6389. 'Is a bony ass' means lowest-ranking service. This is clear from the meaning of 'an ass' as service, dealt with in 5958, 5959; and from the meaning of 'bone' as that which possesses little spiritual life, dealt with in 5560, 5561. Thus 'a bony ass' is the lowest-ranking service, for people who do good for the sake of recompense do, it is true, perform useful services and act as servants; nevertheless they belong among those in the Lord's kingdom who occupy the lowest position. For the good that is communicated to them they pass on to none but those who can repay them. They overlook all others who may be in the greatest need; or if they do help them out it is to the end that the Lord may recompense them. They look on what they do as that which earns them merit and so on the Lord's mercy as their due. Thus they depart from a state of humility, and to the extent that they depart from it they depart from a state in which blessing and happiness are received from the Lord through heaven. From all this it may be seen that in the next life such people are, it is true, engaged in the performance of useful services; but they are the lowest ranking servants.

5561. I have been shown how small is the amount of spiritual life present in those spirits who correlate with the bones. Used as mouthpieces by other spirits, they know little about the things they declare. Even so they do declare things, taking delight solely in the act of so declaring them. Reduced to a state like this are those people who led an evil life and yet had certain remnants of goodness stored away within them. These remnants, after vastations lasting for ages and ages, are what produce that small amount of spiritual life. For what remnants are, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 660, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344. As has been stated, these spirits possess only a small amount of spiritual life, by which life is meant the life that angels in heaven possess. While in the world a person is introduced to it by means of matters of faith and charity. An actual affection for the good of charity, an affection also for the truth of faith, is what constitutes spiritual life. Without that affection a person's life is a natural, worldly, bodily, and earthly one, which is not spiritual life if it does not hold such an affection within itself but a life such as animals in general possess.