Nutrition on a grand and perennial scale. Each individual, so long as it lives its little life, is the species in miniature, reproducing all its tissues as fast as they decay, through vital action and reaction, or marriage in its simplest form; conversely, the aggregate of the individuals, or the race, is as it were a single one, diffused over an immense area of time and country, and nourishing and regenerating itself by means of that highest and most complicated play of the marriageprinciple which the word marriage popularly denotes. Every man, for example, and every woman, considered physiologically, is the human race in little, everything that belongs to the race being enacted, essentially and daily in their individual bodies; at the same moment every man and every woman is but as a molecule of one great Hoмo, now some six thousand years of age, and spread over the whole surface of the earth. Feeding, growing, all the vital functions and phenomena of the earlier stages of life are to be regarded accordingly, as nature's preliminaries to reproduction. Every part of organic creation illustrates this, but in the plant it is seen in chief perfection, excepting only the butterfly, in whose little life the history is epitomized. In the first or grub state, it is a creeping cormorant; the alimentary organs greatly predominate, and growth is rapid. In the last or winged state, on the other hand, though it sip from a thousand blossoms, it takes little or no sustenance, the excess of intestinal canal has given way to the generative organs, which now assume the mastery, and up to the time of its early death, influence, almost exclusively, its habits. The winged state of the butterfly is what the period of flowering is to plants, and the reason why longer life is occasioned to plants by delay in flowering, as above alluded to, is that in the flowers are contained their organs of procreation. Hence until they have bloomed they must needs remain childless, or with the consummation of life unrealized and unattained. Procreation, or the production of seed, is made to actuate plants with a vital impulse so wonderful and so like the instinct of animals towards the same end, that no other name conveys an adequate idea of it; they prepare for the effectuation of it from the first moment of existence, and until they have accomplished their purpose, unless killed by intense cold, or sudden and absolute deprivation of nourishment, will keep their hold on life with a tenacity almost invincible. It may be taken as an axiom in vegetable physiology, that cæteris paribus, no plant dies a natural death till it has ripened seeds. If its life be endangered, by penury of food or mutilation, the entire vital energy of the plant con centrates itself in the production of a flower, it ceases to put forth leaves, and expends its whole force in efforts to secure progeny. This is strikingly exemplified in hot, dry gardens, and by summer waysides, where, as if conscious of the impending danger, plants ordinarily of considerable stature, begin to propagate while scarcely an inch high. Delay in flowering, attended by prolonged life, is usually the result of incongenial situation. Thus, if a plant grow in too luxurious or too watery a soil, causing it to become unduly succulent, or if it be subjected to an atmosphere too warm for it, and thus unnaturally stimulated, instead of producing flowers, it runs to leaf;' it passes into the condition of an over-fattened or pampered animal, and is similarly unfitted for the reproductive function; and like the animal again, to re-enter upon it, must become deplethoric. No plant can suffer from phyllomania and be fruitful at the same moment. Delay in flowering and consequent prolongation of life beyond the usual limit, also occur through insufficiency of nourishment, and the want of kindly climatic aid. Many plants live longer in our gardens than in their native countries simply for want of the encouragement to blossom which they are accustomed to at home. In Mexico the great American Aloe comes into bloom when four or five years old, and then dies, while in England it drags a kind of semi-torpid existence for so long before the flowers appear, that it is a proverb for a hundred years' preparation. Some plants may have their lives prolonged a little while by nipping off the flowers as soon as they begin to fade. Here, however, so much of the vital energy has been expended in the production of the floral organs, that they never properly recover themselves. Lastly, as regards the relation of procreation to the lease of life, it is a universal law, both in animals and plants, that the earlier the puberty, the earlier is the death. Annuals, which flower when only a few weeks old, die in a few months; those plants only live long which do not blossom till their fifth or sixth year; the highest ages invariably pertain to those which are the slowest to celebrate their nuptials. Very young forest trees are never found in flower. It may also be observed that the greater the power of multiplication by seed or offspring, the briefer in general is the lease of life, and vice versa. The most productive creatures are insects, which are also the most ephemeral; and the most productive plants are usually found among the annuals. (To be continued.) 359 SUMMARY OF THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE BOOKS OF GENESIS AND EXODUS, AS DERIVED FROM THE ARCANA CELESTIA. (Continued from page 308.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. Chap. VII. CONTENTS.-Concerning the preparation of a New Church in respect to the things appertaining to the will, to ver. 5;-its temptations in respect to the things pertaining to the intellect, to ver. 10;—and to the will, to ver. 12;—the protection of that Church and its preservation, to ver. 15;-its fluctuations, to ver. 18;-concerning the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church which perished by the persuasions of the false and the lusts of self-love, to ver. 24. 