In
both there are things that any one who thinks interiorly can see to
be from heaven. For illustration a few things out of a countless
number may be mentioned; and first some things from the animal
kingdom. Many are aware what knowledge there is engrafted as it were
in every animal. Bees know how to gather honey from flowers, to build
cells out of wax in which to store their honey, and thus provide food
for themselves and their families, even for a coming winter. That a
new generation may be born their queen lays eggs, and the rest take
care of them and cover them. They live under a sort of government
which all know by instinct. They preserve the working bees and cast
out the drones, depriving them of their wings; besides other
wonderful things implanted in them from heaven for the sake of their
use, their wax everywhere serving the human race for candles, their
honey for adding sweetness to food. [2] Again, what wonders do we see
in worms, the meanest creatures in the animal kingdom! They know how
to get food from the juice of the leaves suited to them, and
afterward at the appointed time to invest themselves with a covering
and enter as it were into a womb, and thus hatch offspring of their
own kind.
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