to Sir Hans Sloane, and he was told to examine whether in any the least thing it differed from a similar bird on earth: he held it in his hand, examined it, and said that there was no difference; he knew that it was no other than an affection of a certain angel represented without him as a bird, and that it would vanish or cease with its affection; which also came to pass. Sir Hans Sloane was convinced by this experiment, that nature does not contribute at all to the production of vegetables and animals, but only that which flows from the spiritual world into the natural; he also said, that if that bird were to be filled in its least parts with corresponding matter from the earth, and so fixed, it would be a durable bird, as birds are on earth; and that it is the same with things that are from hell. He added further, that if he had known what he now knew of the spiritual world, he would not have ascribed any more to nature, than that it served the spiritual principle which is from God, in fixing the things that continually flow into nature.

345. V. That the spiritual ultimate, separated from its higher principle, operates this. It was shown in Part III., that the spiritual principle descends by influx from its sun to the ultimates of nature by three degrees, and that these degrees are called celestial, spiritual, and natural; and that in man by creation, and thence by birth, there are these three degrees, and that they are opened according to his life; and that if the celestial or highest and inmost degree is opened, man becomes celestial; if the spiritual