'And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
1196. ...(Continuation) [2] Something shall now be said about the life of animals, and afterwards about the soul of vegetables. The whole world, with each and every thing in it, came into existence and continues to exist from the Lord the Creator of the universe. There are two suns, the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world. The sun of the spiritual world is the Lord's Divine love, the sun of the natural world is pure fire. From the sun that is the Divine love every work of creation has begun, and by means of the sun that is fire it has been carried to completion. [3] Everything that proceeds from the sun that is the Divine love is called spiritual, and everything that proceeds from the sun that is fire is called natural... And because from these two fountains of the universe all things that are in both worlds have come into existence and continue to exist, it follows that there is in every created thing in this world a spiritual and a natural, a spiritual as its soul and a natural as its body, or a spiritual as its internal and a natural as its external; or a spiritual as the cause and a natural as the effect. That these two in any particular thing cannot be separated every wise person knows, for if you separate cause from effect or the internal from the external, the effect or the external goes to pieces, as when the soul is separated from the body. [4] That there is such a conjunction in the particular and even in the most particular things of nature has not yet been known. It has not been known because of the existing ignorance respecting the spiritual world, the sun there, and heat and light there, and because of the insanity of... men in ascribing all things to nature, and rarely anything to God except creation in general; and yet not the least thing is possible or can be possible in nature in which there is not a spiritual...
1198. ...(Continuation) [2] ...A sensual man, whose thoughts are confined to matter, compares the things pertaining to beasts with those pertaining to man, and from foolish intelligence concludes that their states of life are similar, even after death, insisting that if man lives after death, animals do also...
1199. ...(Continuation) [2] ...It is known that every animal has a soul, for they are alive, and life is soul, and this is why they are called in the Word "living souls." ...In that [spiritual] world, the same as in the natural world, beasts of every kind and birds of every kind, and fishes of every kind, are to be seen and so like in form that they cannot be distinguished from those in our world; but there is this difference, that in the spiritual world they spring evidently from the affections of angels and spirits, so that they are affections made apparent, and consequently they disappear as soon as the angel or spirit departs or his affection ceases. From this it is clear that their soul is nothing else; and that there are... as many... species of animals as there are... affections... It will be seen in what follows that the affections that are represented in the spiritual world by animals are not interior spiritual affections, but are exterior spiritual affections that are called natural... But something shall first be said about the animals that appear in heaven, in hell, and in the world of spirits which is intermediate between heaven and hell.
1200. ...(Continuation) [2] As the entire heaven and the entire hell, and the entire world of spirits are divided into societies, and the societies are arranged according to the... affections, and as the animals there, as has just been said, are affections made apparent, so one kind of animal with its species appears in one society, and another in another, and all kinds of animals with their species in the societies taken together. In the societies of heaven gentle and clean animals appear, in the societies of hell the savage and unclean beasts, and in the world of spirits beasts of an intermediate character. These I have often seen, and from these I have been able to recognize the quality of the angels and spirits there. All in the spiritual world are known from what appears near them and about them, and their affections are known from various things, and also from the animals. [3] In the heavens I have seen lambs, sheep, and goats, so closely resembling those seen in the world that they do not differ at all. I have also seen in the heavens turtle doves, pigeons, birds of paradise, and many others, beautiful in form and color. I have also seen fishes in the waters, but these in the lowest parts of heaven. In the hells, dogs, wolves, foxes, tigers, swine, mice, and many other kinds of savage and unclean beasts are seen, besides poisonous serpents of many kinds, also ravens, owls, and bats. But in the world of spirits camels, elephants, horses, asses, oxen, deer, lions, leopards, bears, also eagles, kites, magpies, peacocks, and quails, are seen. I have also seen there composite animals, like those seen by the prophets and described in the Word (as in Rev. 13:2, and elsewhere). [4] As the animals that appear in that world bear such a resemblance to the animals in this world that no difference is discernible, and as the animals in that world derive their existence from the affections of the angels of heaven, or from the lusts of the spirits of hell, it follows that natural affections or lusts are their souls, and when these have been clothed with a body they are animals in form...
1201. ...(Continuation) [2] These things being premised, what the soul of beasts is shall be told. The soul of beasts, regarded in itself, is spiritual; for affection of whatever kind, whether good or evil, is spiritual, for it is a derivation from some love, and has its origin in the heat and light that proceed from the Lord as a sun; and whatever proceeds from that is spiritual... [3] Beasts and wild beasts, as mice, poisonous serpents, crocodiles, basilisks, vipers, and the like, with the various noxious insects, the souls of which are like evil affections, were not created from the beginning, but they originated with hell... But from the beginning useful and clean beasts only were created, the souls of which are good affections. [4] It must be known, however, that the souls of beasts are not spiritual in the same degree in which the souls of men are spiritual, but in a lower degree. For there are degrees in things spiritual; and although affections of a lower degree, regarded in their origin, are spiritual, they must be termed natural. They must be so called because they are like the affections of the natural man. In man there are three degrees of natural affections, and the same is true of beasts. In the lowest degree are insects of various kinds, in a higher degree are the flying things of heaven, and in a still higher degree are the beasts of the earth which were created from the beginning.
1202. ...(Continuation) [2] The difference between men and beasts is like that between wakefulness and dreaming, or between light and shade. Man is both spiritual and natural, while a beast is not spiritual but natural... Man has a will and an understanding, and his will is a receptacle of the heat of heaven, which is love, and his understanding is a receptacle of the light of heaven, which is wisdom. But a beast does not possess a will and an understanding, but in place of a will it has affection, and in place of an understanding it has knowledge... [5] Because man has both a spiritual mind and a natural mind, and his spiritual mind is above his natural mind, and the spiritual mind is such as to be able to contemplate and love truths and goods in every degree, either conjointly with the natural mind or abstracted from it, it follows that the interiors of man belonging to each mind are capable of being raised up by the Lord to the Lord and of being conjoined to Him; and this is why every man lives eternally. This is not so with beasts. A beast does not possess any spiritual mind, it has only a natural mind; and therefore its interiors, which belong solely to knowledge and affection, cannot be raised up by the Lord and conjoined to Him, and for this reason a beast does not live after death. [6] A beast indeed is led by a sort of spiritual influx falling into its soul...
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