143. Nowadays it may seem strange that 'beasts' and 'animals' in ancient times meant affections and similar things residing with man. But because people had heavenly ideas then, and because such things are also represented in the world of spirits by animals - by such animals in fact as resemble those affections - this alone is what they therefore understood when they spoke in this fashion. And this alone is what is meant in the Word whenever beasts are mentioned in general or in particular. The whole prophetical section of the Word is full of things such as these, and therefore anyone who does not know the particular meaning of any beast cannot possibly understand what the Word contains in the internal sense. But as slated already, there are two kinds of beasts - evil ones, because they are harmful, and good ones, because they are harmless. Good beasts, such as sheep, lambs, and doves, mean good affections. Here, because the subject is the celestial man, or the celestial-spiritual man, the same applies. The fact that 'beasts' in general means affections has been confirmed from several places in the Word quoted already in 45, 46. So there is no need of further confirmation.

4625. But the communities that make up the whole of heaven, which is the Grand Man, are many, some being more universal ones, others less so. The more universal are those to which an entire member, organ, or vital part corresponds, the less universal those to which the parts of these and the parts of those parts do so. Each community is an image of the whole, for that which is a harmonious whole is made up of as many images of itself as constituent parts. Being images of the Grand Man these more universal communities have individual ones within them, which in a similar way correspond. I have on occasions talked to those who, in the community to which I was sent, belonged to the province of the lungs, the heart, the face, the tongue, the ear, or the eye, as well as to those who belonged to the province of the nostrils. From this I was given to know what kind of people they were, namely 'perceptions'; for they saw with perception whatever took place within their community, though that perception was of a more general kind and not so specific as that of those in the province of the eye. This was because those in the province of the eye discriminate and carefully examine matters of perception. I have also been allowed to see how their ability to perceive varies in keeping with the general changes of state of the community which they are part of.