1. (Thus was the church of Noah prepared for the reception of faith. For the doctrinals of faith, with certain revelations of the Most Ancient Church, had been first collected by the church of Cain, and preserved for the use of this posterity; these were afterwards collected together and reduced to a doctrinal system by the church of Enoch, in which they had been preserved down to the present time. Wherefore the man of the church of Noah being gifted with faith by these means, it was now provided, that through the medium of faith he might receive charity. Hence) according to divine direction, preparation was further made as to the things of the will, which are the good things of love; for the man of this church had the good of charity by which he might be regenerated. 2. And to this end he was enjoined to admit into himself the affections of good which were holy, and truths joined with goodnesses (for without truths and goodnesses it is not possible for any one to be regenerated). And as to his actually acquired evil affections (which were severally profane), and also as to the falses joined to his evils, these also he for a while retained (in order that they might be loosened and tempered by goodnesses) from the Lord. 3. He was also to admit into himself holy intellectual things, or truths and goodnesses, that the truths of faith might be made alive by charity. 4. For temptations were now about to begin, and labour and combat were to endure their appointed season, whereby would be effected the vastation of all things appertaining to the proprium, and of all things which are corporeal (for these must needs die by combats and temptations before man is born again anew; by which means the Ancient Church would be regenerated, and the Most Ancient destroyed). 5. Such were the means by the adoption of which the man of the church of Noah was to become regenerated as to the things of the will, and thus prepared to receive charity. 6. Accordingly the man of this church now entered into his first state of temptation (which was as to things intellectual, and which precedes temptation as to things of the will). 7. But the Lord protected him by the truths and goodnesses which he had received, and by the truths joined with goodnesses. 8. According as goods and evils (as female) were paired with their corresponding truths and falses (as male), though not conjoined in marriage, according also to the corresponding state of the sensuous principle; for this temptation took place as to things intellectual, which was a combat between the true and the false (and in which there was no marriage of either with its corresponding affections). 9. Thus did the Divine protection take place according to order. 10. Such was the first state of temptation, which was as to things intellectual (and which was comparatively light). 11. And after this arose a second, which was of extreme intensity, first in regard to the things of the will, and then in regard to those of the understanding. 12. And this temptation was replete with grievous labour and combat (for man had procured to himself a life of lusts and pleasures arising from self-love and love of the world; hence in this temptation the very life itself of man was assaulted). 13. But the end of these temptations was, that the church of Noah. the churches thence derived, their doctrinals (or truths of faith), and the other churches derived from these (or in general the Ancient Church) were all preserved from destruction; for the man of the church of Noah was of such a nature that he believed in simplicity the things handed down from the Most Ancient Church, which were doctrinals collected and reduced to a certain form by those who are called Enoch; thus he was of a different temper altogether from the antediluvians who were called Nephilim, and who were unwilling to recede from their direful persuasions however instructed by others. 14. As also, pertaining to these, all spiritual, natural, sensual, and corporeal goods; all spiritual, natural, and sensual truths (i. e., such as relate to seeing and hearing) which existed in pairs with the former respectively, and which had thus received new life from the Lord. 15. And in this order did the proprium of man, which had become corporeal, receive new life from the Lord: and by these means was the Ancient Church protected. 16. Now the state of the church, while thus protected, was such, that truths and goodnesses of every kind were with it, according as the church had been prepared by God to receive them: but that man had now no longer open communication with heaven such as the man of the celestial church enjoyed. 17. Moreover a flood of falses continued to overflow the church in general, or the posterity of the Most Ancient Church; and also to increase, so that the church of Noah, which consisted of but few in number, fluctuated between two opposite states. 18. And these fluctuations increased more and more; but still the Lord held up the church in the midst of its temptations, and preserved it from sinking into the evils and falses of hell. 19. But the persuasions of the false increased immensely among the antediluvians in general, and all the good things of charity were extinguished (for men had now immersed all truths in their lusts, and caused them to favour self-love and love of the world). 20. So that little or nothing of charity was left remaining. 21. For the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church, as celestial men, had now become extinct, by reason of their affection of the false, their lusts, pleasures, and corporeal and terrestrial tendencies. 22. Including all in whom had been the life of love and of faith thence derived, as also all in whom no such life had at that period existed; for there now prevailed only affections of the false, and of evil lusts, pleasures, and things corporeal and earthly, so that the internal respiraton of the celestial church had entirely ceased. 23. Thus was every thing relating to the will destroyed by the lusts which originated in self-love among the posterity of the Most Ancient Church; and they only were preserved who constituted the New Church of Noah. 24. After this manner did the inundation of evils and falses prevail, till the end of the Most Ancient Church, and the beginning of the New Church. (To be continued.) [Enl. Series-No. 20, vol. ii.] 2 z |