because they have life, are affections; and the life of each one is solely from affection and in accordance with affection; consequently every animal has an innate knowledge that is in accord with its life’s affection.  Man is like an animal so far as his natural man is concerned, and is therefore likened to animals in common speech; for example, if he is gentle he is called a sheep or lamb, if fierce a bear or wolf, if cunning a fox or serpent, and so on.

{Footnote 1} From correspondence animals signify affections; mild and useful animals good affections, fierce and useless ones evil affections (n. 41, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 716, 719, 2179, 2180, 3519, 9280); illustrated by experience from the spiritual world (n. 3218, 5198, 9090).  Influx of the spiritual world into the lives of animals (n. 1633, 3646).  Cattle and their young from correspondence signify affections of the natural mind (n. 2180, 2566, 9391, 10132, 10407).  What sheep signify (n. 4169, 4809); and lambs (n. 3994, 10132).  Flying creatures signify intellectual things (n. 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 991, 5149, 7441); with a difference according to their genera and species, from experience in the spiritual world (n. 3219).

111.  There is a like correspondence with things in the vegetable kingdom.  In general, a garden corresponds to the intelligence and wisdom of heaven; and for this reason heaven is called the Garden of God, and Paradise;{1} and men call it the heavenly paradise.  Trees, according to their species, correspond to the perceptions and knowledges of good and truth which are the source of intelligence and wisdom.  For this reason the ancient people, who were acquainted with correspondences, held their sacred worship in groves;{2} and for the same reason trees are so often mentioned in the Word, and heaven, the church, and man are compared to them; as the vine, the olive, the cedar, and others, and the good works done by men are compared to fruits.  Also the food derived from trees, and more especially from the grain harvests of the field, corresponds to affections for good and truth, because these affections feed the spiritual life, as the food of the earth does the natural life;{3} and bread from grain, in a general sense, because it is the food that specially sustains life, and because it stands for all food, corresponds to an affection for all good.  It is on account of this correspondence that the Lord calls Himself the bread of life; and that loaves of bread had a holy use in the Israelitish Church, being placed on the table in the tabernacle and called “the bread of faces;” also the Divine worship that was performed by sacrifices and burnt offerings was called “bread.”  Moreover, because of this correspondence the most holy act of worship in the Christian Church is the Holy Supper, in which bread is given, and wine.{4} From these few examples the nature of correspondence can be seen.