52. As long as someone is a spiritual man, the dominion over him runs from external man to internal man, as is said here, 'They will have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air', and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'. When however he becomes celestial and does what is good out of love, then the dominion over him runs from internal man to external man. This is how the Lord describes Himself, and so simultaneously the celestial man, who is a likeness of Him, in David,

You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, flocks and all cattle, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, ¹ and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:6-8.

Here therefore the beasts are mentioned first, the birds next, and the fish of the sea after that, for the reason that the celestial man starts with love which resides in the will. With the spiritual man it is different. With him fish and birds, which have to do with the understanding, the domain of faith, come first, while beasts come afterwards.

Footnotes:

3114. 'There is both straw' means factual truths, 'and also much fodder with us' means the goods that go with these. This is clear from the meaning of 'straw' and 'fodder'. The reason 'straw' means factual truths is that it has reference to camels, whose food is such; for when 'camels' means the natural man as regards the general facts there, the food of the natural man - 'straw' - cannot have any other meaning, since no other food exists to sustain his life. The nourishment of the natural man is received from this, for if deprived of that food, that is to say, of knowledge, the natural man would cease to exist. The truth of this is evident from the life after death, for in that life spirits receive such things in place of food, see 56-58, 680, 681, 1480, 1695, 1973, 1974.

[2] Within the natural man, as within the rational man, there exist in general two kinds of things which constitute its essence - those that make up the understanding and those that make up the will. Truths belong to the things constituting the understanding, goods belong to those constituting the will. The truths present in the natural man are factual truths - that is to say, all the things housed in his external memory - and it is these that are meant by 'straw' when camels, and also horses, mules and asses are the subject. But the goods present in the natural man are chiefly the delights that go with an affection for those truths, and it is these goods that are meant by 'fodder'.