246. 'Beast' and 'wild animal of the field' mean affections. This becomes clear from what has been stated already in 45, 46, about 'beast' and 'wild animal', to which let the following quotation from David be added,

You shake down a shower of blessings, O God; Your heritage which is labouring, You strengthen; Your wild animals will dwell in it. Psalms 68:9-10.

Here also 'wild animal' stands for the affection for good, since it is going 'to dwell in God's heritage'. The reason 'beast' and 'wild animal of the field' are mentioned here, as also in Genesis 2:19, 20, but 'beast' and 'wild animal of the earth' in Genesis 1:24-25, is that the subject is the Church, that is, man when regenerate, whereas in Chapter 1 the subject is the time when the Church does not exist, that is, when man has yet to be regenerated; for 'field' is a term applying to the Church, that is, to man when regenerate.

'Breath' is the life of the body corresponding to spiritual things, just like the motion of the heart is the life of the body corresponding to celestial things. The members of the Most Ancient Church had internal breathing, and so they had breathing that paralleled and was similar to the breathing of angels. The nature of that breathing varied according to each of the states of the internal self. This was altered in the process of time among their descendants down to the last generation of them, in whom everything angelic perished. At that point, they were no longer capable of breathing in company with the angelic heaven. This was the real reason for their annihilation, and why it is now said that 'they breathed their last' and that 'they died in whom there was the breath of the spirit of life in their nostrils' in Genesis 7:21, 22. After those times, internal breathing was ended, and with it, communication with heaven, and as a result, celestial perception. External breathing took its place. Since communication with heaven came to an end in this way, members of the Ancient or new Church were no longer capable of being celestial people, as the most ancient people had been, but only spiritual people.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 805, Genesis 7:21-22)