9140. 'Sending in his beast of burden' means if he does it with little self-awareness. This is clear from the meaning of 'beast of burden' as a bodily desire or appetite. The reason why there is little self-awareness is that when such a desire or appetite reigns in a person he scarcely uses his power of reason and so has little awareness about himself. All beasts, whatever their genus and species, mean affections; gentle and useful beasts mean good affections, while savage and useless beasts mean evil affections, 45, 46, 142, 143, 714-719, 1823, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198, 7523, 7872, 9090. When an animal is called 'a beast of burden' it means merely bodily affections, which in themselves possess little reason; for the more that a person's actions spring from the body, the less they do so from reason. This is because the body lives in the world and so is remote from heaven, where true reason resides. Furthermore the word in the original language for a beast of burden is formed from another meaning brutish and stupid, and so having little awareness, as in Isaiah 19:11; in David, Psalms 49:10; 73:22; in Jeremiah 51:17; and elsewhere.

7872. 'From man even to beast' means their evil desires, interior and exterior. This is clear from the meaning of 'from man even to beast' as the affection for interior good and exterior good, dealt with in 7424, 7523; for 'man' means the affection for interior good, and 'beast' the affection for exterior good. In the contrary sense, as at this point where the firstborn of the Egyptians are referred to, evil affections, or interior and exterior evil desires, are meant. For more about the meaning of 'beasts' as good affections, and in the contrary sense evil affections or desires, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 1823, 2179, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198.