96. As the bird of stone represented those also
who are in knowledges alone, and in no life of love,
and as these consequently have no spiritual life,
therefore, by way of appendix, I may here show that
those only have spiritual life who are in heavenly
love, and thence in knowledges; and that a love contains
in itself all the power of knowing (cognitinum)
which belongs to that love. Take for example
the animals of the earth, and also the living creatures
of the heaven, that is, the birds. These have
the knowledge (scientia) of all things that
belong to their love. Their loves are, to nourish
themselves, to dwell safely, to propagate their kind,
to take care of their young, and, with some, to provide
for the winter. They have, therefore, all the
requisite knowledge, for this is inherent in those
loves, and inflows into them as into its own receptacles;
and this knowledge in some animals is such that man
cannot but be amazed at it. Their knowledge is
connate and is called instinct; but it belongs to
the natural love in which they are. If man were
in his own love, which is love to God and towards
the neighbour, (this love is man’s peculiar
love, by which he is distinguished from beasts, and
it is heavenly love,) he would not only be in all
requisite knowledge, but likewise in all intelligence
and wisdom; for these [qualities] would inflow into
those loves from heaven, that is, from the Divine through
heaven. As, however, man is not born into those
loves, but into their contraries, that is to say,
into the loves of self and of the world, therefore
he cannot but be born in complete ignorance and want
of knowledge But by Divine means he is brought to something
of intelligence and wisdom, yet not actually into
any, unless the loves of self and of the world are
removed, and a way is thus opened for love to God
and towards the neighbour. That love to God and
love towards the neighbour have in them all intelligence
and wisdom, may appear from those who have been in
those loves in the world. These, when, after
death, they come into heaven, know and are wise in
things of which they previously knew nothing; yea,
they there think and speak, like the rest of the angels,
such things as the ear has not heard, nor the mind
known, which are ineffable. The reason is, that
those loves have the faculty of receiving such things
into themselves.
97. The spirits from that earth appear in front
at a considerable distance, below, in the plane of
the knees, where that earth itself is; and when the
eye is opened thither, a multitude of spirits come
into view, who are all from that earth. They are
seen on this side of that earth, and to the right
of it. It has been given me to speak with them
also, and thereby to know of what character they are
relatively to others. They are well-disposed,
and they are modest; and as they esteem themselves
little, therefore also in the other life they appear
small.
