7424. And there was louse on man and on beast. That this signifies that interior and exterior evils of cupidities were thence derived, is evident from the signification of “lice,” as being evils (see n. 7419); and from the signification of “man,” as being good (n. 4287, 5302), thus in the opposite sense evil; and from the signification of “beast,” as being the affection of good, and in the opposite sense the affection of evil, or cupidity (n. 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198); but when “man and beast” are mentioned together, then by “man” is signified interior good, and in the opposite sense interior evil; and by “beast” exterior good, and in the opposite sense exterior evil. The reason why by “man” is signified interior good, or evil, is that he is man from his internal man and its quality, but not from the external man; for the external man is not man without the internal; and in order that the external may also be man, it must be wholly subordinated to the internal, insomuch that it does not act from itself, but from the internal man. The reason why by “beast” is signified exterior good, and in the opposite sense exterior evil, is that beasts have no internal such as man has; the internal which they have has been immersed in the external, insomuch that it is one with it, and together with it looks downward or toward the earth, without any elevation toward what is interior. It is said “evils of cupidities” because all evils belong to cupidities, because cupidities belong to loves. Interior evils are distinguished from exterior by the fact that interior evils are those which are of the thought and will; and exterior evils are those which are of act. That there may be evils which are interior and not exterior, is evident from the fact that a man may be evil, and yet in the outward form may appear as an upright man, and even as a man of faith and conscience. Some also know how to counterfeit angels, when yet inwardly they are devils. So far can the inward form which is of the spirit differ from the outward form which is of the body.

5302. And the land shall not be cut off in the famine. That this signifies lest the man should perish, namely, by the lack of truth, is evident from the signification of “being cut off,” as being to perish; and from the signification of “land,” here the land of Egypt, as being the natural mind (of which just above, n. 5301); and because it is the natural mind, it is the man himself, for man is man from his mind; for the mind itself constitutes the man, and such as the mind is, such is the man. By the “mind” is meant man’s intellect and will, and consequently his veriest life. Stupid people suppose that man is man from his outward form, in that he has a face like a man’s; those less stupid say man is man because he can speak; and those still less stupid, that man is man because he can think. But man is not man from these things, but from the fact that he can think what is true and will what is good, and that when he thinks truth and wills good he can look up to the Divine and perceptibly receive it. It is in this that man is distinguished from the brute animals.

[2] But his seeming like a man, and his ability to speak and to think, do not make him a man; for if he thinks what is false and wills what is evil, this makes him not merely like a brute animal, but worse; for by means of these very faculties he destroys what is human in himself, and makes himself a wild beast. This is especially evident from such persons in the other life, who when seen in the light of heaven and looked at by angels, appear as monsters, and some of them as wild beasts, the deceitful as serpents, and others in other forms. But when they are removed from that light and are let back into their own light which they have in hell, they seem to one another like men. But how the case stands that man would perish when the truth fails him, had he not goods and truths stored up by the Lord in the interiors (signified by the “food for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, that the land shall not be cut off in the famine”) will be told in the following verses of this chapter.